Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 August 2014
In her work as a journalist Rosa María Cajal (1920–197?), like Ángeles Villarta, contributed to numerous Sección Femenina publications and was also involved in SEU (Sindicato Español Universitario [Falange Union of Students]) radio broadcasts. While this would indicate a degree of support for that organisation and their ideology, I have not found information to suggest more active involvement. On the one hand, Cajal depicts the official paradigm of abnegating motherhood promoted by the Church, the regime, the SF, and common to fascist ideologies; yet in most of her novels we encounter the young woman, fired with enthusiasm to experience life, who alongside her career also develops her love life as an unmarried woman. Many critics have noted the paucity of mother figures in post-war Spanish novels, with novelists opting for orphaned protagonists and the depiction of adolescent characters, focusing on a quest for identity as they reach maturity. In this respect, Cajal's fiction is particularly interesting as she directly confronts female sexuality through her construction of the ideal maternal figure, bordering on asexual, alongside the woman who yields to her sexual desire. The opening section to this chapter discusses motherhood in the post-war years, and is followed by a consideration of Cajal's biography and literary production.
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