The Woman in Latin American and Spanish Literature: Essays on Iconic Characters

by Eva Paulino Bueno (Editor), María Claudia André (Editor)

Overview

Noted scholars of Latin American and Spanish literature here explore the literary history of Latin America through the representation of iconic female characters. Focusing both on canonical novels and on works virtually unknown outside their original countries, the essays discuss the important ways in which these characters represent nature, history, race and sex, the effects of globalization, and the unknowable "other." They examine how both male and female writers portray Latin American women, reinterpreting the dynamics between the genders across boundaries and historical periods. Drawing on recent theories in literary criticism, gender, and Latin American studies, these essays illuminate the women characters as conduits for the appreciation of their countries and cultures.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780786465996
Publisher:	McFarland & Company, Incorporated Publishers
Publication date:	04/05/2012
Pages:	242
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.60(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Eva Paulino Bueno is a professor of Spanish and Portuguese and Chair of the Department of Languages at St. Mary’s University in San Antonio, Texas. She has published widely on Brazilian literature and popular culture, as well as on comparative literature and feminist studies. María Claudia André, a professor of Hispanic American literature and Latin American studies at Hope College in Holland, Michigan, is the author of several works on Latin American women writers.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments vi

Foreword Marjorie Agosín 1

Introduction 3

I Woman as Nature

1 Gender and Nation from Past to Present: From María to Macabéa Héctor Fernándex-L'Hoeste 14

2 Intoxicating Outlaws: Dominance and Sexuality in Rómulo Gallegos' Doña Bárbara Patricia L. Swier 30

3 Through the Eyes of the Child: The Narrator of Balún Canán Jeanie Murphy 46

II Woman in History

4 María Eugenia Alonso: The Modern Iphigenia Sacrificed to Society RoseAnna Mueller 60

5 Jesusa in the Context of Testimonios: Witness to an Age or Witness to Herself? Linda Ledford-Miller 74

6 La cómplice oficial: Catalina in Angeles Mastretta's Arráncame la vida Alice Edwards 86

7 Cultural and Literary Ethos as Represented in García Lorca's La casa de Bernarda Alba Jeffrey Oxford 101

III Woman as the Perverse Powers of Race and Sex

8 Blackness, Otherness, Woman(ness): Sierva María de Todos los Ángeles or the Death Throes of Colonial Cartagena Leonora Simonovis 116

9 Gabriela, or Freedom Versus Marriage Linda Ledford-Miller 129

IV Woman and the Burden of Globalization

10 Sex and the Two Cartagenas in Óscar Collazos' Rencor Aldona Pobutsky 146

11 Reality by the Garbage Truckload: The Case of Unica Oconitrillo Jerry Hoeg 162

V Woman as the Unknowable Other

12 Women in Borges: Teodelina Villar in "El Zahir" María Fernández-Lamarque 178

13 Life Amidst the Ashes: Irene's Search for Meaning and Connection in María Flora Yáñez's Las cenizas Lisa Merschel 194

14 Can the Feminine Speak? Narrating Madalena and Macabéa Marcus V.C. Brasileiro 207

About the Contributors 223

Index 227

Editorial Reviews

highly recommended”—Choice; “essays examines representations of iconic female characters through Spanish and Latin American literary history”—Reference & Research Book News.

From the Publisher

"essays examines representations of iconic female characters through Spanish and Latin American literary history"

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highly recommended

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