The will to heal : psychological recovery in the novels of Latina writers / Felicia Lynne Fahey.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Fahey, Felicia Lynne, 1967-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Spanish American fiction--Women authors--History and criticism.

Spanish American fiction.

Spanish American fiction--Women authors.

Spanish American fiction--20th century--History and criticism.

Healing in literature.

Physical Description:

xix, 212 pages ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Albuquerque : University of New Mexico Press, 2007.

Summary:

For the past three decades, Latin American and Latina women writers have used autobiography, fiction, and a blend of the two genres to address the psychological struggle to heal from both personal and political traumas. Felicia Fahey focuses on six fictional autobiographies as literary representations of psychological recovery: Alina Diaconu's El penultimo viaje/The penultimate journey (1989), Manuela Fingueret's Hija del silencio/Daughter of Silence (2000), Luisa Valenzuela's La travesia/The Crossing (2001), Sara Sefchovich's Demasiado amor/Too Much Love (1991), Laura Restrepo's Dulce compania/The Angel of Galilea (1995), and Ana Castillo's The Mixquiahuala Letters (1989).

These novels are presented in two groups. Diaconu, Fingueret, and Valenzuela explore the psychological effects of the Argentine Dirty War of 1976 to 1983, while Sefchovich, Restrepo, and Castillo examine more general socio-cultural issues of politics and gender in Mexico, Columbia, and the United States. This literature, authored by and about women, reveals the uncertain journey of the protagonist who, in order to heal life's wounds, faces the forbidden and painful territory of the autobiographical process and the consequences for the individual and community that this interior journey has.

Contents:

Lifting the weight of terror : disembodiment in Alina Diaconú's El penúltimo viaje

Surviving terror : mourning loss in Manuela Fingueret's Hija del silencio

Going home : returning from exile in Luisa Valenzuela's La travesía

(Un)romancing Mexico : sexual healing in Sara Sefchovich's Demasiado amor

Crossing with an angel : spiritual cure in Laura Restrepo's Dulce compañía

No way home : traumatic returns in Ana Castillo's The Mixquiahuala letters.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 195-207) and index.

ISBN:

9780826328557

0826328555

OCLC:

123955147