Of virgins, curanderas, and wrestler saints
Subtitle: un/doing religion in contemporary Mexican American literature
By: Alexia Schemien
Series: Inter-American studies : cultures, societies, history = -- Estudios interamericanos : culturas, sociedades, historia -- volume 21; Inter-American studies -- v. 21.
Publisher: WVT, Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier; Bilingual Press / Editorial Bilingué
Published: 2018
Place of publication: Trier; Tempe, AZ
Language: eng
Number of pages: 204
ISBN-13: 9781939743220; 9783868217247
Subjects: American fiction; Mexican American authors; History and criticism; Mexican American fiction (Spanish); American literature; Religion in literature; Spirituality in literature; Mexican Americans in literature; Identity (Psychology) in literature; Atzlán; Chicanos; Mexikaner; Religion; Roman; Spiritualität
Description: "Virgins, home altars, curanderas, and saints -- Mexican American literature is replete with religious symbols. This study investigates the literary engagement with religious and spiritual practices in contemporary Mexican American narrative texts. It raises the question to what extent religion underlies other discourses on race, gender, and class"--
Notes: Includes bibliographical references.
Table of contents: title: Introduction; title: 2. Spiritual borderlands; title: 2.1. Border and inter-American studies; title: 2.2. A brief history of the spiritual borderlands; title: 2.3. Creating a cultural and literary Aztlán; title: 2.4. Doing religion: politics and discourses; title: 3. Spirituality and gender; title: 3.1. Ana Castillo's feminist vision in The guardians; title: 3.2. Of weeping women and curanderas: Graciela Limón's The river flows North; title: 3.3. Of wrestlers and saints: María Amparo Escandón's Esperanza's box of saints; title: 4. Spirituality, homeland and ancestry; title: 4.1. An American saint: Luis Alberto Urrea's The hummingbird's daughter; title: 4.2. Of gothic tales and spiritual ancestry: Carmen Tafolla's "Tía"; title: 5. Post-spirituality and undoing religion; title: 5.1. Richard Rodriguez's Darling: a post-spiritual autobiography?; title: 5.2. A cosmos of its own: Salvador Plascencia's The people of paper; title: Conclusion.