Author: Lomas, Laura

Source: Comparative American Studies, Volume 6, Number 3, September 2008 , pp. 241-264(24)

Publisher: Maney Publishing

Abstract:

This essay criticizes the historical investment of Martí's readers in a discourse that values conservative, sexually unambiguous femininity and masculinity. The essay grapples with the vituperative register of José Martí's misogyny in order to reveal another version of the American revolutionary. Drawing on one of his earliest feminist critics, Gabriela Mistral, I show how corporeal tropes in Martí's rhetoric betray instances of empathy with emerging alternative practices of femininity and masculinity. Assisted by Mistral's overlooked and overtly gendered critique, this essay limns a tropical Martí — an embodied, sensual, demonumentalized poet who plays with language. In readings of Mistral's several essays devoted to Martí, the essay shows how Mistral's Martí represents an alternative to the heroic masculinism and violent militarism of a longstanding revolutionary American tradition.

Keywords: REVOLUTIONARY; JOSÉMARTÍ; GABRIELA MISTRAL; FEMINIST CRITICISM; GENDER; MASCULINITY; TROPICAL; AMERICAN

Document Type: Research Article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1179/147757008X330221

Publication date: 2008-09-01

More about this publication?

• Editorial Board
• Information for Authors
• Subscribe to this Title
• Information for Advertisers
• Terms & Conditions
• Top artilces
• L&LSpotlight
• Virtual L&L
• ingentaconnect is not responsible for the content or availability of external websites

Related content

• In this: publication
• By this: publisher
• By this author: Lomas, Laura

Website © Publishing Technology. Article copyright remains with the publisher, society or author(s) as specified within the article.

• Terms and conditions
• Privacy policy
• Information for advertisers