Identifier

etd-07102017-113110

Degree

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Foreign Languages and Literatures

Document Type

Thesis

Abstract

Many 20th century Puerto Rican writers focused on establishing a national identity through their works. Although the island has very diverse culture, some aspects of Puerto Rican identity have been ignored entirely or inaccurately represented in popular and literary culture. In this thesis I use Nuestra señora de la noche and La amante de Gardel by Mayra Santos-Febres to examine how the writer depicts race and gender based issues in Puerto Rico. With post-colonial theory and otherness theory, I examine how Santos-Febres—a descendant of colonized Puerto Rican people—decolonizes the Afro-Caribbean woman through her writing techniques and reconstructs the image of the Afro-Puerto Rican woman in her texts. Instead of reproducing negative stereotypes, through her characters Santos-Febres creates a new Afro-Puerto Rican woman who exists and thrives outside of the restrictive social “norms.”

Date

2017

Document Availability at the Time of Submission

Release the entire work immediately for access worldwide.

Committee Chair

Morris, Andrea E

DOI

10.31390/gradschool_theses.4531

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