Islands of Women and Amazons: Representations and Realities

by Batya Weinbaum

Overview

This is a cultural ethnography of Isla Mujeres, Mexico, part of Riviera Maya, containing contemporary field photos taken in 2014-2016. The book also explores the history of the archetypal theme of islands of women and Amazons in world myth, literature and history, placing Ixchel the Maya goddess of fertility and how she was discovered by the explorers of Queen Isabella in that context.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781978456846
Publisher:	CreateSpace Publishing
Publication date:	10/18/2017
Pages:	400
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 9.02(h) x 0.82(d)

About the Author

Batya Weinbaum, a feminist activist, author, poet, novelist and critic, founded and edits the journal Femspec which has been in existence for 20 years. She also edits IxChel Press, a literary magazine that comes out on Isla Mujeres once a year. She earned her doctorate at University of Massachussetts in the Department of English in 1996 and teaches writing and literature at Life and American Public Universities.

Table of Contents

Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part One. The Amazon Archetype in Popular Culture, Literature, and Criticism
One. The Amazon Archetype
Two. Post-War Appearances: Revival, Revitalization, and Reaction
Three. The Amazon Archetype: Contemporary Criticism
Part Two. Amazon Archetype: Evolution in Form
Four. Problematizing the Greeks: Tragic Flaws in the One-Breasted Amazon Argument
Five. Homeric and Pre-Homeric Origins
Six. How the Amazon Enters World Literature: Fighting and Unadorned
Seven. The Second Phase: Focus on the Femininity of Penthesilea
Eight. Amazons Go American: Montalvo's Sergas de Esplandian
Part Three. The Island of Women as Fiction in American Tourism
Nine. How the Folk Erodes: Myth, Image, Symbol, and Reality
Ten. The Island of Women as Playground for America's "Leisure Primitivism"
Eleven. Dialectical Interaction with Island Versions of the Feminine
Twelve. Material Items in Women's Culture: An On-Island Birth Experience
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index