Prof. Yvonne Yarbro-Bejarano
SpanLit 283
T TH 2:15-3:45, 260-012
[email protected]
Stanford University
Spring Quarter 2006
Chicana Feminisms in the Twenty-First Century
Course Description
The plural in the title – Chicana feminisms -- points to one of the major
pedagogical objectives of this metacritically oriented course. We will examine the
diversity and complexity of voicings, approaches, methodologies, theories and
models that in various ways highlight the construction of gender as interwoven
with race and ethnicity, socioeconomic position and sexuality in the lived
experience of Chicanas.
The second half of the title – in the twenty-first century -- indicates that the
course will not offer a chronological survey or history of the development of
Chicana feminist thought from the 1970s to the present. Instead, a selection of
recent critical work published since 2002 illustrates a wide variety of disciplinary
methodologies and subjects, including performance, film, music, ethnography,
visual art, literature, popular culture and autobiographical essay. The creative
work dates mostly from the 1990s. Issues of representation remain of
fundamental importance in both social science and humanities texts.
While we will not study the classic Chicana feminist texts of the 1970s,
1980s, or 1990s per se, we will be interested in how the selected readings exist in
dialogical relationship with what has come before, in particular the paradigm
shift of the 1980s that emphasized a relational model of multiple identity and the
salience of sexuality. Given the far-reaching contributions of Chicana lesbian
writers in the 1980s, a given in our work together will be sustained attention to
sexuality, heterosexism, and homophobia.
Through the metacritical and comparative interdisciplinary component of
the course we will seek to understand how the disciplinary location of Chicana
feminist critics shapes the research project, the questions posed, and the
relationship to earlier Chicana feminist thought.
The course opens with an alternating dynamic between current scholarship
on 1970s Chicana gender/sexual politics and research on or writings by
contemporary Chicanas. Themes include resistance, activism and social
movements; the family; power relations in the institutions, lives and scholarship
of Chicanas; issues of the U.S. Mexico border; and language.
Requirements
1. Midterm paper 25%
One 5-7 page typed, double-spaced midterm paper (8-10 pages for graduate
students), due Thursday, May 4, on any of the texts or topics studied in this
course. You may develop and expand the midterm paper into the final paper,
elaborating on the topic and incorporating additional research. I do not accept
papers by email unless by prior arrangement.
2. Final paper.
40%
One final 8-10 page paper (15-20 pages for grads) on any of the texts or topics
studied in this course, due by 5pm on Tuesday, June 13. Please leave it in the box
outside my door.
3. Presentations
25%
a) Select and discuss an image from the Chicana Art database, for Tuesday,
May 16.
b) Presentation of your final paper, comprised of a summary of your main
points, for June 1 and June 8.
4. Attendance, punctuality and participation.
10%
Additional requirements for graduate students:
1. Graduate students will be responsible for presenting the readings for one class
session (your choice). Besides identifying major concepts and points in the
readings, your responsibility is to share questions, insights and critiques to
stimulate discussion. Try to develop your own focused, original argument that
goes beyond each text (i.e. do not merely summarize the readings).
2. Presentation (30 min. including discussion) on a research project related to
Chicana feminisms, for Tueday, May 9, or Thursday, May 25. This may be a topic
you are already developing in another context.
Required Texts
Keep in mind that you might find less expensive copies of these books online (e.g.
alibris.com or abebooks.com). All required books including the reader will be on
reserve. Additionally, required as well as recommended films and most of the
books containing articles that are in the reader will be on reserve. These options
are particularly applicable to Woman Hollering Creek.
Gabriela F. Arredondo et al. eds. Chicana Feminisms: A Critical Reader. Duke
University Press, 2003.
Rosa Linda Fregoso. meXicana Encounters: The Making of Social Identities on the
Borderlands. University of California Press, 2003.
Marie “Keta” Miranda. Homegirls in the Public Sphere. University of Texas Press,
2003.
Sandra Cisneros. Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories. Vintage, 1991.
Field Copy Course Reader (650) 323-3155
Recommended Text
Sandra Cisneros. The House on Mango Street. Vintage, 1991.
(This book, while not required, is highly recommended for students who have not
read it within the last five years and is widely available at local bookstores and
online.)
Online resources (for visual art component)
Chicana Art digital archive (Insight/Luna database). Please download right
away.
http://library.stanford.edu/depts/hasrg/hdis/insight.html
This version requires OS X on Macs. If you have any problems, please
contact Glen Worthey directly (gworthey@)
Chicana and Chicano Contemporary Art, electronic component
http://www.latinoartcommunity.org
Syllabus and Reading Schedule (R) indicates the reading can be found in the
course reader. All films are to be viewed outside class.
I. Interrogating the Beginnings
4/4 Introduction
4/6 Maylei Blackwell, “Contested Histories: Las Hijas de Cuauhtémoc, Chicana
Feminisms, and Print Culture in the Chicano Movement, 1968-1973” in Chicana
Feminisms. 59-89.
Anna NietoGomez,” Response: Chicana Print Culture and Chicana
Studies: A Testimony to the Development of Chicana Feminist Culture” in
Chicana Feminisms. 90-96.
II. Young Chicanas’ Self-Fashioning Then and Now
4/11 Aída Hurtado, “The Research Context,” “Chicanas Speak Feminisms,” and
“Conclusions and Ruminations” from Voicing Chicana Feminisms: Young Women
Speak Out on Sexuality and Identity. 1-36; 198-219; 271-311; 317-318; 332-334; 340.
(R)
4/13 Dionne Espinoza, “Tanto Tiempo Disfrutamos . . . “: Revisiting the Gender
and Sexual Politics of Chicana/o Youth Culture in East Los Angeles in the 1960s”
from Velvet Barrios: Popular Culture and Chicana/o Sexualities. Ed. Alicia Gaspar de
Alba, 89-106. (R)
Cristina Tzintzún, “Colonize This!”; Stella Luna, “HIV and Me: The
Chicana Version”; Cecilia Ballí, “Thirty-Eight” from Colonize This! Young Women
of Color on Today’s Feminism. Eds. Daisy Hernández and Bushra Rehman. 17-28;
71-84; 182-200. (R)
III. Social Identities Structured in Dominance
4/18 Rosa Linda Fregoso, Chapter One, “Toward a Planetary Civil Society” and
Chapter Three, “Gender, Multiculturalism, and the Missionary Position on the
Borderlands” in meXicana Encounters. 1-29, 49-70, 171-179, 182-184.
Films: Señorita extraviada (Missing Young Woman), dir. Lourdes Portillo
(2001, 76 min. English and Spanish with English subtitles)
Lone Star, dir, John Sayles (1997, 135 min.)
4/20 Rosa Linda Fregoso, Chapter Four, “The Chicano Familia Romance;
Chapter Five, “Familia Matters,” and Chapter Six, “’Fantasy Heritage’: Tracking
Latina Bloodlines” in meXicana Encounters. 71-125, 184-192.
Films: My Family, dir. Gregory Nava (1995, 121 min.)
Mi vida loca, dir. Alison Anders (1994, 100 min.)
Recommended films: . . . and the Earth Did Not Swallow Him, dir. Severo
Pérez (1994, 99 min.)
Star Maps, dir. Miguel Arteta (1997, 90 min.)
Luminarias, dir. José Luis Valenzuela (1999, 100 min.)
IV. Intercultural/racial Tensions: Film and the Academy
4/25 Edén E. Torres, Chapter Four, “Desire on the Line” from Chicana without
Apology/Chicana sin vergüenza: The New Chicana Cultural Studies. 99-128; 129-144;
196-198. (R)
Film: El jardín del Edén (Garden of Eden), dir. María Novaro (2001, 104 min.
English subtitles)
4/27 Edén E. Torres, Chapter Five, “The Virtues of Conflict.” Chicana without
Apology/Chicana sin vergüenza. 99-128; 129-144; 196-198. (R)
V. Sexuality and Space
5/2 Patricia Zavella, “Talkin’ Sex: Chicanas and Mexicanas” in Chicana
Feminisms. 228-253.
Catrióna Rueda Esquibel, “Memories of Girlhood: Chicana Lesbian
Fictions” from With Her Machete in Her Hand: Reading Chicana Lesbians. 91-127. (R)
Highly recommended: Sandra Cisneros, The House on Mango Street.
5/4 Mary Pat Brady. “Introduction” and “Sandra Cisneros’s Contrapuntal
‘Geography of Scars’” from Extinct Lands, Temporal Geographies: Chicana Literature
and the Urgency of Space. 1-12; 111-136; 207-211; 229-236. (R)
Sandra Cisneros, “Mericans,” “Tepeyac,” “One Holy Night,” “My Tocaya,”
“Remember the Alamo,” “Bread,” “Anguiano Religious Articles Rosaries Statues.
. .,” “Little Miracles, Kept Promises,” and “Woman Hollering Creek” from Woman
Hollering Creek.
Guest: Sandra Cisneros
Midterm Paper Due
VI. Performance and Visual Art: What Is a Chicana Feminist Image?
5/9 Discuss Cisneros visit and Brady reading Olga Nájera-Ramírez, “Unruly Passions: Poetics, Performance, and Gender
in the Ranchera Song” in Chicana Feminisms. 184-210.
Laura Gutiérrez, “Deconstructing the Mythical Homeland: Mexico in
Contemporary Chicana Performance” from Velvet Barrios: Popular Culture and
Chicana/o Sexualities. Ed. Alicia Gaspar de Alba. 63-74. (R)
Graduate student presentations
5/11 Laura E. Pérez, “Writing on the Social Body: Dresses and Body
Ornamentation in Contemporary Chicana Art” from Decolonial Voices: Chicana and
Chicano Cultural Studies in the 21st Century. Arturo J. Aldama and Naomi H.
Quiñonez, eds. 30-63. (R)
Amalia Mesa-Bains, “Domesticana: The Sensibility of Chicana
Rasquachismo” in Chicana Feminisms, 298-315.
Jennifer González, “Response: Invention as Critique: Neologisms in
Chicana Art Theory” in Chicana Feminisms, 316-323.
5/16 Student presentations (Chicana Art database)
VII. Co-Discursive Partnership and Representation: Gender, the Street and the
Academy
5/18 Marie “Keta” Miranda, “Representation and the Public Sphere,” “An
Ethnographer’s Tale,” “Mediating Images: It’s a Homie Thang!” and “Affinity and
Affiliation” in Homegirls in the Public Sphere. 1-6, 21-104.
5/23 Marie “Keta” Miranda, “Cross-Sites for Cross-Talks,” “Dialoguing
Difference,” and “Frequently Asked Questions” in Homegirls in the Public Sphere.
105-173.
Guest: Keta Miranda
VIII.
5/25 Wrap up Miranda visit and book
Graduate student presentations
Michelle Habell-Pallán, “‘No Cultural Icon: Marisela Norte and Spoken
Word—East L.A. Noir and the U.S.-Mexico Border” from Loca Motion: The Travels
of Chicana and Latina Popular Culture. 43-80(R)
Marisela Norte, “976 LOCA” from Recent Chicano Poetry/Neueste ChicanoLyrik. Ana Castillo and Heiner Bus, eds. 106-127. (R)
5/30 Popular Culture: Gender, Sexuality and Language
Catrióna Rueda Esquibel, “Velvet Malinche: Fantasies of ‘the’ Aztec
Princess in the Chicana/o Sexual Imagination” from from With Her Machete in Her
Hand: Reading Chicana Lesbians. 42-65. (R)
View before class: Ixta (1999) by Alma López (available at
<http://www.almalopez.net/digital/digital.html>)
Deborah R. Vargas, “Cruzando Frontejas: Remapping Selena’s Tejano
Music ‘Crossover’” from Chicana Traditions: Continuity and Change. Eds. Norma E.
Cantú and Olga Nájera-Ramírez. 224-236. (R)
Corpus: A Home Movie for Selena, dir. Lourdes Portillo (1998, 47 min.)
Recommended: Selena, dir. Gregory Nava (1998, 128 min.)
X.
Student Presentations
6/1 and 6/6
6/13
Final Papers Due