Esther Tusquets: Between the Editor and the Author in a Gender Perspective in Children’s Literature

Abstract

Esther Tusquets was an editor and an author with a feminist approach to life. Her work as an editor and as a writer are both full of references to gender equality and, above all, she discovered that education was a means to reach this gender identity that female condition in the social ambience of Spain during Franco's dictatorship, had constantly underpinned. The main purpose of this article is to deepen into her duty as a children's literature editor, as a writer and specifically about one of her writings related to children. Therefore, the fundamental thesis of this study 1s to understand the process of the editor into the writer of children's books to undermine the prevalent sexist ideology. Particular attention will be paid to Marcela the Bunny (La conejita Marcela, Tusquets, 1980), establishing a first step towards the path of an iconic and a narrative analysis of the storybook. When referring to Tusquets" work as an editor and as a writer, there are two firms/publishing houses that she founded, Lumen and RqueR, which collect women's writings and children's literature but also and most relevant, according to Comas, «a markedly vindicatory slant» (2019, 197). As an author, Esther Tusquets has been an iconic image of the Spanish feminist literature since the eighties, due to her rejection of the patriarchal and standardized traditions of the Spanish woman. She was aware of the disadvantaged position of women in society and she reacted through her literary approach. Nevertheless, some critics argue that her position was unclear. Levine (1987, 210) and Smith (2002, 342) affirm a certain ambiguity and conformism. Lonsdale adds that «the association of Tusquets” writing with a spontaneous and transgressive femininity not only raises highly problematic questions about the gendering of language, but implies a randomness in Tusquets” narrative» (2008, 186). The author and editor never defined herself as a feminist, because she understood feminism as a living attitude more than a doctrine (Tusquets, 2006, 11-13). In a sound interview with Ross, she affirmed that «what you think is reflected on what you write» (Ross, 2005, 217). This affirmation can apply both to her writings and her work as an editor. In this sense, her writings related to children's literature and her vision translated into publishing the Spanish version of Dalla parte delle bambine, a collection of storybooks with a fine beauty mixed with an ideological and innovative proposal (Simó-Comas, 2019, 204). Esther Tusquets has been one of the most successful feminine contemporary Spanish writers who published five novels, a collection of tales and some storybooks for children. One of the outstanding contributions of Tusquets as a writer was a new approach to language in a feminine perspective when referring to the feminine erotic experience, a new point of view which hadn9t been present before in the literary language (Ross, 2005, 212). Together with this, as an editor, she contributed to the expansion of the feminine thought and the capacity of women to express themselves. When asked about being feminist, she was of the opinion that even the expression was overused and therefore devaluated. She thought it was fair and relevant enough to be considered a feminist in terms of replying to machoism. In addition, when a writer expresses herself what she writes reflects what she believes, so this is what she acknowledged being a feminist: indeed from a practical point of view, she was. She argued that she did not write feminist novels although she believed that «in our occidental culture and society, gender equality has not been reached» (Ross, 2005, 217).