Phillipa Kafka

Saddling La Gringa (eBook, PDF)

Gatekeeping in Literature by Contemporary Latina Writers

• Format: PDF

Produktbeschreibung

Because of their ethnic identity, Latinas sometimes face discrimination in the United States. Latinas are additionally oppressed because of their gender-because they are women, they hold a subordinate position in patriarchal Latino culture. The oppression of Latinas is maintained through various cultural mechanisms, which sustain power relations based on gender. This book gives special attention to the role of female cultural gatekeepers in novels by contemporary Latina writers. These gatekeepers enforce and perpetuate patriarchal cultural constraints onto future generations of Latinas. They construct and police female identity, including their own, through the use of idiomatic expressions, epithets, jokes, morality tales, and myths. The volume begins by examining Judith Ortiz Cofer's Silent Dancing, a work that clearly illustrates the role of gatekeepers in perpetuating gendered power relations. It then turns to the writings of Christina García, Julia Alvarez, Rosario Ferre, and Magali Garcia Ramis. Through their highly critical yet loving characterizations of female gatekeepers, these Latina writers suggest a different way of life for Latinas, a feminist way.

Produktdetails

• Verlag: Bloomsbury Publishing Inc
• Seitenzahl: 192
• Altersempfehlung: ab 7 Jahre
• Erscheinungstermin: 30. September 2000
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9780313091094
• Artikelnr.: 37816525

Autorenporträt

PHILLIPA KAFKA is Professor of English Literature and Former Director of Women's Studies at Kean College of New Jersey. A pioneer in Ethnic American Studies since 1976, she is author of The Great White Way: African American Women Writers and American Success Mythology.

Inhaltsangabe

Preface Introduction: Major Elements in the Works of Latina Writers Judith Ortiz Cofer
Silent Dancing Cristina Garcia
Dreaming in Cuban Julia Alvarez
How the Garcia Girls Lost their Accents Rosario Ferre
The Youngest Doll and Other Stories Magali García Ramis
Happy Days
Uncle Sergio Bibliography Index