Alternative Forms of the Nation in Women's Fiction

NADIA DER-OHANNESIAN

Revista de Culturas y Literaturas Comparadas

Editorial de la Facultad de Lenguas

Lugar: Córdoba; Año: 2015

1852-4737

he present study explores the construction of the concept of nation in Edwidge Danticat´s The Farming of Bones and Julia Alvarez´s In the Name of Salomé. It is my contention that female narratives construct alternative notions of the nation that defy the rigidity of boundaries around spheres, communities and territories, typical of traditional masculinist constructions of national identity. Danticat´s novel exposes the violence implied in national identities constructed around racial superiority, exclusion, and the exaltation of powerful leaders. Alvarez´s novel places emphasis on the notion of nation as process, the permeability of the public/private limit, and the deterritorialization of national identity.