The Social Vice of Fashion in Female Literary Characters

Abstract

Through the analysis of late nineteenth‑century novels from Mexico and South America, this article contributes to the study of cultural history, particularly to those aspects that bring us closer to customs and cultural practices. The characters in the five realist novels with costumbrista details discussed here are faithful literary examples from the last decades of the nineteenth century, characterized by detailed observation of reality and by their ability to portray traditions, ways of life, and customs in general, particularly the preoccupation with clothing. The realistic novels with details of local customs discussed in this text, faithful literary examples of the last decades of the nineteenth century, are characterized precisely by their detailed observation of reality and their capture of specific moments, portraits of traditions and ways of life such as speech, clothing, and customs in general.  Therefore, from the literary legacy of the works, it is also possible to gain insight into the private lives of families and characters that emulate real families and characters, thus providing a glimpse into everyday life in an intimate setting. In this way, it is possible to approach the everyday intimacy of abstract reality through the methodology of representations. The world of representations is materialized in objects, expressions, artifacts, actions, and events that contain a meaning called “symbolic forms.” “Everything can serve as a symbolic support for cultural meanings: not only the phonetic chain or writing, but also modes of behavior, social practices, customs, dress, food,” among others. A writer goes beyond the printed words that describe things or subjects, employing similarities and analogies from abstract reality; that is, they cause words to take on a dimension that represents symbols and articulates a language, a knowledge, human reality.