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Feminism in American Literature
Portrayal of women in literature
Portrayal of women in literature
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Recommended: Feminism in American Literature
Carmen Maria Machado has undeniably awakened the literary world with her impressive debut short story collection Her Body and Other Parties. The American short story author, eassyist, and critic published her masterpiece in 2017 in partner with Graywolf Press resulting in the clout associated with her already established name being amplified due Her Body and Other Parties unapologetically bold content. The short story collection dauntlessly presents itself right in front of the readers face demanding to be acknowledged with its genre defying content while simultaneously provoking necessary conversation about particular themes concerning the many plights of women. Machado also does well seamlessly incorporating non heteronormative relationships …show more content…
In the essay “The Queer Short Story”, written by Axel Nissen, the perception of the short story is examined and decided upon. Nissen states that “the short story is the “other” of fictional prose narrative. As the other it must continually justify its existence, worry about the circumstances of its being and becoming, agonize about its value and identity”, which is very much connected to the concept of queerness and what Nissen includes as “queer theory”. Nissen then proposes that the word “queer” is appropriate for describing the way the short story is considered “other” along with it being “an absence or deviation from whatever is the normative sexual or gender behavior or identity in a given period or culture”. So when applying this to Machado and her short story, “The Husband Stitch”, it can be seen that the queer nature of the short story and the queer nature of discussing a woman’s sexuality go hand in hand. Machado has allowed herself the freedom and space to explicitly write about a behavior that has been designated as shameful for a certain gender, a behavior that also continuously has to be unjustly …show more content…
After the narrator has given birth to her son, and not fully coherent, she notes that she hears her husband asking for that “extra stitch” alluding to the stitches that are given to women between the vagina and anus after childbirth due to tearing or cutting (Machado 17). The narrator also hears a short “-like a vir-” in response to what the stitch is supposed to do by the doctor. The narrator did not ask for this to be performed. The “extra stitch” also possesses no beneficial purposes for the woman receiving this procedure. Its sole purpose is to render the vagina tighter than it was before giving birth and to bring pleasure to the man on the other end during sex. The problem with this is that it is a clear in this society, the belief is that a woman’s body is only there for the use of a man. The problem is that there was a clear disregard when altering the narrator’s genitalia without her permission. It begs the questions of why is this okay, why was the pleasure of a man put before comfort and health even, and where was the consideration for the narrators ability to experience pleasure once recovered from giving
Contreras’s writings exhibited issues that were of great concern to women. She explored single parenthood, violence, both physical a psychological against women, lesbianism, and growing old. On the contrary, she used her stories to depict the weakness of men. Her writings included sterility, jealousy, and homosexuality amongst the male sex. Her stories revealed a distinctive concern for emotions and psychological motivation. Emotions such as terror that many women are exposed to in their relations with men are prevalent in her literary works.
In Judith Ortiz Cofer’s “The Story of My Body” Ortiz Cofer represents herself narrative story when she were young. Her autobiography has four headlines these parts are skin, color, size, and looks. Every headline has it is own stories underneath it. Ortiz Cofer’s is expressing her life story about her physical and psychological struggle with her body. Heilbrun’s narrative, “Writing a Woman’s Life” shows that, a woman’s does not have to be an ideal to write a self-autobiography to tell the world something about herself and her life. Ortiz Cofer’s facing a body struggle that is not made by herself, but by people around her. Therefore, every woman is able to write can write an autobiography with no exception.
In this study I will examine how, from a feminist perspective, both Toni Morrison's fourth African-American novel, Tar Baby (1981), and Rosa Montero's third post-Franco Spanish novel, Te trataré como a una reina (1983), explore the problems that arise when women believe that they are the stereotypes permeating literature. Both women writers employ similar techniques that subvert and deconstruct the stereotypical roles of men and women, unveiling the fairy tale icons of the heroine and the hero that have been masquerading as "real" people.
Women are seen as failure and can’t strive without men in the Mexican-American community. In this novel you can see a cultural approach which examines a particular aspect of a culture and a gender studies approach which examines how literature either perpetuates or challenges gender stereotypes. Over and over, Esperanza battled with how people perceived her and how she wished to be perceived. In the beginning of the book, Esperanza speaks of all the times her family has moved from one place to another. “Before that we lived on Loomis on the third floor, and before that we lived on Keeler.
Maria Elena de Valdes writes her review based upon the novel The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros analyzing the identity of the main character, Esperanza, and how the text relates to Mexican-American individuals. Valdes’ review evaluates The House on Mango Street with a feminist view on to show the struggles of a young chicana girl coming of age and how she chooses to establish her own identity.
Although language manipulation can be broken into countless categories and sub-categories, diction is arguably the common denominator. When one conducts an analysis of another’s words, it is both logical and necessary for one to address the author’s word choice. Vàzquez’s essay is full of strategically placed adjectives and transitions to pull the reader to her message. She refers to society’s gender roles as being a “straitjacket” that “suffocates” (p. 493, 3rd paragraph). Both of the words “straitjacket” and “suffocates” not only embody the frustration felt by homosexuals, but also suggest that society is bound by its own unreasonable expectations. The author’s metaphorical suffocating straightjacket serves as a signal to the reader that society’s treatment of gender roles is in dire need of reform.
Junot Diaz’s novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao is focused on the hyper-masculine culture of the Dominican, and many argue that his portrayal of the slew of women in the novel is misogynistic because they are often silenced by the plot and kept out of the narration (Matsui). However, Diaz crafts strong women, and it is society that views them as objects. The novel recognizes the masculine lens of the culture while still examining the lives of resilient women. In this way, the novel showcases a feminist stance and critiques the misogynist culture it is set in by showcasing the strength and depth of these women that help to shape the narrative while acknowledging that it is the limits society places on them because of their sexuality
The story “Woman Hollering Creek" by Sandra Cisneros describes the lives of Mexicans in a Chicago neighborhood. She depicts the life that women endure as Latino wives through her portrayal of the protagonist, Cleofilas. For Cisneros being a Mexican-American has given her a chance to see life from two different cultures. In addition, Cisneros has written the story from a woman’s perspective, illustrating the types of conflicts many women face as Latino wives. This unique paradigm allows the reader to examine the events and characters using a feminist critical perspective.
A woman in the film explains that, she lack of so much information that in the day after the surgery, she was cut and sew with black thread and she said “O my God” what have they cut me. In addition, she mentions that she was a total ignorant, but she feels that she wasn’t forced to do it that she went on her own free will, but if she would have been told of other childbirth methods she would have done it. Also, another woman said that the gynecologist told her that she was going to have the tied tube procedure that consisted of having her Fallopian tubes tied, but she didn’t know it was also
The author, Sandra Cisneros, grew up as a Mexican-American woman in Chicago, Illinois. Her mother was Mexican -American and her father was from Mexico; she makes a clear point the difference between the two cultures. She graduated from Loyola University in Chicago and from there enrolled in a Writers’ Workshop at the University of Iowa. Bad Boys, a book of poetry, was published by a small press company that specialized in Latino literature in 1980. It received little notice. But her first fiction collection, House on Mango Street, was published in 1984 and gained the noticed of the New York publishing establishment. “The work is organized, like Mango Street, around the central female protagonist, whose views of her extended family help to clarify her own character” (Perkins, 390). The story “Woman Hollering Creek” came from her 1991 book of stories entitled Woman Hollering Creek and Othe...
Chick critiqued Judith Ortiz Cofer’s Silent Dancing by advising that it is a collection of fourteen essays and poems. It talks about Cofer’s adolescence and how she did not achieve the expectations for her to become a traditional Puerto Rican woman (AEW 381). Initially, Mamá is portrayed as an authority figure because she keeps her family in control just by the use of storytelling. With Chick’s point of view, I cannot disagree since it is accurate. Cofer, also disagrees with becoming the traditional Puerto Rican woman from receiving an education and going on her own path to becoming a writer. It is interesting how some of the characters are perceived, although they are considered as fiction since their identities are hidden. Cofer achieves her storytelling by being half fiction and auto-biography since it is written by herself. She reevaluates how women should be known as, but specifically the means of the life of a Puerto Rican
Writing in the 20th century was great deal harder for a Chicano then it was for a typical American at this time. Although that did not stop this author, Sandra Cisneros. One of her famous novels, Woman Hollering Creek was a prime example of how a combined culture: Mexican-Americans, could show their pride and identity in this century. In conjunction, gave the opportunity for women to speak their voice and forever change the culture of Latino/a markets. Not only did it express identity/gender roles of women and relationships, but using these relationships to combine the cultures of Mexican and American into a hybrid breed. This novel, should have been a view-point for the future to show that there is more to life than just gender and race. Concluding this, the articles that helps define this is “The Latino/a Canon and the Emergence of Post-Sixties Literature” and “What is called Heaven”.
These novels, poems and short stories show how sexism is very much an issue in past decades but also in present and future decades. The America that we live in wants to believe in the fact that all men and women are created equal, it has yet to do anything. Women are still seen as objects to an extent. We are still seen as Daisy or as Charlotte Perkins main character, or the woman Carlos Gomez Andres writes about. The fact that we might die from the loss of freedom, because one cannot escape from an unhappy marriage, is considered ridiculous.
During the wake of gender politics in the early twentieth century, Gertrude Stein and Sui Sin Far wrote immigration narratives that feature characters who reject traditional gender norms. As female writers, the intersection of gender, sexuality, and cultural identities inform how each character uses, rejects, reacts to traditional notions of femininity and masculinity. While Mrs. Spring Fragrance by Sui Sin Far and The Good Anna by Gertrude Stein feature characters that challenge traditional gender roles and assert their agency, The Good Anna features characters that challenge gender roles directly by not fitting into gendered expectations. Mrs. Spring Fragrance, on the other hand, features characters that seem to follow gender roles as prescribed
...Halevi-Wise, Yael (1997). Story-telling in Laura Esquivel's Como Agua Para Chocolate. The Other Mirror: Women’s Narrative in Mexico, 1980-1995. Ed. Kristine Ibsen. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1997. 123-131.