Document Type
Article
Publication Date
3-2019
Keywords
survival, narrative, violence, borderlands, Western
Abstract
This article analyzes Chicana feminist texts to frame a discussion of survival as a theoretical concept. Using Emma Pérez’s historical novel Forgetting the Alamo, Or, Blood Memory as a window into the decolonial imaginary, I introduce the concept of survival narrative as a framework for analysis of Chicana literature, and briefly review Chicana feminist theory to support the argument. Examples from Perez’s novel illustrate the power of the survival narrative to advance a decolonial perspective. The novel reinscribes mainstream representations of gender violence that characterize the traditional Western by focusing on the empowerment that comes from solidarity amongst women and storytelling as central to cultural survival in the borderlands.
Repository Citation
Santos, Adrianna M., "Surviving the Alamo, Violence Vengeance, and Women’s Solidarity in Emma Pérez’s Forgetting the Alamo, Or, Blood Memory" (2019). English Faculty Publications. 1.
https://digitalcommons.tamusa.edu/engl_faculty/1
Included in
Chicana/o Studies Commons, English Language and Literature Commons, Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons, Latina/o Studies Commons
Comments
Originally published in:
Santos, A.M. (2019), Surviving the Alamo, Violence Vengeance, and Women’s Solidarity in Emma Pérez’s Forgetting the Alamo, Or, Blood Memory, The Journal of Latina Critical Feminism, 2 (1), 37-49. Retrieved from: https://www.journallcf.org/