The Shattered Mirror: Representations of Women in Mexican Literature

Popular images of women in Mexico—conveyed through literature and, more recently, film and television—were long restricted to either the stereotypically submissive wife and mother or the demonized fallen woman. But new representations of women and their roles in Mexican society have shattered the ideological mirrors that reflected these images. This book explores this major change in the literary representation of women in Mexico.

María Elena de Valdés enters into a selective and hard-hitting examination of literary representation in its social context and a contestatory engagement of both the literary text and its place in the social reality of Mexico. Some of the topics she considers are Carlos Fuentes and the subversion of the social codes for women; the poetic ties between Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz and Octavio Paz; questions of female identity in the writings of Rosario Castellanos, Luisa Josefina Hernández, María Luisa Puga, and Elena Poniatowska; the Chicana writing of Sandra Cisneros; and the postmodern celebration—without reprobation—of being a woman in Laura Esquivel's Like Water for Chocolate.

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The Shattered Mirror: Representations of Women in Mexican Literature

Popular images of women in Mexico—conveyed through literature and, more recently, film and television—were long restricted to either the stereotypically submissive wife and mother or the demonized fallen woman. But new representations of women and their roles in Mexican society have shattered the ideological mirrors that reflected these images. This book explores this major change in the literary representation of women in Mexico.

María Elena de Valdés enters into a selective and hard-hitting examination of literary representation in its social context and a contestatory engagement of both the literary text and its place in the social reality of Mexico. Some of the topics she considers are Carlos Fuentes and the subversion of the social codes for women; the poetic ties between Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz and Octavio Paz; questions of female identity in the writings of Rosario Castellanos, Luisa Josefina Hernández, María Luisa Puga, and Elena Poniatowska; the Chicana writing of Sandra Cisneros; and the postmodern celebration—without reprobation—of being a woman in Laura Esquivel's Like Water for Chocolate.

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The Shattered Mirror: Representations of Women in Mexican Literature

The Shattered Mirror: Representations of Women in Mexican Literature

by María Elena de Valdés
The Shattered Mirror: Representations of Women in Mexican Literature

The Shattered Mirror: Representations of Women in Mexican Literature

by María Elena de Valdés

eBook

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Overview

Popular images of women in Mexico—conveyed through literature and, more recently, film and television—were long restricted to either the stereotypically submissive wife and mother or the demonized fallen woman. But new representations of women and their roles in Mexican society have shattered the ideological mirrors that reflected these images. This book explores this major change in the literary representation of women in Mexico.

María Elena de Valdés enters into a selective and hard-hitting examination of literary representation in its social context and a contestatory engagement of both the literary text and its place in the social reality of Mexico. Some of the topics she considers are Carlos Fuentes and the subversion of the social codes for women; the poetic ties between Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz and Octavio Paz; questions of female identity in the writings of Rosario Castellanos, Luisa Josefina Hernández, María Luisa Puga, and Elena Poniatowska; the Chicana writing of Sandra Cisneros; and the postmodern celebration—without reprobation—of being a woman in Laura Esquivel's Like Water for Chocolate.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780292786820
Publisher: University of Texas Press
Publication date: 07/05/2010
Series: Texas Pan American Series
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 294
File size: 1 MB

About the Author

María Elena de Valdés is Administrative Director of the University of Toronto Literary History Project.

Table of Contents

  • Preface
  • Introduction
  • One. The Politics of Representation of Women in Mexican Literature
  • Two. Rulfo’s Susana San Juan: Woman as Subject and Object of Desire
  • Three. Carlos Fuentes and the Subversion of the Social Codes for Women
  • Four. Juana Inés de la Cruz and Octavio Paz: The Crucible of Poetry
  • Five. Questions of Female Identity: Rosario Castellanos, Luisa Josefina Hernández, and María Luisa Puga
  • Six. Identity and the Other as Myself: Elena Poniatowska
  • Seven. The Hard Edge: Cristina Pacheco
  • Eight. Poetry from the Margins: Sandra Cisneros
  • Nine. Like Water for Chocolate: A Celebration of the Mexican Pre-Aesthetic
  • Ten. Conclusion: There Must Be Another Way
  • Notes
  • Appendices
    • One. Women’s Education in Mexico
    • Two. Other Leading Contemporary Women Writers of Mexico
    • Three. Sor Juana Criticism
  • Works Cited
  • Index
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