Border Crossings and Transnational Movements in Sandra Cisneros’ Spatial Narratives Offer Alternatives to Dominant Discourse Thesis

(2017). Border Crossings and Transnational Movements in Sandra Cisneros’ Spatial Narratives Offer Alternatives to Dominant Discourse . 10.25148/etd.FIDC001781

thesis or dissertation chair

authors

  • Vallecillo, Raquel D

abstract

  • My study aims to reveal how ideologies, the way we perceive our world, what we believe, and our value judgments inextricably linked to a dominant discourse, have real and material consequences. In addition to explicating how these ideologies stem from a Western philosophical tradition, this thesis examines this thought-system alongside selections from Sandra Cisneros’ Woman Hollering Creek and Caramelo or Puro Cuento. My project reveals how Cisneros’ spatial narratives challenge ideologies concerning the border separating the United States and Mexico, which proves significant as the project of decolonization and understanding of identity formation is fundamentally tied to these geographical spaces. Through the main chapters in this thesis, it is proposed that Cisneros’ storytelling does not attempt to counter fixed ideas of spaces and identity or an alleged objective Truth and single History by presenting a true or better version, but offers alternative narratives as a form of resistance to dominant discourse.

publication date

  • March 30, 2017

keywords

  • Border Studies
  • Borderlands
  • Chicana Literature
  • Deconstructive Ethics
  • Post Colonial Literature
  • Sandra Cisneros
  • border crossings
  • identity
  • nationalism
  • spatial narratives

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)