Fashioning Feminism in Cuba and Beyond

Though open public discussion of the oppression of women was precluded by the nature of Hispanic societies during the nineteenth century, some Hispanic women - among them the Cuban writer Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda - subtly sought to promote ideas of emancipation. Focusing upon her autobiographical letters and a selection of her novels, and drawing on contemporary psychoanalytical feminist theory, this book traces the evolution of Avellaneda's feminism, showing how she developed a series of narrative techniques and stylistic resources to explore male and female self-representation, and subvert the existing textual tradition. Fashioning Feminism in Cuba and Beyond establishes Avellaneda at the forefront of both Cuban and Hispanic nineteenth-century literature and feminist thought.