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- Language: Spanish
- Creators: Garcia-Fernandez, Carlos J
- Creators: Cerron-Palomino, Alvaro
Description
In the first thirty years of the XX century, an old literary visual tradition was reborn in a series of new striking visual texts better known as calligrams. They were produced by some avant-garde poets such as Vicente Huidobro, José Juan Tablada, Alberto Hidalgo and Carlos Oquendo de Amat in Latin America, and Juan Larrea, Guillermo de Torre, Francisco Vighi, Luis Mosquera, and others in Spain. However, with few exceptions, the interpretation of those written drawings has caught little attention from literary critics. This research, contrasted to that of Willard Bohn's, is a contribution to the deciphering of such literary art form, designated here as the figurative visual poem. It is a proposal for its visual reading which draws from the fact that this type of text is concretely a drawing formed by written verses. As such, it can be regarded as a plastic writing, combining pictorial and verbal signs in one perceptible configuration on the page. The result of this semiotic operation is a hybrid product in which the iconic forms become symbolic and vice versa. It is in fact, an art object which should be approached as a text that can be seen as well as read. The study leads to the conclusion that Willard Bohn misreads the order in which language and image are articulated in the visual poem identified with the second order semiological system proposed by Roland Barthes, placing preeminence on language over image. This results in reading the avant-garde visual figurative poem in an ekphrastic fashion. Consequently, the role of the image in the system is left in an ambiguous realm at the time of deciphering this hybrid text. Our contribution to re-conducting this undertaking has been equally drawn from a semiotic stance taken from Louis Hjemslev that balances language and image as correlates of a semiotic function. Due to the signaling nature of both, language and figure, a visual poem becomes an iconic metaphor as well as a metaphoric icon, and moreover a self-referential sign, thus justifying its status of an autonomous art.
ContributorsSuarez, Nelson M (Author) / Acereda, Alberto (Thesis advisor) / Volek, Emil (Committee member) / Garcia-Fernandez, Carlos J (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
The magical realism writing movement involved blurring the line between reality and fantasy. It takes reality and portrays its otherwise seemingly mundane elements as magical ones. This allows the writer the opportunity to faithfully represent reality itself as magical without creating a barrier between the reality and fantasy. In my thesis, I will implement these elements of magical realism, while also attempting to blur the line between the physical plane and the narrative. This will allow me, the writer, to center on the emotions I want to convey through my characters, while also allowing the reader to create a unique experience of their own.
ContributorsRodriguez Romero, Yused Valentina (Author) / Minardi, Enrico (Thesis director) / Fontinha de Alcantara, Christiane (Committee member) / Department of Finance (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2021-05
Description
In the study of politeness in Spanish there are some speech acts that have received more attention, such as requests, apologies, invitations and negotiations. In the case of the of congratulation, there is only one published work by García about congratulation by Peruvian Spanish-speakers. This thesis is a first approximation to the study of realization of the speech act of congratulation in Colombian Spanish. The Brown and Levinson model is used for the study of preferences in the strategies of politeness, and the Scollon and Scollon model for the notion of deferential and solidarity politeness. The Blum Kulka et al. model is used for the classification of the categories of principal head acts and supportive moves in the speech acts of congratulation. The following results were found in answer to the basic hypothesis of the research: The Colombians in this sample have positive politeness when giving congratulations and manifest it with such solidarity strategies as pride and approval, expressions of gratitude and support, and they also give the congratulation in an explicit manner. To a lesser degree they request information and make direct criticism. The data analysis shows a 95% certainty in the differences found between men and women. Nevertheless, the differences between younger and older people or between young women and young men are not statistically significant and only show tendencies. In order to corroborate the finding of this research, it is necessary to have a larger sample in terms of the educational level of the participants. Also, the sample should be broader in terms of gender and age, so as to verify if the difference between younger and older people continues being a tendency or if there is a statistically significant difference. To generalize the term Colombian, other regions of the country should be included, especially the contrast between the Andean, Coastal, and Plains regions which are culturally different within the country.
ContributorsVélez Trujillo, Victoria Eugenia (Author) / García Fernandez, Carmen (Thesis advisor) / Cerron-Palomino, Alvaro (Committee member) / Elorrieta, Jabier (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
The presence of two copula verbs (ser and estar) in Spanish has caused a semantic competition between the two. This semantic competition has been documented from the XII century (Vañó-Cerdá, 1982). Some scholars (Brown & Cortés-Torres, 2012; Cortés-Torres, 2004; Gutiérrez, 1992; Ortiz-López, 2000; Silva-Corvalán, 1994) have demonstrated the presence of this competition in which estar has been occupying structures traditionally reserved for ser in different Spanish varieties. This study investigates the extent to which the extension of estar to contexts previously limited to ser is present in the Spanish of Puerto Rico in adjectival structures (copula + adjective). The investigation analyzed 21 Puerto Rican Spanish speakers, who completed five different instruments (interview, description of a picture, 2 questionnaires and grammar judgment). Nine of the participants completed the five tasks and the other 12 completed the 2 questionnaires. A multi-variable and qualitative analysis were employed to examine the linguistics (class or individual frame of reference, copulas the adjective allows, animacy, susceptibility to change, and type of adjective) and social factors (sex, age, level of education, and bilingualism) that favor the phenomenon. The results showed that type of adjective, copulas the adjective allows, susceptibility to change, and type of questionnaire favored the innovative use of estar. Both analyses showed a clear tendency of the linguistics factors that favor the innovative use of estar. The results of this study concur with previous studies (Cortés-Torres, 2004; Gutiérrez, 1992; Ortiz-López, 2000; Silva-Corvalán, 1994) about the phenomenon in other monolingual and bilingual Spanish dialects. This study confirms Puerto Rican Spanish follows the internal change tendency in Spanish language about the uses of ser and estar. The use of different instruments for data collection provides a clear view of the phenomenon in Puerto Rican Spanish. The use of questionnaires with confirmed estar predictors shows that some adjectives resist the phenomenon more; even with the perfect conditions for the use of estar, the participants did not allowed its use.
ContributorsNegrón Medina, Melissa (Author) / Cerron-Palomino, Alvaro (Thesis advisor) / Lafford, Barbara (Committee member) / Shepherd, Michael (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
Durante el siglo XIX, y hasta la primera mitad del siglo XX, Europa fue el escenario de una emigración masiva hacia las Américas. En ese mismo siglo, numerosos países de lo que posteriormente sería América Latina y el Caribe lograban sus independencias y se ostentaban como naciones libres. Lugares como Brasil y Cuba, donde anteriormente la principal fuerza laboral estaba compuesta por esclavos, fueron algunos de los principales destinos en la emigración europea. Esta investigación se enfoca en las fotografías de tres archivos que documentaron tanto la emigración, como la inmigración, en este contexto geopolítico y que actualmente forman parte de proyectos de humanidades digitales relacionados con la memoria y la identidad. Estos son el archivo iconográfico del Museu da Imigração do Estado de São Paulo , la Biblioteca Digital Hispánica de la Biblioteca Nacional de España y la Memoria Digital del Principado de Asturias . La hipótesis es que las imágenes de estas fotografías pueden estar contribuyendo para fomentar y/o reforzar un discurso colonialista basándose en la imagen del blanco/europeo en las Américas integrados en proyectos de nación decimonónicos y que forman parte de narrativas fundacionales.
Para este análisis, construyo una mirada a partir de la teoría decolonial, la cual propone desvincularse de las bases eurocéntricas del poder que llegaron con el colonialismo, así como de la lógica de la modernidad y otras epistemologías basadas en estos principios. Esta mirada es consciente de los afectos y la forma en la cual estos operan en el cuerpo, así como de la conformación de sociedades afectivas. A partir de esta mirada, es posible determinar cómo la historia oficial construyó narrativas que siguen perpetuando mecanismos de poder basados en una estética imperialista.
Los estudios sobre la migración hacia América Latina y el Caribe se han consolidado como un importante medio para extender e incentivar el diálogo sobre las conformaciones identitarias y su repercusión en la cultura. Actualmente, con el surgimiento de nuevas formas de comunicación y expresión cultural en plataformas electrónicas, resulta oportuno, si acaso necesario, analizar el posible impacto de las imágenes utilizadas en la virtualidad, cómo son vistas, cómo se presentan y bajo qué narrativas están insertas. Más aún, ¿cómo afectan emocionalmente a las sociedades afectivas?
ContributorsLagarda Lopez, Czarina (Author) / Johnson, Christopher (Thesis advisor) / Bezerra, Ligia (Committee member) / Garcia-Fernandez, Carlos J (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023
La literatura de quiosco y las escritoras: la novela corta escrita por mujeres en España (1900-1936)
Description
ABSTRACT
Research into the state of literature in the beginning years of the 20th century in Spain shows an absence of women’s voices. A logical conclusion, that women had no interest in written expression during the years of 1900-1936 in Spain, has shown itself to be completely false. Suffering under the pressure of unfair civil laws, the power of the patriarchy and the influence of the Church (“the angel of the house”), women were living in a world of silence. The lack of writings by women erases women from the historical memory in Spain and creates a literary emptiness. After researching in the shops of antique dealers and second-hand book shops of Spain, a large variety of kiosk literature written by women is revealed, exposing a substantial quantity of short novels intended for a women’s audience. Applying various literary theories such as feminism, queer theory, Marxism and deconstructionism, the literary value of these novels emerges and is worthy of being studied and included in the literary canon of Spain. In order to demonstrate the intrinsic cultural and literary value, an analysis of 9 novels written by 6 women whose literary talents had not as yet been recognized, was undertaken. The six women authors-heroins for their revolutionary literary expression- are: Magda Dontao (La carabina, Las otras dos), Sara Insúa (Salomé de hoy, La llama de Bengala ), Regina Opisso (Mi honor…!qué importa!), Angela Graupera (En las garras del hombre, Como las abejas) and Federica Montseny (Vampiresa). These novels, sold in kiosks across Spain, serve as the literary voices of women at that time that expressed the repressive condition of Spanish women, and which need to be included in the literary landscape of Spain. ABSTRACTO
Examinar la literatura de los albores del siglo XX en España pone de manifiesto una ausencia de voces femeninas. Una conclusión lógica de esta ausencia, de que las mujeres no tenían ningún interés en la expresión escrita entre los años 1900 y 1936 en España, se demuestra a lo largo de esta disertación completamente equivocada. Presionadas por códigos civiles injustos, el poder del patriarcado y las influencias de la Iglesia (“el ángel del hogar”), las mujeres parecían vivir en un mundo de silencio. La falsa escasez de textos escritos por mujeres las borra del mundo literario. Sin embargo, después de algunas búsquedas en los almacenes de los anticuarios y librerías de segunda mano en España, una gran variedad de literatura de quiosco—un modo novedoso de difusión literaria que rompe con las normas tradicionales de circulación de textos—en forma de novelas cortas escritas por mujeres para lectoras principalmente femeninas, se hace accesible para el investigador. Al analizar estas obras a la luz de varias teorías críticas contemporáneas como el feminismo, la teoría queer, el marxismo y la deconstrucción, se pone de manifiesto el valor de dichos textos durante el periodo estudiado. Es decir, la ausencia de autoras se debe a un fallo del canon, basado en la ideología patriarcal, y no a la ausencia de autoras y obras con un intrínseco valor literario, social y didáctico. En esta disertación se analizan 9 novelas escritas por 6 mujeres de este período—heroínas por su expresión literaria revolucionaria— son: Magda Dontao (La carabina, Las otras dos), Sara Insúa (Salomé de hoy, La llama de Bengala), Regina Opisso (Mi honor…!qué importa!), Ángela Graupera (En las garras del hombre, Como las abejas) y Federica Montseny (Vampiresa). Estas novelas, vendidas en los quioscos de España durante las primeras décadas de siglo XX, sirvieron como ejemplos literarios de las voces de las mujeres que existieron en aquellos años que expresaron la condición represiva de las mujeres españolas y que merecieron ser incluidas en el panorama literario español.
ContributorsMartino Jr, Albert Thomas (Author) / Urioste-Azcorra, Carmen (Thesis advisor) / Tompkins, Cynthia M (Committee member) / Garcia-Fernandez, Carlos J (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022
Description
ABSTRACT
This interdisciplinary study examines the linguistic strategies that determine perception of female representation in Peruvian feminist narrative during the late XIX century. It uses as reference narratives that are considered representatives of the literary tendencies of Latin América feminine trajectory. The feminine subject was studied in two novels of Mercedes Cabello de Carbonera: Los amores de Hortensia (1886) and Blanca Sol (1889). The novels were selected with the aim of capturing the evolution and the development of the female characters as self-realizing subjects.
The theoretical framework is led by the speech act philosophy of John Austin, John Searle, and Victoria Escandell Vidal. The feminist literary theory is guided by the feminist principle of Judith Butler, Luce Irigaray and Julia Kristeva that relates to the development of female subjectivity; by Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar, and Virginia Woolf that reveals the dynamics of women’s creativity.
Through a close analysis of the speech acts, the research demonstrates that the female characters used their tactics to complain and request on their attempts to uproot the hegemonic normative social structures. The speech acts are presented as key instrument for a better understanding of the complex mechanisms of language, through which the feminist ideology of the nineteenth century is transmitted and reproduced. Within feminist theory the purpose is to show how the performative nature of language can be applied to the concept of power as subversive resistance. While the evolution of the female protagonists through the different spaces they move were traced, the investigation’s central idea that envisions the feminine subject as a process, was also examined.
After comparing and contrasting the portrayal of the protagonists, a thematic analysis was performed to capture the intricacies of meaning within the discourse. The analysis suggests that female representation in literature can be reexamined through historical, political, and socio-economic contexts, as well as through verbal expression.
Mainly, the comventional norms that limited women to some social places and that oblige them to maintain proper conducts did not silence them entirely, as we can observe in the petitions and complaints that became transcendent acts of defiance.
ABSTRACTO
Este trabajo de investigación interdisciplinario examina las estrategias lingüísticas que condicionan la percepción de la representación femenina y feminista en la narrativa peruana de finales del siglo XIX. El sujeto femenino se ha estudiado en dos novelas de Mercedes Cabello de Carbonera Los amores de Hortensia (1886) y Blanca Sol (1889), éstas se seleccionaron con el objetivo de entender la evolución de los personajes femeninos como sujetos que se auto-realizan.
El marco teórico para este estudio es guiado por la filosofía hermeneútica de John Austin, John Searle y Victoria Escandell que se basan en la naturaleza performativa de las expresiones lingüísticas. El análisis de género se basa en la teoría de Judith Butler Luce Irigaray y Julia Kristeva que se relacionan con el desarrollo de la subjetividad femenina; en la ideología de Sandra Gilbert y Susan Gubar y Virginia Woolf que exponen las dinámicas de creatividad de la escritora.
A través del análisis de los actos de habla, la investigación sugiere que los personajes femeninos usan estrategias de quejas y de pedidos con el intento de eliminar las estructuras sociales hegemónicas. Los actos de habla se presentan como un instrumento necesario para un mejor entendimiento de los mecanismos del lenguaje, por medio de los cuales se transmite la idea feminista del siglo XIX. La teoría feminista tiene como objetivo, explicar cómo la naturaleza performativa del lenguaje se puede adaptar al concepto de poder como resistencia subversiva. Se investiga la idea central de nuestra pesquisa que percibe al sujeto femenino como un sujeto en proceso. Después de comparar y contrastar el perfil de los personajes protagónicos, se lleva a cabo el análisis temático para captar las complejidades del sentido en el discurso. Esta investigación propone que la representación femenina puede ser reevaluada por medio de contextos históricos, políticos y socio-económicos y de expresiones verbales.¬
En general, las normas convencionales del siglo XIX que limitaron a la mujer a ciertas esferas sociales y que requerían de ésta una conducta discreta, no las silenciaron totalmente como se puedo apreciar en los pedidos y quejas que resultaron ser medios trascendentes de actos de desafío.
This interdisciplinary study examines the linguistic strategies that determine perception of female representation in Peruvian feminist narrative during the late XIX century. It uses as reference narratives that are considered representatives of the literary tendencies of Latin América feminine trajectory. The feminine subject was studied in two novels of Mercedes Cabello de Carbonera: Los amores de Hortensia (1886) and Blanca Sol (1889). The novels were selected with the aim of capturing the evolution and the development of the female characters as self-realizing subjects.
The theoretical framework is led by the speech act philosophy of John Austin, John Searle, and Victoria Escandell Vidal. The feminist literary theory is guided by the feminist principle of Judith Butler, Luce Irigaray and Julia Kristeva that relates to the development of female subjectivity; by Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar, and Virginia Woolf that reveals the dynamics of women’s creativity.
Through a close analysis of the speech acts, the research demonstrates that the female characters used their tactics to complain and request on their attempts to uproot the hegemonic normative social structures. The speech acts are presented as key instrument for a better understanding of the complex mechanisms of language, through which the feminist ideology of the nineteenth century is transmitted and reproduced. Within feminist theory the purpose is to show how the performative nature of language can be applied to the concept of power as subversive resistance. While the evolution of the female protagonists through the different spaces they move were traced, the investigation’s central idea that envisions the feminine subject as a process, was also examined.
After comparing and contrasting the portrayal of the protagonists, a thematic analysis was performed to capture the intricacies of meaning within the discourse. The analysis suggests that female representation in literature can be reexamined through historical, political, and socio-economic contexts, as well as through verbal expression.
Mainly, the comventional norms that limited women to some social places and that oblige them to maintain proper conducts did not silence them entirely, as we can observe in the petitions and complaints that became transcendent acts of defiance.
ABSTRACTO
Este trabajo de investigación interdisciplinario examina las estrategias lingüísticas que condicionan la percepción de la representación femenina y feminista en la narrativa peruana de finales del siglo XIX. El sujeto femenino se ha estudiado en dos novelas de Mercedes Cabello de Carbonera Los amores de Hortensia (1886) y Blanca Sol (1889), éstas se seleccionaron con el objetivo de entender la evolución de los personajes femeninos como sujetos que se auto-realizan.
El marco teórico para este estudio es guiado por la filosofía hermeneútica de John Austin, John Searle y Victoria Escandell que se basan en la naturaleza performativa de las expresiones lingüísticas. El análisis de género se basa en la teoría de Judith Butler Luce Irigaray y Julia Kristeva que se relacionan con el desarrollo de la subjetividad femenina; en la ideología de Sandra Gilbert y Susan Gubar y Virginia Woolf que exponen las dinámicas de creatividad de la escritora.
A través del análisis de los actos de habla, la investigación sugiere que los personajes femeninos usan estrategias de quejas y de pedidos con el intento de eliminar las estructuras sociales hegemónicas. Los actos de habla se presentan como un instrumento necesario para un mejor entendimiento de los mecanismos del lenguaje, por medio de los cuales se transmite la idea feminista del siglo XIX. La teoría feminista tiene como objetivo, explicar cómo la naturaleza performativa del lenguaje se puede adaptar al concepto de poder como resistencia subversiva. Se investiga la idea central de nuestra pesquisa que percibe al sujeto femenino como un sujeto en proceso. Después de comparar y contrastar el perfil de los personajes protagónicos, se lleva a cabo el análisis temático para captar las complejidades del sentido en el discurso. Esta investigación propone que la representación femenina puede ser reevaluada por medio de contextos históricos, políticos y socio-económicos y de expresiones verbales.¬
En general, las normas convencionales del siglo XIX que limitaron a la mujer a ciertas esferas sociales y que requerían de ésta una conducta discreta, no las silenciaron totalmente como se puedo apreciar en los pedidos y quejas que resultaron ser medios trascendentes de actos de desafío.
ContributorsAtencia-Oliden, Elizabeth Miriam (Author) / Urioste-Azcorra, Carmen (Thesis advisor) / Cerron-Palomino, Alvaro (Committee member) / Rosales, Jesus (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
Description
The popularity that regional Mexican music has achieved in the last years is impressive. The population increase of Mexican nationals in the United States and the availability to share information via web has increased the popularity of the musical genre, specially the subgenres of música norteña and banda. Regarless of the low economic class that is associated with the subgenres of música norteña and banda, nowadays they are a fundamental asset in the music industry, impart to the high volume of sales and popularity. However, even with a high index of popularity at a multinational level, the world of música grupera, how is categorized for subgenres of banda, música norteña, conjunto and duranguense, there is a low number of feminine artist that participate. The participation of women in the gupera world is very scarce, due to the patriarchal hegemony and machismo that spreads through the subgenres. Because of the low participation of women in the subgenres, they get classified the passive voice. The absence of a strong female representation has caused the expansion of a machista message though the songs implemented in the regional Mexican music. This phenomenon can be clearly appreciated in the songs "El carrito" (n.d.). "Disfruté engañarte" (2013), "La fory fay" (2013) and "Soy un desmadre" (2014). Using the ideology of power of Michel Foucault and complemented with the feminism of Hélène Cixious, the analysis and identification of the marginalized women in this examples can be reached. However, even though there are a low number of feminine artists that participate in the subgenres of música norteña and banda, their success has achieved the distortion of the hegemonic barrier imposed on society. Artist like Jenni Rivera and Los Horóscopos de Durango are some of the few artist that have distorted this socio and cultural hegemony that preexist in regional Mexican music. With the success of their songs, they have created a space of feminine expression against the machista message that marginalizes women, and opens new doors of opportunities for others. All this efforts have the intent to create equality of power in the sphere of regional Mexican music.
ContributorsCórdova, Martín (Author) / Hernández-G., Manuel J (Thesis advisor) / Foster, David W (Committee member) / Garcia-Fernandez, Carlos J (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
Description
Narrativas no-convencionales en cuentistas hispanoamericanos contemporáneos: Iván Thays (Perú), Jorge Volpi y Ricardo Chávez Castañeda (México) y Héctor Libertella (Argentina) se centra en cuentos contemporáneos de autores de diferentes tradiciones nacionales dentro de un marco de tiempo veinticinco años, que convergen en la práctica de las narrativas no-convencionales. Defino narrativa no-convencional como un efecto narrativo controlado e intencional que implícita o explícitamente cuestiona procedimientos o convenciones generalmente catalogados como "realismo" y por lo tanto se desvía de él. Este estudio establece conexiones, afinidades y potenciales diferencias entre los textos del corpus seleccionado, y se enfoca en los procesos por medio de los cuales las narrativas no convencionales se desvían en mayor o menor grado del "realismo".
El marco teórico que utilizo se compone de dos enfoques. Me centro, por un lado, en una área muy reciente de estudios definida como narrativas no naturales, que abarca teorías narratológicas que exponen extrañamiento y experimentación en una variedad de textos literarios y permiten el análisis de la representación del espacio-tiempo de manera innovadora. Por el otro lado, me baso en teorías epistemológicas, complementadas con un enfoque fenomenológico desarrollado por Darío Villanueva, según la cual el lector es capaz de crear una simulación intencional de realismo/antirrealismo interactuando, reconociendo y comparando los sistemas de referencia o esquemas con otros marcos a los que ha tenido acceso anteriormente. Todos los textos despliegan un conjunto de prácticas narratológicas para crear o destruir la ilusión de realismo. Además de poner de relieve la narrativa no-convencional, la disertación enfatiza la narrativa antimimética como uno de los géneros menos explorados dentro de la tradición hispanoamericana.
El marco teórico que utilizo se compone de dos enfoques. Me centro, por un lado, en una área muy reciente de estudios definida como narrativas no naturales, que abarca teorías narratológicas que exponen extrañamiento y experimentación en una variedad de textos literarios y permiten el análisis de la representación del espacio-tiempo de manera innovadora. Por el otro lado, me baso en teorías epistemológicas, complementadas con un enfoque fenomenológico desarrollado por Darío Villanueva, según la cual el lector es capaz de crear una simulación intencional de realismo/antirrealismo interactuando, reconociendo y comparando los sistemas de referencia o esquemas con otros marcos a los que ha tenido acceso anteriormente. Todos los textos despliegan un conjunto de prácticas narratológicas para crear o destruir la ilusión de realismo. Además de poner de relieve la narrativa no-convencional, la disertación enfatiza la narrativa antimimética como uno de los géneros menos explorados dentro de la tradición hispanoamericana.
ContributorsJiménez Salazar, Arturo (Author) / Tompkins, Cynthia (Thesis advisor) / Garcia-Fernandez, Carlos J (Committee member) / Rosales, Jesus (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
Description
Race is a complex system founded on social ideologies that categorize and evaluate human beings into different groups based on their visible characteristics (e.g., skin color) that, according to this notion of race, indicate a person's personal traits (e.g., intelligence). The concept of race has been an integral part of American society since the ratification of the United States Constitution in the late 18th century. Early on, the practice of race within American society established one particular group as the norm: the White Anglo-Saxon Protestant. By the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the distinctions among racial groups essentially came down to "white" and "nonwhite." Consequently, certain social inequalities were bestowed upon those groups that did not fit the model of the dominant "white" group. Autobiographies, especially those from marginalized groups, can serve as an important source of these social disparities since the author is able to recount their own social experiences vis-à-vis racial practices within society. With this in mind, this thesis analyses the concept of race in relation to the personal experiences of two authors through their respective autobiographies: Hunger of Memory: The Education of Richard Rodriguez (1982) by Richard Rodriguez and How Did You Get to Be Mexican?: A White/Brown Man's Search for Identity (1999) by Kevin R. Johnson. The critical work of Paula M. L. Moya, Linda Martín Alcoff, Hazel Rose Markus, George M. Fredrickson, Genaro M. Padilla and others are used as the theoretical framework in the literary analysis of these authors' texts. In summary, the results of this study demonstrate the concept of race as a salient aspect in regards to the ideological formation of each respective author.
ContributorsMancillas, Jorge E (Author) / Rosales, Jesus (Thesis advisor) / Hernández-Gutierrez, Manuel J (Thesis advisor) / Garcia-Fernandez, Carlos J (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014