The Penelopes Left Behind: Griselda Gambaro’s El mar que nos trajo (2001)

The novel El mar que nos trajo (The Sea that brought us, 2001), by playwright Griselda Gambaro (Argentina °1928), daughter of Italian immigrants, treats migration from a women-centred perspective. is set both in Italy and Argentina during the late 19th early 20th-century wave Spanish labour to Argentina. brings together depictions three Italian-Argentinian women who are left behind their husband, lover, father, respectively. She thus shifts focus away those migrate stay behind. This study connects with Heroides, or Letters Heroines, which Ovid gives voice Penelope other Greek Roman women, such as Medea, Dido, Ariadne, all whom were abandoned husband lover. Reading Gambaro’s dialogue Ovid’s Heroides illuminates novel’s gender dimension dramatic structure. spectrum depicted differs series female portraits included it comprises two generations cope abandonment different ways. first generation similar heroines struggle, at turning point lives, feelings love, anxiety, uncertainty about what may have kept beloved returning. second generation, however, develops practices more Penelope’s plan regain control, even Medea’s cruel revenge intentions. works out strategies put an end situation dependence abandonment.