In this text Nelly Richard offers a diagnostic on feminism in Chile and its connections to social sciences and art. The author refers to a Feminism (with a capital F) that developed in the social sciences, which became the predominant discourse and questions its lack of interest in art and literature. She insists that there is an urgent need for a strain of “Feminism” that incorporates art into its field of action. She therefore spells out two specific objectives: to reinstate art with the critical potential to impact the collective imagination, and to explain why feminism should consider “the creative” as a basic tool. Her goal is to challenge the prevailing social discourse and its predominantly male-oriented approach.

"Los descontroles del sentido" by Nelly Richard (b. 1948) was published in NOS/OTRAS magazine (November 1983), and reprinted in Cuadernos de/para el análisis 1 (December 1983). NOS/OTRAS was a feminist publication where several different women’s organizations could publish their material, including ILET (Instituto Latinoamericano de Estudios Transnacionales), ISIS - Internacional (Centro de Documentación de las Mujeres de América Latina), CEM (Círculo de Estudios de la Mujer), the feminist bookstore Lila, and Casa de la Mujer - La Morada, all of which were associated with professionals in the social sciences. When Richard refers to “Feminism,” she is questioning the approach and research undertaken by various organizations that contributed to NOS/OTRAS. In the visual arts field, feminism and its attending discussions had no major impact, and were relegated to the back burner despite Richard’s attempts to promote them. At that time priority was given to the question of being a woman and an artist and whether this represented a particular sensibility.   

Richard begins her text by discussing the role played by language in the articulation of reality and suggesting how art can impact that exercise, while underscoring its ability to work from a semiotic perspective. She also explains how feminism’s desire to change patriarchal structures can assist art’s attempts to question society’s organizing hegemonic representations.  

This text was part of Cuadernos de/para el análisis 1 (1983), a self-published collection of texts by Richard and the critic Justo Pastor Mellado (b. 1949) that had appeared in magazines or had been written for roundtable discussions and seminars. The goal of the publication was, as they explain, to document the arguments presented during public debates on “the struggle for meaning,” a necessary emphasis after the decade-long Pinochet dictatorship that censored content and meaning. The collection is divided into four sections: (I) Vanguardia e instituciones (Vanguard and Institutions), (II) Referencialidad política en el campo de las artes visuales (Political Referenciality in the Visual Art Field), (III) Problemática de una cultura periférica (Peripheral Culture Issues), and (IV) Feminismo e identidad social (Feminism and Social Identity). The latter section includes only two texts by Richard. [For other texts in the same publication, see: "Ahora Chile" (doc. no. 731465) and "Paisaje" (doc. no. 730016) by Mellado; see also "Desde el andén" (doc. no. 729866), "Inversión de escena" (doc. no. 731376), and "Retroactivaciones de un proceso" (doc. no. 730159) by Richard].