Oshun's daughters : the search for womanhood in the Americas / Vanessa K. Valdés.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Valdés, Vanessa Kimberly.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Women and literature--America.

Women and literature.

Yoruba (African people) in literature.

African diaspora.

Women in literature.

Cuban literature--Women authors--History and criticism.

Cuban literature.

Brazilian literature--Women authors--History and criticism.

Brazilian literature.

Yoruba (African people)--Cuba.

Yoruba (African people).

Brazilian literature--Women authors.

Cuban literature--Women authors.

Cuba.

Yoruba (African people)--Brazil.

Literature.

Women.

America.

Brazil.

Genre:

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Physical Description:

x, 209 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Albany : State University of New York Press, [2014]

Summary:

Oshun's Daughters examines representations of African diasporic religions from novels and poems written by women in the United States, the Spanish Caribbean, and Brazil. In spite of differences in age, language, and nationality, these women writers all turn to variations of traditional Yoruba religion (Santería/Regla de Ocha and Candomblé) as a source of inspiration for creating portraits of womanhood. Within these religious systems, binaries that dominate European thought-man/woman, mind/body, light/dark, good/evil-do not function in the same way, as the emphasis is not on extremes but on balancing or reconciling these radical differences. Involvement with these African diasporic religions thus provides alternative models of womanhood that differ substantially from those found in dominant Western patriarchal culture, namely, that of virgin, asexual wife/mother, and whore. Instead we find images of the sexual woman, who enjoys her body without any sense of shame; the mother, who nurtures her children without sacrificing herself; and the warrior woman, who actively resists demands that she conform to one-dimensional stereotypes of womanhood. Book jacket.

Contents:

Introduction: The call: hearing the flow of the river

Diasporic revelation: Audre Lorde, Sandra María Esteves, and Ntozake Shange

The search for home: Cristina García and Loida Maritza Pérez

Love, revolution, survival: Nancy Morejón and Daína Chaviano

Sacrifice and salvation: Helena Parente Cunha, Sônia Fatima da Conceição and Conceição Evaristo

Conclusion: The response: reflections in the mirror.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781438450438

1438450435

OCLC:

847529117