Voices, Discourse and Identity in Chicano Narrative

Year 2006, Issue: 23, 95 - 103, 01.04.2006

María José García Vizcaíno

Abstract

In this essay I analyze the different narrative voices and ways of presenting characters’ speech and thought in Chicano fiction. The corpus of data used is from Sandra Cisneros’ novels: The House on Mango Street 1984, 19911 , Woman Hollering Creek 1991 and Caramelo 2002 and the theoretical framework applied is the ‘new stylistics’ approach proposed first by Fowler 1975 and developed later by Leech and Short 1981 , Fowler 1986 and Simpson 1993 . This approach basically consists of applying techniques and concepts of modern linguistics to the study of literature Leech & Short 1981: 1 . In particular, with this analysis I demonstrate how narrative techniques evolve in complexity as Cisneros’ novels emerge over time, specifically, how narrative voices and discourse presentations in her fiction run parallel to one of the key concepts in Chicano literature: identity conflict.

References

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