Chica lit : popular Latina fiction and Americanization in the twenty-first century / Tace Hedrick.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hedrick, Tace, 1954- author.

Series:

Latino and Latin American profiles

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Latin American literature--Women authors--History and criticism.

Latin American literature.

Identity (Psychology) in literature.

Ethnicity in literature.

Americanization.

Latin American literature--Women authors.

Physical Description:

xiv, 139 pages ; 22 cm.

Place of Publication:

Pittsburgh, Pa. : University of Pittsburgh Press, [2015]

Summary:

Chica Lit illuminates how discourses of Americanization, ethnicity, gender, class, and commodification shape the genre of "chica lit," popular fiction written by Latin authors with Latina characters. Tace Hedrick argues that its stories about ethnic class mobility and gendered romantic success tend to celebrate neoliberal narratives of hard work and individual success. However, its focus on Latina characters necessarily inflects this celebratory mode. Chica lit also struggles with questions about the actual social and economic place of Latinas in the same neoliberal landscape; these questions unsettle its reliance on the formulas of chick lit and romance writing. Looking at chica lit's market-driven representations of difference, poverty, and Americanization, Hedrick shows how this writing functions within the larger arena of struggles over popular representation of Latinas and Chicanas. -- cover

Contents:

Acknowledgments

Preface, what's a girl to do when...?

Introduction, a regular American life

1. Genre and the romance industry

2. Class and taste, is it the poverty?

3. Latinization and authenticity

Conclusion, not even the Mexicans

Notes

Works cited

Index

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 129-135) and index (pages 137-139)

ISBN:

0822963655

9780822963653

OCLC:

914184436