‘Como una mera hipótesis científica’: el lenguaje literario de la locura en ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ de Charlotte Perkins Gilman.

The focus of this article will be Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s thoroughly anthologized story ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ (1892). Beyond the patriarchal perception of the narrator as progressively falling into madness, this study aims to prove that, in line with some feminist readings of the story (e.g. Haney-Peritz, 1986), the unnamed female protagonist consciously elaborates a mad language and discourse as part of her strategy to fight patriarchy from within. A careful study of this language will break the reader’s initial illusion that the protagonist is mad and will show how she finally embraces the rational discourse of medicine to perpetrate her revenge

“Guiding a Community:” unworking community in Sandra Cisneros’ "The house on Mango Street"

The present study revises communitarian boundaries in the fiction of Chicana writer Sandra Cisneros. Using the ideas of key figures in post-phenomenological communitarian theory and connecting them with Anzaldúa and Braidotti’s concepts of borderland and nomadism, this essay explores Cisneros’ contrast between operative communities that crave for the immanence of a shared communion and substantiate themselves in essentialist tropes, and inoperative communities that are characterized by transcendence or exposure to alterity. In The House on Mango Street (1984) the figure of the child is the perfect starting point to ‘unwork’ (in Nancy’s terminology) concepts such as spatial belonging, nationalistic beliefs, linguistic constrictions, and gender roles through a selection of tangible imagery which, from a female child’s pseudo-innocent perspective, aims to generate an inoperative community beyond essentialist tropes, where individualistic and communal drives are ambiguously intertwined. Using Cisneros’ debut novel as a case study, this article studies the female narrator as embodying both a community of one and Cisneros’ search for an intellectual Chicano community.El presente estudio revisa las fronteras comunitarias de la ficción de la escritora chicana Sandra Cisneros. Partiendo de presupuestos comunitarios postfenomenológicos y conectándolos con los conceptos de frontera y nomadismo de Anzaldúa y Braidotti, este ensayo explora el contraste que se da en Cisneros entre comunidades orgánicas que buscan la inmanencia a través de una comunión entre sus miembros y de la elaboración de etiquetas esencialistas, y comunidades inorgánicas, caracterizadas por la transcendencia o la exposición a la alteridad. En “The house on Mango Street” (1984) la figura de la niña es el punto de partida perfecto para “desobrar” (en palabras de Nancy) conceptos como la territorialidad, el nacionalismo, las constricciones lingüísticas y los roles de género a través de una selección de imágenes tangibles que, desde la perspectiva pseudo-inocente de una niña, pretende generar una comunidad inorgánica más allá de cualquier esencialismo, donde las fuerzas individualista y comunitaria se entrelazan ambiguamente. Partiendo de la novela arriba indicada como caso de estudio, este artículo estudia la figura de la narradora como representante a la vez de la voz individual y de la búsqueda de una comunidad chicana intelectual en Cisneros

Coalescence: an approach to Hélène Cixous' writing style

Tomando como punto de partida un experimento narrativo relativamente desconocido de Hélène Cixous, Angst, el presente artículo explora la peculiar aplicación que esta escritora y crítica feminista hace de la desconstrucción de Jacques Derrida al ámbito de la diferencia sexual. Cixous invierte el sistema patriarcal de oposiciones binarias, donde la masculinidad siempre resulta privilegiada, para favorecer, en cambio, aquellos elementos asociados con la feminidad. Sin embargo, finalmente propone lo que hemos denominado «coalescencia», o la fusión de fuerzas libidinales tanto masculinas como femeninas.Departing from a relatively unknown narrative experiment by Hélène Cixous, Angst, this article aims to explore the peculiar application that this French feminist writer and critic makes of Jacques Derrida’s deconstruction within the field of sexual difference. Cixous invierts the patriarcal system of binary terms to favour, in turn, those elements associated with femininity. However, she ultimately aligns with what I have labelled «coalescence», or the fusion of libidinal forces, both masculine and feminine

'The Tide That Riffles Back': Spiral Femininity in Carmel Bird’s Cape Grimm

This article explores Carmel Bird’s novel Cape Grimm (2003) from a temporal and gender perspective in order to show how the author makes use of what Julia Kristeva theorizes as ‘Women’s Time’, a cyclical temporality that is connected with femininity. Although the writer portrays an objective, linear and masculine narrative from the beginning of the novel, her intention is to recognize an alternative writing where subjective, superstitious and feminine visions may offer an alternative truth, probably more convincing than the historical one we have been brainwashed to believe in. The three main intersecting stories of the novel are analyzed to show that, behind a masculine unifying appearance, there lies the author’s intention to highlight the importance of feminine, cyclical time as an alternative of change

No more lullabies for foolish virgins. Angela Carter and "The Erl-King"

Angela Carter’s fiction has been generally acclaimed for her “Rabelaisian humor and linguistic exuberance”. However, the same critics who praise these stylistic traits in Carter call attention to an alleged political weakness in the narrative strategies used by the British writer. The present study uses her story “The Erl-King”, included in the collection The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories (1979), to explore Carter’s intentional ambiguity in providing her fictional women with a voice of their own. Departing from an alternative musical discourse and subversive intertextual references to “The Erl-King” and “Little Red Riding Hood”, Carter creates an illusory setting in the heart of the forest that both deconstructs patriarchal subjugation of women and remains stuck in a stagnant dream. This dyad justifies contradictory opinions among her critics and endows Carter with her unique way of building an alternative type of feminism.La ficción de Angela Carter ha sido con frecuencia ensalzada por su humor caricaturesco y su exuberancia lingüística. Sin embargo, los mismos críticos que alaban estos rasgos estilísticos en Carter destacan la aparente ineficacia política de sus estrategias narrativas. El presente estudio parte del relato “The Erl-King”, incluido en su colección The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories (1979), para explorar la estudiada ambigüedad de Carter en proporcionar a las mujeres de su ficción una voz propia. Partiendo de un discurso musical alternativo y referencias intertextuales subversivas al mito del Rey Elfo y el cuento de Caperucita Roja, Carter crea un ambiente ilusorio en el corazón del bosque que, de un lado, desconstruye la subyugación patriarcal de las mujeres y, de otro, permanece anclado en un sueño viciado. Esta ambigüedad justifica las opiniones contradictorias entre sus críticos y dota a Carter de una peculiar forma de producir un feminismo alternativo

"Germany is the home of the family": a criticism of gender roles in Katherine Mansfield's "In a German Pension"

The present article departs from the concept of “mimicry” or “masquerade”, theorised by such feminist critics as Joan Rivière (1929), Luce Irigaray (1985), or Mary Ann Doane (1991). This implies that women deliberately assume the feminine style and posture assigned to them within patriarchal discourse with a subversive rather than merely imitative intention by means of what Gèrard Genette calls “saturation”. In particular, this study focuses on Katherine Mansfield’s satire of gender stereotypes in Germany. Through this mimicry, Mansfield aims to prove that such stereotypes go beyond national boundaries and affect the people of different countries similarly—in this case Germany and England. The selected texts are two short stories included within her early collection In a German Pension (1911): “The Modern Soul” and “Germans at Meat”.El presente artículo parte del concepto de “imitación intencionada” o “mascarada”, teorizado por críticas feministas tales como Joan Rivière (1929), Luce Irigaray (1985) o Mary Ann Doane (1991). Este concepto implica que las mujeres asumen deliberadamente un estilo y poses femeninos que les son asignados dentro del discurso patriarcal, pero con una intención subversiva en lugar de meramente imitativa por medio de la exageración que Gèrard Genette denomina “saturación”. En particular, este estudio se centra en la sátira de los estereotipos de género en Alemania que Katherine Mansfield lleva a cabo a través de su imitación intencionada para demostrar que éstos transcienden las fronteras geográficas y afectan del mismo modo a distintos países, en este caso Alemania e Inglaterra. Los textos seleccionados son dos relatos cortos incluidos dentro de la colección temprana de Mansfield In a German Pension (1911): “The Modern Soul” y “Germans at Meat”

Femininity and vampirism as a close circuit: “The Lady of the House of Love” by Angela Carter

Ponencia presentada en las VIII Jornadas de Estudios de la Mujer, Facultad de Filología, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 12-14 de marzo de 2007.In her fiction, Angela Carter systematically presents an artificial notion of femininity that has to be overcome by women in order to fulfill themselves. In line with poststructuralist feminists, Carter aims to prove that, as Luce Irigaray states (84), “‘femininity’ is a role, an image, a value, imposed upon women by male systems of representation. In this masquerade of femininity, the woman loses herself, and loses herself by playing on her femininity”. Not surprisingly, Carter herself questions “the nature of my own reality as a woman. How that social fiction of my ‘femininity’ was created, by means outside my control, and palmed off on me as the real thing” (“Notes” 70). Once you realise that this role is artificially constructed, that “you’re not simply natural, you really need to know what’s going on” (“Interviewed” 189). Carter endeavours to show that femininity is a dark construction that imprisons women and turns them into living dead creatures. In her story “The Lady of the House of Love” —included in her collection The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories (1991), but first published in The Iowa Review (1975)— she uses the motif of the Queen of vampires together with gothic elements as powerful devices to display the artificial life of femininity and its dark side. Carter’s question in the story is whether it is possible for women to escape from this role and find freedom

"The Daughters of the Late Colonel": feminine temporality in Katherine Mansfield’s Short Fiction

Comunicación presentada en: 8th Int. Conference on the Short Story in English, Alcalá de Henares, 2004This paper explores the close relation between the modern short story and Julia Kristeva’s concept of “Women’s Time”. Departing from her distinction between “men’s time”—historical and linear—and “women’s time”—cyclical, repetitive, and eternal—and fine-tuning this terminology to avoid certain biologism (I propose “masculine and feminine temporality”), I connect the epiphany as the organising principle of the modern short story with Kristeva’s women’s time. Thus, this genre becomes a perfect receptacle to expose the cultural construction of femininity and its confusion with female identity. The second step is to illustrate this theoretical premise with the textual analysis of a story by Katherine Mansfield: “The Daughters of the Late Colonel” (1920). While Kristeva sees feminine temporality as a realm that allows women to express themselves and achieve a form of eternity, I show Mansfield’s strategic use of this time to condemn the limitation and exploitation of women by patriarchal society. Mansfield’s intention is to display the negative connotations of this temporality for women, who are obliged to accept it with its routine, frustration, and marginality

Forget Madonna: the many metamorphoses of Kylie Minogue, showgirl and survivor

Actas del 33 Congreso Anual de la Asociación Española de Estudios Anglo-Norteamericanos (AEDEAN), Cádiz 12-14 noviembre 2009.American pop star Madonna is the female performer that has received more academic attention within Cultural Studies in the last twenty years. The main issue discussed in relation to her is whether her very successful, provocative, phallic persona —the embodiment of her rigid control over her own career— presents a valid alternative to stereotyped femininity. In contrast, Australian pop princess Kylie Minogue —whose music career already spans 20 years— has been practically ignored by academia due to the generalised perception that she represents precisely the kind of bland femininity that Madonna challenges. This paper argues from a Cultural Studies perspective that, far from being easy to dismiss, Kylie Minogue is a relevant female performer whose public persona is also connected to pertinent gender issues. It is our belief that the insistence on finding subversive alternatives to traditional femininity —as represented by Madonna— has negatively affected the understanding of femininity itself. Minogue proves with her sustained career and professionalism that femininity does not necessarily have to be phallic in order to be successful and that it is too often unfairly identified with weakness. We argue this thesis by analysing Showgirl, the tour that Minogue had to interrupt due to the breast cancer she was diagnosed with in 2005, and the revised version of this tour after her cancer recovery in 2007, Showgirl Homecoming, together with White Diamond (2007), the documentary on the impact of her illness on the show. In them Minogue comes across as a committed, metamorphic artist and as a tough survivor with much to offer as a role model to women who wish to be both professionally successful and feminine

A tail made of girls. Undergraduate students' rewritings of classical myths

This volume collects a selection of stories written by 76 students from the elective course Gender and Literature in English—Degree in English Studies, University of Granada (Spain)—since 2013 (seven academic courses). The stories are free rewritings of classical myths from a gender perspective and prove the power of writing beyond the paper, as students recreate fictional scenes that are nurtured by social action and resonate with their own life experiences. This book, edited by Gerardo Rodríguez Salas, is part of a research project funded by Junta de Andalucía and led by Adelina Sánchez Espinosa aimed at implementing responsible teaching laboratories with a gender perspective looking for the interaction of literary and visual cultures as agents in social intervention, with a special focus on issues of memory and gender violence. The collection opens with an unpublished short story by Australian writer Carmel Bird (Patrick White Award, 2016).Este volumen ofrece una selección de relatos de 76 alumnas y alumnos de la asignatura optativa Género y literatura en lengua inglesa del Grado en Estudios Ingleses en la Universidad de Granada. Las historias, aquí recogidas y seleccionadas durante siete cursos académicos, son reescrituras de mitos clásicos desde una perspectiva de género que demuestran el poder de la escritura más allá del papel, puesto que el alumnado recrea escenas ficcionales inspiradas en acciones sociales y en sus propias experiencias vitales. Este libro, coordinado y editado por Gerardo Rodríguez Salas, es parte de un proyecto de excelencia de la Junta de Andalucía (IP: Adelina Sánchez Espinosa) cuyo objetivo es implementar laboratorios de enseñanza responsable con una perspectiva de género. La interacción entre culturas literarias y visuales como motor de intervención social conduce a una atención especial a los temas de memoria y violencia de género, que se reflejan en los relatos seleccionados. Esta colección abre con una historia inédita de la escritora australiana Carmel Bird (Premio Patrick White 2016)