"Somos feas, pero estamos aquí"

: Estrategias de resistencia y supervivencia de la mujer en el Haití (pos)colonial en La Isla bajo el mar de Isabel Allende y Breath, Eyes, Memory de Edwidge Danticat

Samenvatting

This paper intends to explore Chilean born writer Isabelle Allende’s recently published La isla bajo el el mar (2009) alongside Edwidge Danticat’s debut novel Breath, Eyes, Memory (1994), both set in (post)colonial Haiti. Although a comparative study between these two novels is not self-evident considering the two auther’s different social and racial backgrounds, the first part of the study that deepens on their literary trayectory, received criticism and thematic interests, acknowledges their common grounds in terms of literary preoccupations. The second part of the study focusses on specific common themes and concepts, such as syncretic religion, the use of stereotypical characterizations and the need to break historical silences. The problematic of coloured women’s sexual oppression in (Central)America, histories of migration and patriarchic politics are somehow dealt with in Allende’s historical novel and Danticat’s Bildungsroman, but tend, however, not to entirely victimize their young female protagonists, as they rather seek to celebrate Haitian’s women’s ability to resist, survive, and strive for self-empowerment, against all odds.

Datum prijs	2015
Originele taal	Spanish
Begeleider	Diana Castilleja (Promotor)