This house is not a home: Familial conflict, negotiation, and bargaining in Rosario Ferré’s the house on the Lagoon
Article
Karshmer, E. (2015). This house is not a home: Familial conflict, negotiation, and bargaining in Rosario Ferré’s the house on the Lagoon
. 28(2), 162-177.
Karshmer, E. (2015). This house is not a home: Familial conflict, negotiation, and bargaining in Rosario Ferré’s the house on the Lagoon
. 28(2), 162-177.
Instead of offering support and affection, family and marital relationships in Rosario Ferré’s novel The House on the Lagoon are fraught with the pitfalls of business negotiations. Husbands and wives, brothers and sisters, and parents and children constantly vie for the upper hand in order to succeed both socially and within the established family structure that governs all relationships within the novel. An interesting reading of these relationships and how negotiations affect and reshape them employs the idea of social exchange theory, a psycho-social concept that helps explain the downfall of the Mendizabál clan.
