From Chicana to Chica: The Cultural Politics of Sexuality, Home, and Women's Solidarity in works by Sandra Cisneros and Alisa Valdes-RodrÃguez
This project simultaneously engages in close readings of literary texts while situating the works in wider social, political, and cultural contexts. While I closely examine the cultural politics depicted in works which compromise the new genre of "Chica Lit" by authors such as Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez, Michele Serros, and Sofia Quintero, I also compare and contrast this body of work to that of a previous generation. This previous generation consists of Chicana writers such as Sandra Cisneros, Ana Castillo, and Denise Chavez, for example, who helped to define the "Latina Literary Boom" of the 1980's and 1990's.This project is fundamentally concerned with the ways Chicana/Latina feminism is articulated as a means of resistance in light of market demands and cultural commodification. The following research question is the foundation for this study: How are Chica Lit and Chicana Literature necessarily interlinked in the unfolding genealogy of U.S. Latina Literature? In order to answer this question I am analyzing The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros and The Dirty Girls Social Club by Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez using discourse analysis and close reading as methodologies and Chicana feminist theory as a critical lens. As a result, the parallel themes that link Chicana literature and Chica Lit include sexuality, home, and women's solidarity.
School:
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Department:
English
Research Advisor:
Richard T. Rodriguez
Department of Research Advisor:
English
Year of Publication:
2007