Bonded by Reading: an Interrogation of Feminist Praxis in the Works of Marcela Serrano in the Light of Its Reception by a Sample of Women Readers
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
BONDED BY READING: AN INTERROGATION OF FEMINIST PRAXIS IN THE WORKS OF MARCELA SERRANO IN THE LIGHT OF ITS RECEPTION BY A SAMPLE OF WOMEN READERS DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Alma B. Kuhlemann, M.A. ***** The Ohio State University 2009 Dissertation Committee: Approved by Professor Laura Podalsky, Adviser Professor Ulises Juan Zevallos-Aguilar ________________________ Professor Ana Del Sarto Adviser Spanish and Portuguese Graduate Program Copyright by Alma B. Kuhlemann 2009 ABSTRACT This dissertation offers a comprehensive study of the fiction of bestselling Chilean writer Marcela Serrano, in order to interrogate her discursive feminist praxis, and to analyze its efficacy in terms of its reception among a sample of women readers by means of a reader-response survey. It is my contention that Serrano’s texts may be described and analyzed as a praxis of consciousness- raising sought through the articulation of a bond of reading between writer and women readers, and among women readers themselves. In order to discern the praxis of awareness allowed for in Serrano’s works, as well as the connections it may generate, mainstream reader-response theories, including those of Wolfgang Iser and Norman Holland, are first outlined, with the intersubjective reading model found in David Bleich serving as a pivot, shifting focus then to specifically feminist reading criticism, as developed by Judith Fetterley, Anne Berggren, Janice Radway, and Patrocinio Schweickart. ii The conceptual tools of Italian feminism of sexual difference, in particular the practice of female genealogy, as discussed by the Milan Women’s Bookstore Collective, Luisa Muraro, and Adriana Cavarero, are presented to inform Serrano’s discursive praxis, as it is articulated in terms of the dynamics of how her female characters’ life stories are narrated, offering women readers models for women-affirming-women interactions, enabling readers to connect with these female characters and their life stories through the deployment of narrative voice, and making visible for them the constraining effects of patriarchal gender roles via instances of intertextuality and genre re-elaboration. As an empirical counterbalance to the more overtly theoretical treatment of Serrano’s fiction, reflections from a sample of women readers of her works are gathered through a survey questionnaire and examined, in order to tap the degree to which such reading can encourage women to construct standpoints of self-definition on the basis of reading bonds, including felt connections with woman writer and female characters, and interactions with other women readers. In light of Serrano’s works and responses to my survey, I derive a critical appraisal of the potential limitations of this discursive praxis in connection with issues of female identity and marginal female subjectivities which are present in Serrano’s writing. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This project could not have even taken off without the encouragement of many people, who supported me in my attempt to place feminist reading theory and practice into what I hope may be a fruitful conversation on the potential for empowerment that bestsellers of the type Marcela Serrano writes might have. I am honored to have had the guidance of Laura Podalsky, whose keen comments helped me to clarify and lay out my argument in writing. I also want to thank Ulises Juan Zevallos-Aguilar and Ana Del Sarto for their willingness to accompany me in this project, and Fernando Unzueta for classes which gave me the insight I needed into the cultural production of nineteenth-century Latin American literary foremothers. My special thanks go to Terrell Morgan, who stepped into the breach and made possible the success of my IRB application. For her kind help with Italian translation, Marie Orton also deserves my appreciation. iv Incorporating women readers’ perspectives in order to complement the more traditional critic-focused research was a major goal of this study. I am therefore very much indebted to the women readers who have offered me their reflections on how the experience of reading can motivate spaces of female self- definition and bonding among women. Without their generous help and thoughtful comments, my work would have remained at a purely theoretical and speculative level. In this connection, I extend my deep gratitude and affection to my dear colleague, friend, and mentor, Mireya Usera, whose prompt, tireless, and exact efforts were instrumental for obtaining access to this group of women readers in Uruguay. My debt is also with Diego Barnabé, who kindly helped me track down the right website to find the transcript for his radio interview with Marcela Serrano in Montevideo, which I particularly treasure, since Diego based his interview on comments and questions for Serrano that he had collected and recorded from listeners who were her readers. Without the help of Almita Cárdenez, my mother, my friend, and always my staunch supporter, contacting Diego would perhaps not have been possible, for she traced him from his former position in Radio El Espectador, to Teledoce Televisora Color, where she was finally able to talk with Diego and arrange matters so that the information I v needed came into my hands. On a more nostalgic, yet quietly reverberating note, I will always be thankful for the love and the smile of Fritz Kuhlemann, my father. To my compañero Tom Stewart, also turned proofreader for this project, goes the deeply felt gratitude and love one can only have for that good-natured friend who cares for and nurtures you and your ideas, day after day, with affection, humor, intelligence, and a great dose of patience, sometimes like a coach at the side of the ring, eyes leveled with those of the boxer, pounding the mat to encourage her to carry on. vi VITA February 24, 1964………………………Born - Montevideo, Uruguay 1988………………………………………Profesor de Educación Media, Especialidad: Inglés (Secondary School English Teacher), Instituto Nacional de Docencia General Artigas, Montevideo 1991………………………………………Traductora Pública en Idioma Inglés (Public Translator for English), Universidad de la República, Montevideo 2001………………………………………Diplom-Übersetzerin für Deutsch und Englisch (Translator for German and English), Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz 2004………………………………………M.A. Spanish (Latin American Literatures and Cultures), The Ohio State University 1999 – 2000………………………………Graduate Teaching Assistant, Louisiana State University 2002 – 2007………………………………Graduate Teaching Associate, The Ohio State University vii PUBLICATIONS 1. Victoria Rodrigo, Francisco Lluna, Alma Kuhlemann, and Beth Stapleton. Narrow Listening Activities: Materiales para los estudiantes. Mason, OH: Thomson Learning Custom Publishing, 2001. ISBN: 0-759-30928-0. 2. Alma B. Kuhlemann, Minerva Vázquez, et al., trans. Apoyo comunitario en salud mental: una guía para implementar programas comunitarios de salud mental en sociedades en desarrollo. Ed. Daniel C. Maltzman Pelta. Montevideo: D. C. Maltzman, 1991. Trans. of Community Suppo rt in Mental Health . Columbus, OH: Ohio Department of Mental Health, 1988. FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field: Spanish and Portuguese viii LIST OF TABLES Table Page 3.1 Translations published to date of the works of Marcela Serrano……… 74 ix TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Abstract…………………………………………………………………………… ii Acknowledgments……………………………………………………………….. iv Vita………………………………………………………………………………… vii List of Tables……………………………………………………………………… ix Chapters 1. Introduction……………………………………………………………… 1 1.1 Prologue……………………………………………………………… 1 1.2 Objectives and Significance of Project…………………………….. 4 1.3 Chapter by Chapter Overview…………………………………….. 7 2. Reader Theory and Developing Bonds of Reading………………….. 12 2.1 Who Responds, and to What?: A Targeted Overview of Reader- Response Criticism………………………………………………….. 12 2.2 Feminist Models of Reading: Striving for Intersubjective Encounters…………………………………………………………… 30 2.3 Motivating an Eclectic Approach to Reader-Response Criticism 46 3. Situating the Fiction of Marcela Serrano……………………………… 51 3.1 The Context of the Nueva Narrativa Chilena ………………………. 51 3.2 The Context of Contemporary Latin American Women Writers of Bestselling Fiction………………………………………….………… 64 3.3 Targeted Overview of Serrano’s Novels………………………….. 75 3.3.1 From Life Stories to Themes, and Vice-Versa..………………. 76 3.3.2 Character Types That Invite and Construct Readership…….. 87 4. Creating a Bond of Reading: An Issue of Female Agency………….. 98 4.1 The Practice of Relationality in Italian Feminism of Sexual Difference……………………………………………………………. 100 4.2 Steering among Issues of Connection and Autonomy: A Navigation Chart for Women Readers in Troubled Waters…… 111 4.2.1 Relating Women’s Life Stories: Models for Female Agency.. 116 x 4.2.1.1 Examining Women’s Lives in Relation to Hegemonic Mandates……………………………………………………. 117 4.2.1.2 Constructing New Avenues towards Standpoints of Female Self-Definition Grounded in Female Sociality…. 133 4.2.2 Narrative Voice and the Creation of Bonds between Women Readers and Female Characters……………………………… 151 4.2.3 Minding the Gap(s): On Opening Spaces for Reflection through Genre Reworking and Intertextuality……………. 163 5. On the Receiving End: Actual Evidence and Potential Implications for the Reading Bond…………………………………………………. 205 5.1 Into the Hands of Readers: A Survey to Tap Bonds of Reading and Female Empowerment………………………………………. 206 5.2 Potential Limitations of