Saddling La Gringa - Gatekeeping in Literature by Contemporary Latina Writers

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.

List of contents

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

About the author

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.

Product details

• Authors: Phillipa Kafka
• Publisher: Bloomsbury
• Languages: English
• Age Recommendation: ages 7 to 17
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 30.09.2000
• EAN: 9780313311222
• ISBN: 978-0-313-31122-2
• No. of pages: 192
• Weight: 397 g
• Series: Contributions in Women's Studies
• Subjects: Fiction > Poetry, drama; Latin America, Cultural Studies, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Women's Studies, 20th Century, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Anthropology / Cultural & Social, LITERARY CRITICISM / Caribbean & Latin American, LITERARY CRITICISM / Women Authors, LITERARY CRITICISM / Modern / 20th Century, 20th century, c 1900 to c 1999, Literary studies: from c 1900 -, Gender studies: women, Latin America – Mexico, Central America, South America, Latin-American Spanish, Literary studies: fiction, novelists & prose writers, Literary studies: fiction, novelists and prose writers, Gender studies: women and girls, Literary studies: c 1900 to c 2000, LITERARY CRITICISM / Novel as Form, Race and Ethnicity: Latino and Hispanic Studies