Árboles : Teresa de la Parra, María Luisa Bombal y Elena Garro

This article intends to apply Jung’s hypotheses of the collective unconscious and his conceptualization of the archetypes as a theoretical framework to analyze the notion of the feminine in the work of Teresa de la Parra and two additional short stories by María Luisa Bombal and Elena Garro, focusing particularly on the symbolism of the archetypal image of the tree. From a psychological point of view, the image of the tree in these works transforms the unconscious contents of the psyche that is profoundly and properly feminine in her quest to discover the essential female identity through her imaginary consciousness. This creative force (the creative power of the imagination) enables her to connect “intuitions” to “conscious life” and as a result configure her own subjectivity (the maturation of the ego, of the self-consciousness, or what in Jungian terms is known as the individuation process).