The Spinster: Archetype of Projective Horror in the Contemporary Hispanic American Sinister Narrative

Abstract

In this paper we analyze the narrative treatment of the spinster in a few contemporary fictional texts written by women in Hispanic America, in the line of the fantastic genre which we call “sinister narrative”. Through a brief historical review of the emergence and application of the term “spinster”, we want to show how, despite advances in gender claims, this archetype maintains social and moral prejudices that we would like to assume as obsolete. First, we review some works by Patricia Esteban Erlés, Cecilia Eudave, Giovanna Rivero, Claudina Domingo, Mariana Enríquez, Mónica Ojeda and Bibiana Camacho; then we focus our analysis on two short stories by Yeniva Fernández and Solange Rodríguez Pappe. The conclusions show how the spinster stands, in this narrative, as a figure of projective horror, revealing our fears and insecurities as a society rather than the (supposed) shortcomings and defects of someone who has never married.