Content area

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to add an additional level onto the palimpsest of reconstructing Afro-Latin American women's voices by interrogating how symbolic representations of Home are manifested in contemporary Afro-Latin American women's writing. This analysis focuses on fiction and poetry written by four women of Afro-Latin American ancestry who write from within their homeland. The texts here under consideration are the novels Ponciá Vicêncio (2003) by Conceição Evaristo, Reyita (1997) by Daisy Rubiera Castillo, selected poems are from Alzira Rufino's Eu, mulher negra, resisto! (1988) and Georgina Herrera's Gritos (2003). Within the literary texts under consideration, the concept of Home functions as a signifier for the space (from) where those women writers choose to locate their discourses. For these women writers, I will argue that race, class and gender issues foreground their construction of Home within their literary work. Additionally, questions of language(s), culture(s), geographical/social space(s), and representations of self/body are addressed in isolated contexts of literary theory and criticism aiming at the deconstruction of a hegemonic oppressive misconception of women’s subversive power within society as a gendered group. Issues of gender and race inequalities are historically contextualized and analyzed under the lens of Post-Colonial and Feminists theories.

Details

1010268
Literature indexing term
Title
Symbolic representations of ‘home’ in Afro-Latin American women's literature
Number of pages
168
Degree date
2009
School code
0183
Source
DAI-A 71/06, Dissertation Abstracts International
ISBN
978-1-109-76947-0
Advisor
Committee member
Oliveira, Silvia; Salgueiro, Maria; Stephenson, Marcia; Tillis, Antonio
University/institution
Purdue University
Department
Foreign Languages and Literatures
University location
United States -- Indiana
Degree
Ph.D.
Source type
Dissertation or Thesis
Language
English
Document type
Dissertation/Thesis
Dissertation/thesis number
3403433
ProQuest document ID
366791939
Document URL
https://www.proquest.com/dissertations-theses/symbolic-representations-home-afro-latin-american/docview/366791939/se-2?accountid=208611
Copyright
Database copyright ProQuest LLC; ProQuest does not claim copyright in the individual underlying works.
Database
ProQuest One Academic