The Broken Versus the Complete: Representations of the Female Body in Chicana Literature

This thesis will explore how Chicana feminist writers use various representations of women’s bodies to redefine how women’s bodies are traditionally read and understood. Drawing on the intersection of feminist studies and disability studies, I explore how Sandra Cisneros’ House on Mango Street and Reyna Grande’s Dancing With Butterflies challenge traditional dichotomies of the body as either healthy, and whole, or weak and broken. Both texts address the fundamental feminist concern of female bodies and who has control over them. I explore how the two authors include depictions of female power or control of the body that are accompanied with pain, danger, and loss. Cisneros and Grande confront so-called “normative” bodies and “normative” experiences of women by blurring the distinction between female and “disabled” bodies. I explore how Chicana writers engage in rewriting the body as a site of potential strength and tool for challenging normativity. Finally, I look at how embodied experience connects to Anzaldúa’s idea of conocimiento and how this serves a purpose in challenging or resisting forms of oppression.