The Woman in Latin American and Spanish Literature

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.

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.

Table of ContentsAcknowledgmentsForeword by Marjorie AgosínIntroductionI. WOMAN AS NATURE1. Gender and Nation from Past to Present: From María to MacabéaHÉCTOR FERNÁNDEZ-L'HOESTE2. Intoxicating Outlaws: Dominance and Sexuality in Rómulo Gallegos' Doña BárbaraPATRICIA L. SWIER3. Through the Eyes of the Child: The Narrator of Balún CanánJEANIE MURPHYII. WOMAN IN HISTORY4. María Eugenia Alonso: The Modern Iphigenia Sacrificed to SocietyROSEANNA MUELLER5. Jesusa in the Context of Testimonios: Witness to an Age or Witness to HerselfLINDA LEDFORD-MILLER6. La cómplice oficial: Catalina in Angeles Mastretta's Arráncame la vidaALICE EDWARDS7. Cultural and Literary Ethos as Represented in García Lorca's La casa de Bernarda AlbaJEFFREY OXFORDIII. WOMAN AS THE PERVERSE POWERS OF RACE AND SEX8. Blackness, Otherness, Woman(ness): Sierva María de Todos los Ángeles or the Death Throes of Colonial CartagenaLEONORA SIMONOVIS9. Gabriela, or Freedom Versus MarriageLINDA LEDFORD-MILLERIV. WOMAN AND THE BURDEN OF GLOBALIZATION10. Sex and the Two Cartagenas in Óscar Collazos' RencorALDONA POBUTSKY11. Reality by the Garbage Truckload: The Case of Unica OconitrilloJERRY HOEGV. WOMAN AS THE UNKNOWABLE OTHER12. Women in Borges: Teodelina Villar in "El Zahir"MARÍA FERNÁNDEZ-LAMARQUE13. Life Amidst the Ashes: Irene's Search for Meaning and Connection in María Flora Yáñez's Las cenizasLISA MERSCHEL14. Can the Feminine Speak? Narrating Madalena and MacabéaMARCUS V.C. BRASILEIROAbout the ContributorsIndex