La autobiografía de Victoria Ocampo, un autorretrato edificante

Abstract

The article presents an interpretation of Victoria Ocampo’s Autobiography focused on how the writer depicts herself in the context of the Peronist period. The hypothesis states that her story tells the legend of the director of Sur, that is, the story of a woman, born under an unfair tradition system for her gender, who endures and challenges the moral and cultural constraints of her social class, and without being "neither prepared nor equipped for such an undertaking", she decided to invest her personal wealth in founding and directing an ambitious cultural project. As it happens in all legends, the main character goes through ordeals, obstacles and suffering, which strengthen her. The narrative takes her along an arduous journey of spiritual development, inspired by the desire for self-knowledge and self-fulfilment. Defined as "a search for everything", the tour is a kind of inner adventure oriented to regain the emotional and moral balance compromised during adolescence and young age. By the end of the third volume, the transmutation of carnal love into spiritual power divides the Autobiography into two distinct and complementary stages: the first three volumes make up Ocampo’s personal self-portrait, whereas the last three, including in chronological order her encounters with different personalities of Western culture, define her public and intellectual image.