Women's Voices and Imperfect Communities in Sandra Cisneros and Maryse Condé
Date
2020
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Bi-College (Haverford and Bryn Mawr Colleges). Comparative Literature Program
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Thesis
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eng
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Bi-College users only
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Abstract
My thesis explores the representations of gendered voices in Sandra Cisneros's The House on Mango Street (1984) and Maryse Condé's Traversée de la Mangrove (Crossing the Mangrove, 1989). I incorporate literary theories in narratology and polyphony to analyze the narrative voices in the two texts and the gendered nature of these voices. I argue that the two authors' decisions to center and/or highlight female narrative voices while also including some male voices indicate a shift from western feminist literature. The authors' strategic allocation of voices marks their intersectional approach to representing women's stories and their recognition of the complexities and imperfections of the communities they represent.