García Márquez’s ‘last’ female protagonist: Ageing, sexuality, and transgression

The article focuses on the portrayal of a middle-aged woman, Ana Magdalena Bach, as depicted in Gabriel García Márquez’s posthumously published work Until August (Citation2024). It analyses the complexities of female ageing, with a particular focus on the intersection of ageism and sexism. What makes the examination of García Márquez’s ‘last’ work particularly compelling is that, for the first time in his literary career, he chose to write from a female perspective. Ana Magdalena’s travel to a remote Caribbean island serves as a liberating journey of self-discovery and an exploration of femininity and sexual identity. However, her experiences are also represented as a form of transgression, entangled with guilt and pleasure, which are filtered through the male gaze. The novella both challenges the narrative of decline and, at the same time, reveals the persistent difficulty of moving beyond ageist notions and patriarchal norms. The article calls for a critical re-consideration of the portrayal of ageing femininities and also expands scholarship on García Márquez’s body of work. It also contributes to literary gerontology and women’s studies by underscoring the need for more diversified and cross-cultural perspectives that contest Western-centric frameworks.