Motherhood and childhood in Silvina Ocampo's works

The works of Argentine writer Silvina Ocampo (1903–93) are enjoying unprecedented attention from international scholars, writers, journalists, translators and film directors.

This book explores the reason for the growing interest, and how it connects with her transgressive representations of motherhood and childhood.

By overlapping themes from past scholarship (such as childhood, gender representations, the fantastic and sexuality), new and diverse issues intersect, contradict or revise previous interpretations of Ocampo’s works and her place in Argentine letters.

Specifically, the much-overlooked mother/child dyad will offer a unique vantage point for this volume, bringing to the surface disparities concerning age, gender, sexuality, knowledge, agency and voice, often ignored or minimised in theoretical frameworks and popular narratives.

This focus on the spaces of motherhood and childhood maps out Ocampo’s consistent refusal to prioritise one space over another, or to legitimise one voice over another, which highlights a radical theorisation of subjectivities in flux.