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Date of Award

12-2020

Document Type

Restricted Thesis: Campus only access

Degree Name

Master of Arts in English Composition

Department

English

First Reader/Committee Chair

Pak, Yumi

Abstract

Since its increased popularity and wider acceptance into the literary canon in the 1908s and 90s, Latinx American Literature has made strides to illustrate the realities of the development that women theorists of color have imagined for American society. In addition to this development of the field, Latinx authors have taken on the unconventional but important perspective of the adolescent woman, a voice and viewpoint that has not been widely examined. This project explores the ways in which adolescence provides a unique perspective into the eyes of Latinx individuals and allows for the conception of societal advancements because of that unique perspective. The adolescent viewpoint is an increasingly popular perspective to study due to the political agendas tied to adolescence, namely the DACA initiative set forth by the Obama administration, which puts adolescents in a position of some societal advancement, whereas previously opportunities were sparse and unattainable for Latinx undocumented individuals.

This project illustrates the development of the Latinx woman protagonist and positive societal change that theorists such as Gloria Anzaldúa and Cherríe Moraga envisioned in the 1980s and 90s for women in the field as well as women of color in society, through the close examination of four novels: The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros (1984), How the Garcia Girls Lost their Accents by Julia Alvarez (1991), The Book of Unknown Americans by Cristina Henriquez (2015) and The Education of Margot Sanchez by Lilliam Rivera (2017).

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