The Crafting of the Self in Private Letters and the Epistolary Novel
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Florida International University FIU Digital Commons FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations University Graduate School 11-8-2016 The rC afting of the Self in Private Letters and the Epistolary Novel: El hilo que une, Un verano en Bornos, Ifigenia, Querido Diego, te abraza Quiela, and Cartas apócrifas Angelica A. Nelson Florida International University, [email protected] DOI: 10.25148/etd.FIDC001250 Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd Part of the Latin American Literature Commons, Modern Languages Commons, Modern Literature Commons, Spanish Literature Commons, and the Women's Studies Commons Recommended Citation Nelson, Angelica A., "The rC afting of the Self in Private Letters and the Epistolary Novel: El hilo que une, Un verano en Bornos, Ifigenia, Querido Diego, te abraza Quiela, and Cartas apócrifas" (2016). FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 2975. https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/2975 This work is brought to you for free and open access by the University Graduate School at FIU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of FIU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY Miami, Florida THE CRAFTING OF THE SELF IN PRIVATE LETTERS AND THE EPISTOLARY NOVEL: EL HILO QUE UNE, UN VERANO EN BORNOS, IFIGENIA, QUERIDO DIEGO, TE ABRAZA QUIELA, AND CARTAS APÓCRIFAS A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in SPANISH by Angelica Alicia Nelson 2016 To: Dean John F. Stack, Jr. Green School of International and Public Affairs This dissertation, written by Angelica Alicia Nelson, and entitled The Crafting of the Self in Private Letters and the Epistolary Novel: El hilo que une, Un verano en Bornos, Ifigenia, Querido Diego, te abraza Quiela, and Cartas apócrifas, having been approved in respect to style and intellectual content, is referred to you for judgment. We have read this dissertation and recommend that it be approved. _______________________________________ Renée Silverman _______________________________________ Erik Camayd-Freixas _______________________________________ Kathleen M. McCormack _______________________________________ Maida Watson, Major Professor Date of Defense: November 8, 2016 The dissertation of Angelica Alicia Nelson is approved. _______________________________________ Dean John F. Stack, Jr. Green School of International and Public Affairs _______________________________________ Andrés G. Gil Vice President for Research and Economic Development and Dean of the University Graduate School Florida International University, 2016 ii DEDICATION I dedicate this dissertation to my husband Robert Thomas Nelson. His patience and unfailing support, through many days and nights of doubt, gave me the reassurance I needed to complete the long journey. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Miss Angelica cuentame tus alegrías y tus penas escríbeme no seas ingrata con tu Lila So begins a letter I received from my grandmother in 1965. Maria Luisa, or Lila, as the grandchildren called her, inspired me to investigate actual letters and epistolary novels written by women. I was stymied on what topic to focus on in my dissertation until I came across the large number of extant letters I inherited from my mother, Francisca Ramírez. The prolific letter writing between my grandmother and mother began when my mother took the first step to leave Durango, Dgo. Mexico for a better life in the United States. Lila’s letters helped to maintain the connecting thread broken only by my grandmother’s death. My grandmother’s constant letter writing included an on-going correspondence with her grandchildren. This epistolary exchange enabled us to preserve our Mexican heritage. The majority of the letters are written between my grandmother and mother, but I also found letters to my father (Juan Saltigerald), my tío Manuel, my tía Carmen, and others with whom she communicated. Once I began to read the correspondence, I realized the importance of letters in discovering another ‘self’ or another side of the coin hidden from family members and only exposed to the recipient. After I decided to attend Florida International University in fall 2013 to pursue my doctorate, I know I could not have survived without the friendships of three wonderful individuals: Frank Otero-Luque, Claudia Battistel, and Genesis Portillo. Their unquestioning support while I ventured down this precarious journey in search of a doctorate degree was invaluable. I cannot forget Linda González from the University of iv New Mexico. We began the master’s program at UNM in 2008 and have remained friends, encouraging each other in our endeavors. I would also like to thank the members of my dissertation committee: Renée Silverman, Erik Camayd-Freixas, and Kathryn McCormack. The responsibility I imposed upon them lay heavily on my shoulders and served as the motivation to finish in a timely manner. A special acknowledgment goes to my major professor, Maida Watson. This dissertation could not have been completed without her unflagging support. She was the needle that helped thread the actual letters and the epistolary novels into a coherent body of work. It was her persistence through her many emails, text messages, and the re-readings of my chapters, that kept me on track. I am forever grateful for her support, otherwise I would have returned to New Mexico sans my PhD. The financial support I received from the Department of Modern Languages through their teaching assistantships since Fall 2013 and the Summer 2016 Doctoral Evidence Acquisition Award were invaluable towards fulfilling my dream. v ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION THE CRAFTING OF THE SELF IN PRIVATE LETTERS AND THE EPISTOLARY NOVEL: EL HILO QUE UNE, UN VERANO EN BORNOS, IFIGENIA, QUERIDO DIEGO, TE ABRAZA QUIELA, AND CARTAS APÓCRIFAS by Angelica Alicia Nelson Florida International University, 2016 Miami, Florida Professor Maida Watson, Major Professor The inherent flexibility of the letter form or epistolary mode of writing frees the writer within the framework of salutations and closings to use vocabulary and language to create, to omit or to invert conventional constraints imposed on women by a patriarchal society. The letter begins as a blank page but becomes the space for writing one’s personal thoughts and emotions to the absent other in a communicative effort to minimize the separation. This dissertation examines the female narrator in actual letters written during the Spanish emigration to the New World in the sixteenth century and four epistolary novels written by female authors during the nineteenth- and twentieth centuries. The female “I” emerges in the selected texts and attests to the writer’s ability to inhabit her own writing space. By applying Mikhail Bakhtin’s theory of dialogism and Janet Altman’s formal approach to the epistolary novel, the epistolary and literary textual creations by women writers challenge the silence and traditional anonymity generally assigned to women. I vi explore the cultural enculturation of the transgressive female who loses her “self”, her very being because of her inability to conform to societal norms as outlined by Barbara Creed and Elaine Showalter. In addition, I apply ideas from Linda Kauffman’s study on the transformation of the female writer who metamorphoses from victim to artist through the use of pen and paper. The female ‘self’ crafted by each of the letter writers is studied as they narrate their space, exercise agency, and negotiate the conflicts and contradictions of their domestic and public space. The epistolary, whether actual or fictional, becomes a textual creation challenging the silence and traditional anonymity assigned to women. The letter, when used as a literary device, is the perfect vehicle to create a narrator who controls his or her own life’s narrative. The writer constructs an implicit recipient linking the addressee and engages the reader in an absorbing story. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................. 1 1. El hilo que une: The rhetorical strategies of sixteenth-century women from the Old World to the New World .................................................................................................. 13 2. Un verano en Bornos: Fernán Caballero and the unconscious subversion of a conservative voice ............................................................................................................ 37 3. Ifigenia: transformation, indoctrination and distortion of María Eugenia ................... 78 4. Querido Diego, te abraza Quiela . from victim to artist ......................................... 108 5. Cartas apócrifas: Gloria Guardia’s double voice and desire for discourse ................. 134 CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................. 155 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................... 160 VITA .............................................................................................................................. 168 viii INTRODUCTION The inherent flexibility of the letter form or epistolary mode frees the writer within the framework of salutations and closings to use vocabulary and language to create, to omit or to invert conventional