The body, "prison of the soul", and nation building in "Soledad" by Soledad Acosta de Samper

Abstract

One of those novels from which little is known in the world of Colombian literature is “Dolores” (1887). Written at a time when women “did not write”, in which also the recently won freedom forced intellectuals in the region to create nation, their imaginary and their identity. To this join effort is added, the almost aristocratic writer and journalist Soledad Acosta de Samper, who, without forgetting her duty as a voice for women, presents a story proper of the romanticism that prevailed in her days. Here is analyzed how in “Dolores” the body is presented as a symbol of the strict social hierarchies in which the fledgling republic was organized, but also the sick body as a symbol of women’s isolation and the only resource of personal development in which it was wanted, and still is, to confine women.