Itinerarios de literatura y deseo: la maestra de provincia en la Argentina del Centenario

In La maestra normal (1914) Manuel Gálvez shows the ghosts and fantasies that appeared as a result of the genderization process that the teaching profession went through in Argentine since the end of the 19th century, greatly propelled by the State, which presented this activity as an extension of motherhood. Contrary to this discourse, Gálvez condensed in Raselda, his heroine, the fears aroused in certain sectors of the elite by the growth of a profession that allowed literate women to have independent lives, establishing an indirect dialogue with those professionals for whom teaching was not only a way to support themselves economically but also the starting point to develop a literary career. This article analyses how, in the fold of Gálvez's fiction, appear two possible itineraries for the province teacher with authorial aspirations to participate in the argentine cultural field of thar period. The lives of Carlota Garrido de la Peña and Alfonsina Storni (both teachers educated en Santa Fe who supported their children alone) function as two sides of that hinge moment that encrypts the novel and the dilemmas that they had to solve to become writers.