Date of Award

5-2006

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

College/School

College of Humanities and Social Sciences

Department/Program

Spanish and Latino Studies

Thesis Sponsor/Dissertation Chair/Project Chair

Marta López-Luaces

Committee Member

Diana Guemarez-Cruz

Committee Member

Edwin M. Lamboy

Abstract

Labyrinths of the Language: Shaping the "I" in Norah Lange and Rosa Chacel's Narrative

Although the Avant-Garde movement spread internationally in the early 1900's, very few women in Spain and Latin America were recognized for their contributions to a new style of prose. The purpose of this thesis is to study the representation of the subject and the fragmentation of the "I" in the narrative of Norah Lange and Rosa Chacel. Both writers were iconoclastic in the use of new forms and influenced the way literature and the arts were perceived in their era. They marked a new beginning to women's writing.

The first chapter examines the interrelations between cultural context, intellectual environments and gender to illustrate the limitations confronted by the writers of this study. The works of Norah Lange and Rosa Chacel gave a unique feminine voice to their respectively male-dominated circles.

The second chapter focuses in the ambiguous and ambivalent role played by the "I". I explore the differences and similarities in two autobiographical novels that deal with childhood: Memorias de Leticia Valle and Cuadernos de infancia.

The third chapter examines the influence of the Avant- Garde art in the Spanish narrative. The study also explores the ways in which visual arts become an integral part of the autobiographical works of Rosa Chacel and Norah Lange.

Even though these two writers earned a certain degree of visibility not easily attainable to women of their generation, their work was overlooked in favor of their male counterparts; yet it is in their narrative that they forge a literary identity that has contributed enormously to a new feminine writing in the Spanish and Latin American literature.

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