Journal article
Writers of the Colony: Feminism via Puerto Ricanness in the Literature of Contemporary Women Authors on the Island
Latino(a) research review / University at Albany, SUNY, CELAC, Center for Latino, Latin American, and Caribbean Studies., Vol.7(3), pp.101-120
2010
Abstract
In this essay, I will focus the discussion on samples of literature written at the end of the twentieth century by women as a feminist form of active resistance, an active resistance that explains and in many cases challenges the predicament of women in the colony. I propose that the literature of women writers in Puerto Rico must be studied as a whole. When analyzed together, patterns of thought and ideological alternatives are clearly outlined. This is not to suggest that Puerto Rican women writers have a unified voice. Quite the contrary. There is a plurality of ideas and messages in the writings of these women. I am also not suggesting that the three authors whose works have been chosen for this analysis are the only exponents of Puerto Rican literature by women. However, the selected writers—Rosario Ferré, Magaly García Ramis and Ana Lydia Vega—were, in a clear way, representative of women writers during the time period in question. The excerpts discussed below (and the works of women writers in general) are important in that they connect the literary world to social processes, and to the ideas/ideologies and expectations of a particular cultural context and historical moment. To better guide the discussion of the selected works as feminist works, I have identified a specific umbrella topic: the notion of Puerto Ricanness, which gets intertwined with issues of nationalism and the political and economic status of the island (including images of Third Worldness). Before discussing women writers and their literature, some background on the women’s movement in Puerto Rico and women’s living conditions at the end of the twentieth century is needed, for it was within this context that the literature of women writers emerged.
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Details
- Title
- Writers of the Colony: Feminism via Puerto Ricanness in the Literature of Contemporary Women Authors on the Island
- Creators
- CARMEN ROSALLY LUGO-LUGO (Author) - Washington State University, Languages, Cultures, and Race, School of
- Publication Details
- Latino(a) research review / University at Albany, SUNY, CELAC, Center for Latino, Latin American, and Caribbean Studies., Vol.7(3), pp.101-120
- Academic Unit
- Critical Culture, Gender, and Race Studies, Department of
- Publisher
- University of Albany
- Identifiers
- 99900662035501842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Journal article