Acts of Narrative Resistance - Women's Autobiographical Writings in the Americas (Electronic book text)

This exploration of women's autobiographical writings in theAmericas focuses on three specific genres: testimonio, metafiction, and the familysaga as the story of a nation. What makes Laura J. Beard's work distinctive is herpairing of readings of life narratives by women from different countries andtraditions. Her section on metafiction focuses on works by Helena Parente Cunha, ofBrazil, and Luisa Futoranksy, of Argentina; the family sagas explored are by AnaMar a Shua and N lida Pi on, of Argentina and Brazil, respectively; and the sectionon testimonio highlights narratives by Lee Maracle and Shirley Sterling, fromdifferent Indigenous nations in British Columbia. In these texts Beard terms "genresof resistance," women resist the cultural definitions imposed upon them in an effortto speak and name their own experiences. The author situates her work in the contextof not only other feminist studies of women's autobiographies but also thecontinuing study of inter-American literature that is demanding more comparative andcross-cultural approaches.

"Acts of NarrativeResistance "addresses prominent issues in the fields ofautobiography, comparative literature, and women's studies, and in inter-American, Latin American, and Native American studies.