Lynch, Marta (1925–1985)

Marta Lynch (b. 8 March 1925; d. 8 October 1985), Argentine writer. Born in Buenos Aires, Lynch was the daughter of an important political figure and the wife of a powerful corporate director. She is notable for making use of the circumstances of her socioeconomic privilege to portray a complex network of cultural oppressions in Argentina, with special reference to the victimization of middle-class women whose lives project a facade of passive comfort. La señora Ordóñez (1967) may be the first Argentine treatment of a woman's explicit sexual discontent, while Al vencedor (1965) centers on class conflict and its humiliations in Argentina during the so-called Argentine Revolution that followed the Peronist period. But Lynch's best writing focuses on the devastating social and personal price paid by Argentines for the Dirty War of the late 1970s, especially in the short stories of Los dedos de la mano (1976), La penúltima versión de la Colorada Villanueva (1978), and Informe bajo llave (1983). With her death, Lynch joined a line of notable Argentine women authors who have committed suicide.

See alsoArgentina: The Twentieth Century; Literature: Spanish America; Women.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Diane S. Birkemoe, "The Virile Voice of Marta Lynch," in Revista de Estudios Hispánicos 16, no. 2 (1982): 191-211.

David William Foster, "Raping Argentina: Marta Lynch's Informe bajo llave," in Centennial Review 3, no. 3 (1991): 663-680.

Naomi Lindstrom, Women's Voice in Latin American Literature (1989), pp. 73-95.

Eliana Moya Raggio, "Conversación con Marta Lynch," in Letras Femeninas 14, no. 1-2 (1988): 104-111.

Martha Paley De Francescato, "Marta Lynch," in Hispamérica 4, no. 10 (1975): 33-44.

Birgitta Vance, "Marta Lynch," in Spanish American Women Writers: A Bio-Bibliographical Source Book (1990), pp. 292-302.

Additional Bibliography

Mucci, Cristina. La señora Lynch: Biografía de una escritora controvertida. Buenos Aires: Grupo Editorial Norma, 2000.

                                     David William Foster