Between her fingernails

String of Lights has some bulbs out this week, as my attention has been focused on the papers that are due way too soon!

Cristina Marcos as Petra in Méndez-Leite's TV adaptation of Clarín's La Regenta

For the past few days I've been (like her co-protagonists Ana, Álvaro, Fermín, Paula and Víctor) at the mercy of Petra, that manipulative little vixen par excellence of late nineteenth century Spanish literature. I think I'm finally out from under her thumb, or as Petra herself might say, "entre las uñas". Hope to print out and turn in tomorrow the paper in which I analyze this character.

Then, on to examine a contrasting literary personage, Juana Manuela Gorriti, who attempts to create a sense of sisterhood in her community of Latin American writers and thereby foster a spirit of pan-americanism. Isn't it nicer, but not nearly as juicy a story, when we all cooperate?