“Guiding a Community:” unworking community in Sandra Cisneros’ "The house on Mango Street"

The present study revises communitarian boundaries in the fiction of Chicana writer Sandra Cisneros. Using the ideas of key figures in post-phenomenological communitarian theory and connecting them with Anzaldúa and Braidotti’s concepts of borderland and nomadism, this essay explores Cisneros’ contr...

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Author: Rodríguez Salas, Gerardo
Format: article
Status:Published version
Publication Date:2014
Country:España
Institution:Universidad de Sevilla (US)
Repository:idUS. Depósito de Investigación de la Universidad de Sevilla
OAI Identifier:oai:idus.us.es:11441/31889
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/11441/31889
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:Community
Cisneros
Chicano literature
Immanence
Transcendence
Comunidad
Literatura chicana
Inmanencia
Transcendencia
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spelling “Guiding a Community:” unworking community in Sandra Cisneros’ "The house on Mango Street"Rodríguez Salas, GerardoCommunityCisnerosChicano literatureImmanenceTranscendenceComunidadLiteratura chicanaInmanenciaTranscendenciaThe present study revises communitarian boundaries in the fiction of Chicana writer Sandra Cisneros. Using the ideas of key figures in post-phenomenological communitarian theory and connecting them with Anzaldúa and Braidotti’s concepts of borderland and nomadism, this essay explores Cisneros’ contrast between operative communities that crave for the immanence of a shared communion and substantiate themselves in essentialist tropes, and inoperative communities that are characterized by transcendence or exposure to alterity. In The House on Mango Street (1984) the figure of the child is the perfect starting point to ‘unwork’ (in Nancy’s terminology) concepts such as spatial belonging, nationalistic beliefs, linguistic constrictions, and gender roles through a selection of tangible imagery which, from a female child’s pseudo-innocent perspective, aims to generate an inoperative community beyond essentialist tropes, where individualistic and communal drives are ambiguously intertwined. Using Cisneros’ debut novel as a case study, this article studies the female narrator as embodying both a community of one and Cisneros’ search for an intellectual Chicano community.El presente estudio revisa las fronteras comunitarias de la ficción de la escritora chicana Sandra Cisneros. Partiendo de presupuestos comunitarios postfenomenológicos y conectándolos con los conceptos de frontera y nomadismo de Anzaldúa y Braidotti, este ensayo explora el contraste que se da en Cisneros entre comunidades orgánicas que buscan la inmanencia a través de una comunión entre sus miembros y de la elaboración de etiquetas esencialistas, y comunidades inorgánicas, caracterizadas por la transcendencia o la exposición a la alteridad. En “The house on Mango Street” (1984) la figura de la niña es el punto de partida perfecto para “desobrar” (en palabras de Nancy) conceptos como la territorialidad, el nacionalismo, las constricciones lingüísticas y los roles de género a través de una selección de imágenes tangibles que, desde la perspectiva pseudo-inocente de una niña, pretende generar una comunidad inorgánica más allá de cualquier esencialismo, donde las fuerzas individualista y comunitaria se entrelazan ambiguamente. Partiendo de la novela arriba indicada como caso de estudio, este artículo estudia la figura de la narradora como representante a la vez de la voz individual y de la búsqueda de una comunidad chicana intelectual en Cisneros.Universidad de Sevilla2014info:eu-repo/semantics/articleinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersionapplication/pdfapplication/pdfhttp://hdl.handle.net/11441/31889reponame:idUS. Depósito de Investigación de la Universidad de Sevillainstname:Universidad de Sevilla (US)InglésRevista de Estudios Norteamericanos, 18, 47-59http://institucional.us.es/revistas/estudios/18/3.%20rodr%C3%ADguez%20rev.pdfinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessoai:idus.us.es:11441/318892026-06-17T12:51:07Z
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv “Guiding a Community:” unworking community in Sandra Cisneros’ "The house on Mango Street"
title “Guiding a Community:” unworking community in Sandra Cisneros’ "The house on Mango Street"
spellingShingle “Guiding a Community:” unworking community in Sandra Cisneros’ "The house on Mango Street"
Rodríguez Salas, Gerardo
Community
Cisneros
Chicano literature
Immanence
Transcendence
Comunidad
Literatura chicana
Inmanencia
Transcendencia
title_short “Guiding a Community:” unworking community in Sandra Cisneros’ "The house on Mango Street"
title_full “Guiding a Community:” unworking community in Sandra Cisneros’ "The house on Mango Street"
title_fullStr “Guiding a Community:” unworking community in Sandra Cisneros’ "The house on Mango Street"
title_full_unstemmed “Guiding a Community:” unworking community in Sandra Cisneros’ "The house on Mango Street"
title_sort “Guiding a Community:” unworking community in Sandra Cisneros’ "The house on Mango Street"
dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv Rodríguez Salas, Gerardo
author Rodríguez Salas, Gerardo
author_facet Rodríguez Salas, Gerardo
author_role author
dc.subject.none.fl_str_mv Community
Cisneros
Chicano literature
Immanence
Transcendence
Comunidad
Literatura chicana
Inmanencia
Transcendencia
topic Community
Cisneros
Chicano literature
Immanence
Transcendence
Comunidad
Literatura chicana
Inmanencia
Transcendencia
description The present study revises communitarian boundaries in the fiction of Chicana writer Sandra Cisneros. Using the ideas of key figures in post-phenomenological communitarian theory and connecting them with Anzaldúa and Braidotti’s concepts of borderland and nomadism, this essay explores Cisneros’ contrast between operative communities that crave for the immanence of a shared communion and substantiate themselves in essentialist tropes, and inoperative communities that are characterized by transcendence or exposure to alterity. In The House on Mango Street (1984) the figure of the child is the perfect starting point to ‘unwork’ (in Nancy’s terminology) concepts such as spatial belonging, nationalistic beliefs, linguistic constrictions, and gender roles through a selection of tangible imagery which, from a female child’s pseudo-innocent perspective, aims to generate an inoperative community beyond essentialist tropes, where individualistic and communal drives are ambiguously intertwined. Using Cisneros’ debut novel as a case study, this article studies the female narrator as embodying both a community of one and Cisneros’ search for an intellectual Chicano community.
publishDate 2014
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 2014
dc.type.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
format article
status_str publishedVersion
dc.identifier.none.fl_str_mv http://hdl.handle.net/11441/31889
url http://hdl.handle.net/11441/31889
dc.language.none.fl_str_mv Inglés
language_invalid_str_mv Inglés
dc.relation.none.fl_str_mv Revista de Estudios Norteamericanos, 18, 47-59
http://institucional.us.es/revistas/estudios/18/3.%20rodr%C3%ADguez%20rev.pdf
dc.rights.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
eu_rights_str_mv openAccess
dc.format.none.fl_str_mv application/pdf
application/pdf
dc.publisher.none.fl_str_mv Universidad de Sevilla
publisher.none.fl_str_mv Universidad de Sevilla
dc.source.none.fl_str_mv reponame:idUS. Depósito de Investigación de la Universidad de Sevilla
instname:Universidad de Sevilla (US)
instname_str Universidad de Sevilla (US)
reponame_str idUS. Depósito de Investigación de la Universidad de Sevilla
collection idUS. Depósito de Investigación de la Universidad de Sevilla
repository.name.fl_str_mv
repository.mail.fl_str_mv
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score 15.300719

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