Introduction

Abstract

Welcome to Boob lit! The following chapters have some interesting information for you: Chapter 1 examines the three archetypes that influence Mexican women; Chapter 2 shows that Rosario Castellanos champions asexuality and refuses the lesbian subject that attracts her; Chapter 3 looks at diva-lectual women writers, such as Antonieta Rivas Mercado, Guadalupe Amor, and Elena Garro, who flaunt the difference of the feminine in their performances, which leads to career disaster; Chapter 4 notes that Elena Poniatowska, performer extraordinaire of the female beard, resembles Wonder Woman in criticism about her work, while her predecessors better fit the image of Catwoman; and Chapter 5 proposes that Guadalupe Loaeza’s place in literary criticism is analogous to that of the Barbie doll. Clearly, these approaches do not supply solutions or answers so much as they explore the difficulty of writing criticism truly sympathetic to the feminine. In response to this difficulty, a spirit of perversity guides this book. Although I write in rational critical style for the benefit of accessible communication, I also wish to read perversely and value the improper and unreasonable. Hence, an inherent incongruity between method and motive plagues my text.¹

To become a professional reader of literature is to learn what not to say.

Rita Felski (32)