This essay explores the power dynamics embedded in the construction and perception of spatial environments in the novel The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros. With the help of Henri Lefebvre’s theory of space as a socially constructed phenomenon and practice, this essay argues that the characters’ experience and perception of spaces in the novel including the house and the street are entangled with the dominating forces related to gender, identity and patriarchy in the surrounding society. The essay also argues that the novel apart from revealing these power dynamics, also, through its protagonist Esperanza suggests a new kind of space, an alternative and more just space for the individual and the community. Additionally, this essay also discusses and elaborates on the pedagogical implications of using the novel with a focus on space for upper secondary students. An investigation of how individual and social spaces functions in different ways in the novel provides valuable opportunities for teachers and students to reflect and discuss power relations, social injustices and inequities in their community, and allow them, as the protagonist Esperanza, to imagine alternative and more just spaces.

Treating Sandra Cisneros' The House on Mango Street and Chang-rae Lee's Native Speaker as Erziehungsroman—that is, stories whose coming-of-age process depends on the characters' education—reveals the similar process that both Esperanza Cordero and Henry Park experience as they navigate the 1960s and 1970s American school system. The most important obstacle in Esperanza's and Henry's ability to achieve academically is the contract of vagueness, the tacit agreement between federal education policy and English language learning (ELL) students to misunderstand one another. Differing cultural conceptions of education perpetuate this mutually detrimental relationship between education policy and ELL students, forcing Henry and Esperanza to choose between satisfying the cultural expectations of their ethnic communities and fulfilling the cultural expectations of their schools, a decision which initially appears mutually exclusive. Exacerbated by their school experiences, both Henry and Esperanza go through a process of rejecting and reclaiming their ethnicity as they come to terms with their ethnic identity. That both characters eventually turn to social advocacy as a solution not only to their own educational struggles but also to the ghettoization of their ethnic communities suggests cosmopolitanism as a solution to the constraints of the contract of vagueness, both for Henry and Esperanza and for their ethnic communities.

This dual thesis seeks to explore the implications of socioeconomic class position for the formation of gender and sexual identities. Utilizing social theories of class and gender, I suggest that because a disadvantageous class location frames social relations in terms of privilege and movement, gender and sexual identities are thus similarly conceptualized; effectively, gender performance and sexual behaviors become attached to notions of value and movement. I turn to Sandra Cisneros's The House on Mango Street to think through the nuances of such an argument, highlighting the experiences of foiled characters Sally and Esperanza to realize how classed confines and gendered expectations literally and figuratively shape their understandings of social relations and movement.

My thesis proposes a theory of relational identity development in Chicana literature. Gloria Anzaldua's Borderlands/La Frontera offers an interpretation of Chicana identity that is largely based on historical models and mythology, which many scholars have found useful in interpreting Chicana literature. However, I contend that another text, Sandra Cisneros's The House on Mango Street, not only illustrates the need for an alternative paradigm for considering identity development, but in fact offers such an alternative. I argue that Cisneros shows a model for relational identity development, wherein the individual develops in the context of her community and is not determined solely by elements of myth or genealogy. In questioning the historical paradigm of identity development, I examine three key aspects associated with Chicana identity development: gender, home, and language. Employing the theories of Édouard Glissant, I discuss how individual identity development is better understood in terms of relationships and experience rather than historical models. For Chicanas, the roles of women have largely been interpreted as predetermined, set by the mythic figures La Malinche and La Virgen de Guadalupe. However, Cisneros's work shows that this historical tradition is less fruitful in understanding identity than recognizing individuals' experience in context of their relationships. With this communal understanding established, I question the common associations of home and Chicana identity. I argue that Cisneros challenges our very concept of home as she engages and counters the notions of theorist Gaston Bachelard. The idea of a house is metaphorical, becoming a space of communal belonging rather than a physical structure to separate individuals. Finally, I consider how both spoken and written language contribute to relational identity development. I argue that Cisneros's use of language demonstrates that not only does language provide the means for development within a community, but also the means for creation within that society. The theoretical implications of such a relational identity construct are not only an expansion of what is entailed in Chicana identity, but an invitation for broadening the community of theoretical discussion surrounding Chicana literature.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-04-09T12:28:31Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2014-08-01Bitstream added on 2015-04-09T12:47:16Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 000813883.pdf: 964204 bytes, checksum: 98f0d33499c4b06ce70e2b99bc4bdb99 (MD5) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) / As teorias da memória que compõem o cenário atual sobre o tema da memória abrangem conceitos cujas linhas de pensamento se situam nos extremos: do idealismo platônico à sociologia baseada em quadros sociais. Na ponta sociológica, Maurice Halbwachs, por meio do que ele chama de “quadros sociais vivos do presente”, irá construir a sua teoria da memória coletiva. Relacionando essa memória aos conceitos de memória individual, memória histórica, espaço e tempo, o sociólogo desconstruirá ou reconstruirá alguns conceitos fundamentais da filosofia idealista vigente em sua época. A criação literária, reconhecida pioneira na análise dos fatos humanos, estabelecer-se-á como um campo fértil nos estudos da memória. Entendendo a importância e a relevância do estudo e a ampliação de todos os conceitos em torno dessa temática, este trabalho analisa a representação da memória nas literaturas moderna e contemporânea, partindo da ideia de que, em uma representação de memória construída pelo eu, seja essa representação fictícia ou ficcionalizada, sempre há a presença da sociedade por meio de quadros sociais. Como respaldo teórico, valemo-nos da teoria da memória coletiva e outros escritos relativos à memória que complementam o ponto-de-vista adotado. Para tanto, trabalhamos com as narrativas: Memórias de Lázaro (1952), do baiano Adonias Filho; The House on Mango Street (1984), da norte-americana de origem familiar e cultural mexicana, Sandra Cisneros; e No Fio da Vida: uma Odisséia Açor-Americana (Autobiografia) (2013), do açoriano e professor residente dos Estados Unidos, Francisco Cota Fagundes. Identificando e analisando os quadros de representação da memória dessas narrativas e articulando estes aos elementos da arte da ficção assinalados e trabalhados por Umberto Eco e por James Wood / The memory's theories that form the current scenario about the memory theme are composed by concepts in which areas of thinking are studied from the following extreme points: from platonic idealism to sociology based on social frameworks. Taking into account the sociology viewpoint, Maurice Halbwachs will be the basis of sociological studies due to his theory of collective memory through something that he named of 'social alive pictures from present'. Linking this kind of memory with concepts of individual memory, historical memory, space and time, the French sociologist is designated 'to destroy and rebuild' some fundamental concepts of current idealistic philosophy of his time. The literary creation (a kind of recognized pioneer in analyzing human facts) will be established itself as a good space of memory's study and the Marcel Proust's work will be one of the 'addresses' more visited by researchers of a variety of areas. Thus, considering the importance and the relevance of the study and the increase of all concepts around this subject, this project aims to analyze the representation of memory in modern and contemporary literature, defending the hypothesis that in a representation of memory built by an 'I', we will always find the presence of society through social frameworks. As theoretical base, this project will have the collective memory theory and other works related to the memory that will complement the point of view taken. In order to do this, we identified and analized the memory's representation framework of some narratives: Memórias de Lázaro (1952), written by Adonias Filho; The House on Mango Street (1984), written by Sandra Ciseros, an American but also Mexican descendent; and No Fio da Vida: uma Odisséia Açor - Americana (Autobiografia) (2013), written by Francisco Cota Fagundes, an Azorean and university professor who lives in USA. Identifying and analyzing the narratives’ frameworks representation memory and ...