Voices, Discourse and Identity in Chicano Narrative
In this essay I analyze the different narrative voices and ways of presenting characters’ speech and thought in Chicano fiction. The corpus of data used is from Sandra Cisneros’ novels: The House on Mango Street 1984, 19911 , Woman Hollering Creek 1991 and Caramelo 2002 and the theoretical framework applied is the ‘new stylistics’ approach proposed first by Fowler 1975 and developed later by Leech and Short 1981 , Fowler 1986 and Simpson 1993 . This approach basically consists of applying techniques and concepts of modern linguistics to the study of literature Leech & Short 1981: 1 . In particular, with this analysis I demonstrate how narrative techniques evolve in complexity as Cisneros’ novels emerge over time, specifically, how narrative voices and discourse presentations in her fiction run parallel to one of the key concepts in Chicano literature: identity conflict.
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- Cisneros, Sandra. The House on Mango Street. New York: Vintage Books, 1991.
- Cisneros, Sandra. Women Hollering Creek and other stories. New York: Vintage Books, 1991.
- Cisneros, Sandra. Caramelo or Puro Cuento. New York: Alfred A. Knop, 2002.
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- Leech, Geoffrey N., and Michael H. Short. Style in fiction: A linguistic introduction to English fictional prose. New York: Longman, 1981.
- Madsen, Deborah. Understanding Contemporary Chicana Literature. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2000.
- McCracken, Ellen. “Postmodern Ethnicity in Sandra Cisneros’ Caramelo: Hybridity, Spectacle, and Memory in the Nomadic Text.” Journal of American Studies of Turkey 12 (2000):1-8.
- Moreno, Francisco. “En los orígenes de la novela chicana.” Arena Cultural (2002): 4. Olivares, Julián. “Sandra Cisneros’ ‘The House on Mango Street’ and the Poetics of Space.” Chicana Creativity and Criticism: New Frontiers in American Literature. Ed. María HerreraSobek and Helena María Viramontes. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1996. 160-170.
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- Simpson, Paul. Language, ideology and point of view, London: Routledge, 1993.
- ISSN: 1300-6606
- Başlangıç: 1995
- Yayıncı: -