Spanish and Portuguese Language and Literature Commons^™

Traditions And Transformations In The Work Of Adál: Surrealism, El Sainete, And Spanglish, Margarita J. Aguilar

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The Nuyorican movement was a cultural and intellectual movement beginning in the late 1960s through the 1970s that coincided with the era of civil rights struggle in the United States. The artists, writers, poets, and others in the movement were of Puerto Rican descent and resided in New York neighborhoods such as El barrio or Spanish Harlem, Loisaida or the Lower East Side and the South Bronx. The term “Nuyorican” was embraced as a badge of honor and pride by New York’s Puerto Rican community. It was during this time that cultural-specific institutions such El Museo del Barrio, Taller Boricua, …

Science Under The Microscope And Legality On Trial: How Female Authors In Latin America Confront And Challenge The Patriarchal Control Of Science And Legality In The Representation Of Women, Anna Bellum

Spanish and Portuguese ETDs

In this dissertation, I analyze a selection of works by eight Latin American female authors in order to explore how they represent the process of the social construction of women’s identities and roles in the male-dominated social, institutional, familial, and personal spaces that force women into particular positions of subordination. This analysis will focus, in particular, on how women writers represent the hegemonic systems of legality and science in order to highlight their role in the reproduction of values, practices, and institutions that maintain male control and female exploitation.

Each of the authors I analyze addresses the construction of women’s …

From Borderlands To Border Islands: Intersections Between Anzaldúa's Chicana Feminist Theory And U.S. Latina Literature From The Hispanic Caribbean, Cristina Gonzalez Martin

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis studies three texts by three U.S. Latina authors from the Hispanic Caribbean through the lens of Chicana feminist border theory. The works analyzed are How the García Girls Lost Their Accents (1991) by Dominican author Julia Alvarez, Dreaming in Cuban (1992) by Cuban-American novelist Cristina García, and the memoir Almost a Woman (1998) by Puerto Rican author Esmeralda Santiago. The theoretical framework used is Gloria Anzaldúa’s Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza. The objective is to show how these texts manifest the formation of a hybrid, diasporic, in-between identity that corresponds with Anzaldúa’s definition of mestiza consciousness or la …

De Pura Cepa: Seis Cuentos De Puerto Rico, 1548–2017, Rita M. Pérez-Padilla

Honors Papers

"De pura cepa" is a collection of six short stories, each in a different time period and different conflict in Puerto Rican history: the Spanish conquest in the 16th century, the era of slavery and sugar plantations in the mid-19th century, the transition from Spain to the United States in the first years of the 20th century, the start of mass emigrations from Puerto Rico in the mid-20th century, and finally the immediate effects of Hurricane Maria in the latter half of 2017. There is also an introductory story that takes place in the early 2000s. The collection confronts and …

Monstrous Dolls: The Abject Body In Rosario Ferré’S Works, Mackenzie Fraser

Senior Theses

In this Honors Thesis project, I examine two literary texts, “The Youngest Doll” (1991) and The House on the Lagoon (1995), by Puerto Rican author Rosario Ferré (1938-2016) with attention to her depiction of the abject female body as a figure analyzed by both theories of gender and the subaltern. Using these critical frameworks as well as my own textual analysis, I argue that Ferré offers a postcolonial feminist critique of the double oppression—patriarchal and colonial— operating upon her female Puerto Rican characters. Yet these women also turn this abjection into transgression, allowing Ferré to expose the paradoxes of female …

Frida's Daughter, Myrta Vida

Theses

The purpose of my creative writing is to highlight a group of U.S. citizens still woefully underrepresented in literature proper: the Latinx middle class. I’m keenly interested in exploring Puerto Rican and first- and second-generation Latinx immigrant stories. Even though some of the experiences from these groups have been elegantly visited by writers such as Giannina Braschi, Sandra Cisneros, Junot Diaz, Julia Alvarez, and others, there are nuances to the Latinx middle class experience that are yet to be uncovered. Being stuck in the cultural, linguistic, socio-economic, and political middles in a country that has recently taken a largely nationalist …

Motherland, Melanie Joy Mignucci

Senior Projects Spring 2016

A novella about Puerto Rico.

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Languages and Literature of Bard College.

“Una Caja De Plomo Que No Se Podía Abrir”: Una Crítica Del Sistema Militar Estadounidense En Puerto Rico Durante La Época De La Guerra De Corea, Ashton Monks

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

La Obra Poetica De Jose De Jesus Dominguez Estudio Preliminar, Texto Y Notas, Eric Samuel Quinones

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The end of the nineteenth century witnessed an esthetic renewal in Latin American literature. The movement later dubbed modernismo would usher in a profound shift in the ars poetica of Spanish prose and poetry. Yet this revolution did not spread like fire; it coexisted with, and unevenly replaced, earlier artistic notions. José de Jesús Domínguez, a poet and medical doctor who spent most of his life in the city of Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, was one of the earliest exponents of this trend. His evolution from his beginnings as a romantic poet, his encounter with the French Parnassians, and his early …

Hablo Español, You Know? Language And Identity In The Puerto Rican Diaspora, Rachel Ann Denton

Masters Theses

This thesis explores the relationship between language, personal identity, and culture among members of the Puerto Rican diaspora. Puerto Rico represents a unique situation socially and politically because of its colonial relationship with the United States. This relationship has facilitated a continuous circular migration to and from the mainland U.S. over the last century. As of 2012, the diasporic community now represents a greater population than those who remain on the island. While nationalistic debates in Puerto Rico have traditionally excluded this group (collectively dubbed “neoricans” or “nuyoricans”), their recent contributions to literature and Puerto Rican cultural theory, as well …

La Representación De La Familia En Épocas De Transformación: Un Análisis De La Carreta (1953) De René Marqués Y Noche Cubana (2009) De José Luis García Rodríguez, Alyssa Feldman

Honors Theses

This project investigates the dramatic works La carreta (1953) by René Marqués and Noche cubana (2009) by José Luis García Rodríguez to analyze the playwrights’ utilization of the family to represent the conditions of their respective nations. La carreta describes a Puerto Rican family during the island’s transition to a Commonwealth of the United States. Marqués uses the disintegration of the family to show his opposition to Puerto Rico’s colonial status and dependency on the United States. The struggles of the family in La carreta also express Marqués’ condemnation of Puerto Rico’s industrialization and abandonment of agrarian society. Noche cubana …