SOURCE: San Román, Gustavo. “Fantastic Political Allegory in the Early Work of Cristina Peri Rossi.” Bulletin of Hispanic Studies LXVII, no. 2 (April 1990): 151–64.

In the following essay, Román traces the role of political allegory in Peri Rossi's work.

‘eso es una de mis debilidades: la alegoría’¹

Although there has been a change of emphasis in what can loosely be called the themes of Cristina Peri Rossi (b. 1941) over the years, some basic preoccupations and literary strategies have remained constant throughout her highly productive career as poet and prose writer. Among her preoccupations are dreams, childhood and (often alternative) sexuality; among her strategies, a predilection for allegory and fantasy. After she had to leave her native Uruguay at a time when the preparations for the military coup of June 1973 became all too evident, the theme of exile entered her work. This is the most obvious innovation during...