Tú eres mujer: women characters' disempowerment and empowerment in Helena María Viramontes's Under the feet of Jesus and The moths and other stories
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Data
Autor(es)
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ISSN da Revista
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Editor
Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais
Descrição
Tipo
Dissertação de mestrado
Título alternativo
Primeiro orientador
Membros da banca
José de Paiva dos Santos
Priscila Campolina de Sá Campello
Priscila Campolina de Sá Campello
Resumo
Chicana author Helena María Viramontes’s novel Under the Feet of Jesus depicts the trials and tribulations of a family of Mexican immigrants who works in the fields of California. The protagonist, Estrella, a 13-year-old girl, undergoes a rite of passage from girlhood to womanhood. The Moths and Other Stories has two short stories, “The Moths,” and “Growing,” whose protagonists are also teenagers and must cope with their growing up. The three girls must struggle in their daily routines with inequalities (race, gender, age, class, and ethnicity), patriarchal rules and beliefs, discrimination, and disenfranchisement that disempower them. I analyze how Viramontes denounces the oppression of these girls and suggests that they should struggle for their space in life and to make their voices heard. These girls must unlearn what they have learned from their environment to cope better with their lives. My hypothesis is that these oppressed girls can overcome their predicament through two relevant elements to achieve their autonomy: literacy (a process that encompasses both reading the world by appropriating their life stories and the word), and a broadened consciousness/an expanded worldview (my focus will be on Gloria Anzaldúa’s mestiza consciousness).
Abstract
Assunto
Viramontes, Helena María, 1954- – Under the Feet of Jesus – Crítica e interpretação, Viramontes, Helena María, 1954- – Moths – Crítica e interpretação, Viramontes, Helena María, 1954- – Growing – Crítica e interpretação, Ficção americana – História e crítica, Adolescentes na literatura, Imigrantes na literatura, Mulheres na literatura
Palavras-chave
Latina literature, Helena María Viramontes, Girlhood, Disempowerment, Literacy