The Female Body: Perspectives of Latin American Artists [Hardcover]

Including both narratives and visual texts by and about Latina women, Amador G?mez-Quintero and P?rez Bustillo address the question of how women represent themselves. Utilizing paintings, novels, photographs, memoirs, and diaries this work examines the depiction of the female body in 20th-century creative expression. From writers such as Julia Alvarez and Christina Garcia to artists including Frida Kahlo and Ana Mendieta, it provides both a broad outline and a finely detailed exploration of how a largely overlooked community of creative women have seen, drawn, photographed, and written about their own experience.

The authors discuss women as both agent and subject of artistic representation often comparing both fictional and nonfictional versions of the same woman. Not only do they analyze Elena Poniatowska'sDear Diego, which centers on artist Angelina Beloff, but they also analyze Beloff's own memoirs. Continuing in this style, they make further comparisons between Frida Kahlo'sDiaryand visual images of her body. Connections such as these are what make their work not merely an articulation of imagery but an explanation of ideas.

RAYSA E. AMADOR G?MEZ-QUINTERO, is an Associate Professor of Spanish Language and Literature, and Director of the Latin American Program at Adelphi University. She is the author ofUna Aproximaci?n Hist?rica a los Comentarios Reales.

MIREYA P?REZ BUSTILLO is an Associate Professor of Spanish at the College of New Rochelle, and a University Associate at New York University. She is the author ofCarreras: Casos en la ComunidadandLa P?cara y la Dama.

Preface
Introduction
Constructing the Self: The I of the Novel: Elena Poniatowska's Quiela (Dear Diego), and Tina (Tin?sima)
Contrasting Selves: The Novel and the Memoir: Poniatowska's Dear Diego and Angelina Beloff's Memorias
Transforming the Gaze: The I of the Camera: Tina Modotti's Photographs
Dissecting the Self: lÓ?