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{{Infobox Book
{{Infobox Book
| name = Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories
| name = Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories
| image = [[Image:Cisneros.jpg|250px|Front cover]]
| image = [[Image:Cisneros.png|250px|Front cover]]
| image_caption = ''Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories'' first edition cover.
| image_caption = ''Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories'' first edition cover.
| author = [[Sandra Cisneros]]
| author = [[Sandra Cisneros]]
Line 19: Line 19:
}}
}}


⚫
'''''Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories''''' is a book of short stories by renowned [[Chicago]]-based Chicana writer [[Sandra Cisneros]]. The collection reflects Cisneros's multicultural background of being raised in a country which is not quite her own, but is the only one she truly knows. As a reviewer noted, "taken together, these vignettes give a vivid, colorful picture of life on the Texas/Mexico border"<ref>{{Harvnb|Tager|1991|p= 149}}</ref>, with characters "as unforgettable as a first kiss."<ref>{{Harvnb|Moore Campbell|1991|p= 6}}</ref> ''Newsweek'' commended such genuine writing, saying "her feminist, Mexican-American voice is not only playful and vigorous, it's original—we haven't heard anything like it before".<ref>{{Harvnb|Prescott|1991|p=60}}</ref>

⚫
'''''Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories''''' is a book of short stories by renowned [[Chicago]]-based Chicana writer [[Sandra Cisneros]]. The collection reflects Cisneros's multicultural background of being raised in a country which is not quite her own, but is the only one she truly knows. As a reviewer noted, "taken together, these vignettes give a vivid, colorful picture of life on the Texas/Mexico border".<ref>{{Harvnb|Tager|1991|p= 149}}</ref> ''Newsweek'' commended such genuine writing, saying "her feminist, Mexican-American voice is not only playful and vigorous, it's original—we haven't heard anything like it before".<ref>{{Harvnb|Prescott|1991|p=60}}</ref>


==Background==
==Background==


The legend of ''[[La Llorona]]'' (Spanish for "weeping woman") is a ghost story found in [[Mexico]] and [[Texas]]. [[Woman Hollering Creek]], a body of water just off [[Interstate 10 in Texas]], is part of that same myth. As one columnist notes, the premise goes "a beautiful young woman named Maria falls in love and marries a handsome, rich boy, and their union is blessed with two sons and a daughter".<ref>{{Harvnb|Van Ostrand|2008}}</ref> Soon after, the boy loses his affection for his wife. Maria, knowing that her husband doesn't love her, drowns their three children in the river and then herself. Upon reaching heaven, Maria is told that she can not enter until she has found her children. She is sent back to Earth where she wails sorrowfully for her babies. According to legend, any child that happens upon her ghost is pulled into the river and drowned. Other versions of this story are recognized in throughout the world among the Aztecs, the Greek, the Spaniards, and found its way into Cisneros's work.
The legend of ''[[La Llorona]]'' (Spanish for "weeping woman") is a ghost story found in [[Mexico]] and [[Texas]]. [[Woman Hollering Creek]], a body of water just off [[Interstate 10 in Texas]], is part of that same myth. As one columnist notes, the premise goes "a beautiful young woman named Maria falls in love and marries a handsome, rich boy, and their union is blessed with two sons and a daughter".<ref>{{Harvnb|Van Ostrand|2008}}</ref> Soon after, the boy loses his affection for his wife. Maria, knowing that her husband doesn't love her, drowns their three children in the river and then herself. Upon reaching heaven, Maria is told that she can not enter until she has found her children. She is sent back to Earth where she wails sorrowfully for her babies. According to legend, any child that happens upon her ghost is pulled into the river and drowned. Other versions of this story are recognized throughout the world among the Aztecs, the Greek, the Spaniards, and found its way into Cisneros's work.


Amongst the collection of short stories is a chapter with the collection's title of ''Woman Hollering Creek''. Her tale presents a woman who is physically abused by her husband and feels drawn towards the near-by creek, but finds help in two strangers before she is led to do anything drastic. As Patricia Hart, in ''The Nation'', cleverly remarks, "anger repressed bursts the seams of life for Cisneros’ female characters, who struggle valiantly to make something beautiful from the ugly fabric fate has given them to work with".<ref>{{Harvnb|Hart|1991|p= 598}}</ref>
Amongst the collection of short stories is a chapter with the collection's title of ''Woman Hollering Creek''. Her tale presents a woman who is physically abused by her husband and feels drawn towards the near-by creek, but finds help in two strangers before she is led to do anything drastic. As Patricia Hart, in ''The Nation'', cleverly remarks, "anger repressed bursts the seams of life for Cisneros’ female characters, who struggle valiantly to make something beautiful from the ugly fabric fate has given them to work with".<ref>{{Harvnb|Hart|1991|p= 598}}</ref>


Cisneros was born into a family of seven children, her being the only female; which always left her to be singled out on account of her gender.<ref name="madsen106">{{Harvnb|Madsen|2000|p= 106}}</ref> Although there were enough siblings to go around, Cisneros always felt lonely as a child, thus prompting her to begin creating stories to vary the "dull routine of her life".<ref name="madsen106" /> And as such, Madsen notes, "she creates stories, not explanations or analyses or arguments"; which in turn describe her feminist views with "more provisional, personal, emotional, and intuitive forms of narrative".<ref>{{Harvnb|Madsen|2000|p= 109}}</ref>
Growing up in Chicago as a Mexican-American sparked "the convergence of rootlessness and love that shaped [Cisneros's] family's history".<ref>{{Harvnb|Ganz|1994|p= 19}}</ref> Cisneros was born into a family of seven children; she was the only daughter, which always left her to be singled out on account of gender.<ref name="madsen106">{{Harvnb|Madsen|2000|p= 106}}</ref> Although there were enough siblings to go around, Cisneros always felt lonely as a child, thus prompting her to begin creating stories to vary the "dull routine of her life".<ref name="madsen106" /> And as such, Madsen notes, "she creates stories, not explanations or analyses or arguments"; which in turn describe her feminist views with "more provisional, personal, emotional, and intuitive forms of narrative".<ref>{{Harvnb|Madsen|2000|p= 109}}</ref> Madsen goes on to define this "Chicano feminism" as something that "has largely arisen from the need to contest the feminine stereotypes that define machismo, while at the same time identifying and working against the shared class and racial oppression that all chicanos/as....experience." <ref>{{Harvnb|Madsen|2000|p= 108}}</ref>

Although such feminism is the groundwork of many of the stories in ''Woman Hollering Creek'', some critics say that "Cisneros has struggled to give voice to the female body within her feminine writing."<ref>{{Harvnb|Rojas|1999|p= 135}}</ref> She appears to feel more of a connection to her writing than to any male figure in her life; as Prescott notes: "For her, men seem to be a utility that a woman turns on and off as required." <ref>{{Harvnb|Prescott|1991|p= 60}}</ref> Moore Campbell adds to this by observing that Cisneros "uses the behavior of men as a catalyst that propels her [female characters] into a search deep within themselves for the love that men have failed to give them."<ref>{{Harvnb|Moore Campbell|1991|p= 6}}</ref>

==Plot Summary==
Cisneros’ collection of stories, which are more like “verbal photographs, memorabilia, and reminiscences of growing up in a Hispanic milieu "<ref>{{harvnb|Stavans|1991|p= 524}}</ref> are divided into three life stages: "childhood innocence", troubled adolescence; and "turbulent adulthood".<ref>{{harvnb|Rojas|1999|p= 136}}</ref> These stages correspond directly with the titles of the book's three major sections: "My Lucy Friend Who Smells Like Corn", "One Holy Night", and "There Was a Man, There Was a Woman".<ref>{{Harvnb|Madsen|2000|p= 110}}</ref> <blockquote>“Most of the stories include teasing, flirtatious exchanges, joking asides and minor secrets; some make deadly serious revelations. Their digressive and fragmentary nature highlights minor details and experiences, but more importantly it forces the reader to look around, to linger and remember”.<ref>{{harvnb|Brady|1999|p= 120}}</ref></blockquote>

The first section entitled, “My Lucy Friend Who Smells Like Corn”, is comprised of seven vignettes that are like “tiles in a mosaic”.<ref>{{Harvnb|Tager|1999|p= 149}}</ref> These so called tiles “give a vivid, colourful picture of life on the Texas/Mexico border. [...] The stories are often about the romantic dreams of young girls longing to escape stifling small-town life who discover that things are not much different on the other side of the border”.<ref>{{Harvnb|Tager|1999|p= 149}}</ref> The short story, “Eleven”, is about a young girl who ends up “spill[ing] tears of shame over her humiliation by her teacher on her 11th birthday”.<ref>{{Harvnb|Gunst|1991|p= 23}}</ref> In another narrative called “Barbie-Q”, Cisneros “tells us of the unadulterated pleasure two little girls feel when they come upon an unexpected prize”.<ref>{{Harvnb|Gunst|1991|p= 23}}</ref>

The book’s second segment, “One Holy Night”, contains two short narratives focusing on preadolescents and young women who “evince a shared, uneasy awareness that their self-worth depends on a loyalty to Mexico strained, all the same, by the realities of their lives up North”.<ref>{{Harvnb|Steinberg|1991|p= 76}}</ref> The second of the two vignettes entitled “My Tocaya” is “about a friendship between two girls, one of whom disappears and is presumed dead until she appears at the police station, to the surprise of everybody in town”.<ref>{{harvnb|Stavans|1991|p= 524}}</ref>

In her book’s final section entitled, "There Was A Man, There Was A Woman," Cisneros illustrates “the need to join the female body with the political struggle against male oppression.”<ref>{{harvnb|Rojas|1999|p= 136}}</ref> Author and Journalist Jean Wyatt discusses the problem faced by women in “Never Marry a Mexican” and in the title story “Woman Hollering Creek”: these female characters “wrestle with Mexican icons of sexuality and motherhood that, internalized, seem to impose on them a limited and even negative definition of their own identities as women”.<ref>{{harvnb|Wyatt|1995|p= 243}}</ref> The two female protagonists in “Never Marry a Mexican and “Eyes of Zapata” “turn to their bodies in an attempt to make sense of their displaced existences”.<ref>{{harvnb|Rojas|1999|p= 136}}</ref> These women are able to start articulating “their oppression and objectification”<ref>{{harvnb|Rojas|1999|p= 136}}</ref> which in turn reveals “how their identities have been shaped by the ways in which the men they "love" have capitalized on the sexual nature of their relationships”.<ref>{{harvnb|Rojas|1999|p= 136}}</ref> In the end, “their social roles as mistresses become the focal point in their ideological and political struggles for selfhood”.<ref>{{harvnb|Rojas|1999|p= 136}}</ref>

Editor Sybil Steinberg states that “in this sensitively structured suite of sketches, [...] Cisneros's irony defers to her powers of observation, so that feminism and cultural imperialism, while important issues here, do not overwhelm the narrative”.<ref>{{harvnb|Steinberg|1991|p= 76}}</ref>


==Characters==
==Characters==


Cisneros bases most of her cast on stereotypes. As critic Ilan Stavans observes, “The image of Hispanic men, for instance, is grim and depressing: while the guys are always abusive, alcoholic, and egotistical, the girls are naive, doll-like, occasionally in control yet obsessed with how nature transforms itself, how relationships deteriorate, and how people escape their responsibilities to meet a different, although not a better fate.”<ref>{{Harvnb|Stavans|1991|p= 524}}</ref>
Cisneros bases most of her cast on stereotypes. As critic [[Ilan Stavans]] observes, “The image of Hispanic men, for instance, is grim and depressing: while the guys are always abusive, alcoholic, and egotistical, the girls are naive, doll-like, occasionally in control yet obsessed with how nature transforms itself, how relationships deteriorate, and how people escape their responsibilities to meet a different, although not a better fate.”<ref>{{Harvnb|Stavans|1991|p= 524}}</ref>


There are three major feminine archetypes highlighted by Cisneros that represent Mexican womanhood. They are: "the passive virgin, the sinful seductress, and the traitorous mother".<ref name="fitts11">{{Harvnb|Fitts|2002|p= 11}}</ref> These figures are portrayed in a few of Cisneros's stories as "La Malinche in 'Never Marry a Mexican,' the Virgin of Guadalupe in 'Little Miracles, Kept Promises,' and La Llorona in 'Woman Hollering Creek'".<ref name="fitts11" /> They can also be assumed by the book's three major sections: "My Lucy Friend Who Smells Like Corn", "One Holy Night", and "There Was a Man, There Was a Woman".<ref>{{Harvnb|Madsen|2000|p= 110}}</ref>
There are three major feminine archetypes highlighted by Cisneros that represent Mexican womanhood. They are: "the passive virgin, the sinful seductress, and the traitorous mother".<ref name="fitts11">{{Harvnb|Fitts|2002|p= 11}}</ref> These figures are portrayed in a few of Cisneros's stories as "La Malinche in 'Never Marry a Mexican,' the Virgin of Guadalupe in 'Little Miracles, Kept Promises,' and La Llorona in 'Woman Hollering Creek'".<ref name="fitts11" />


In 'Never Marry a Mexican', the protagonist epitomizes the figure of La Malinche as she is "[D]oomed to exist within a racial and class-cultural wasteland, unanchored by a sense of ever belonging either to her ethnic or her natal homeland".<ref>{{Harvnb|Madsen|2003|p= 244}}</ref> The revenge acheived in this vignette by the protagonist, Clemencia, is not only sought for La Malinche, but for "all the women who are led to believe that marriage is the only mechanism by which their lives may be validated and if they are not married then they themselves are somehow invalid".<ref>{{Harvnb|Madsen|2000|p= 112}}</ref>
In "Never Marry a Mexican", the protagonist epitomizes the figure of [[La Malinche]] as she is "doomed to exist within a racial and class-cultural wasteland, unanchored by a sense of ever belonging either to her ethnic or her natal homeland".<ref>{{Harvnb|Stoneham|2003|p= 244}}</ref> The revenge achieved in this vignette by the protagonist, Clemencia, is not only sought for La Malinche, but for "all the women who are led to believe that marriage is the only mechanism by which their lives may be validated and if they are not married then they themselves are somehow invalid".<ref>{{Harvnb|Madsen|2000|p= 112}}</ref>

Cisneros identifies with her own characters because they embody her existence, as Fitts wrote in January of 2002: "She must live on the fence because she can never occupy a full place in any of the cultures to which she nominally belongs. In the U.S., she is separated by her color, her language, and her history. In Mexican and Chicano societies, she is defined and limited by the traditions of machismo and the teachings of the Catholic Church."<ref>{{Harvnb|Fitts|2002|p= 11}}</ref>


==Themes==
==Themes==
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==Style==
==Style==
This is a fictional book composed of short stories. "Cisneros dislikes length. Most of the entries are short: between one and fifteen pages."<ref>{{Harvnb|Stavans|1991|p= ???}}</ref>{{page number}} Most of the book is written in the third person, and "[h]er style is candid engaging, rich in language".<ref>{{Harvnb|Stavans|1991|p= ???}}</ref>{{page number}} Deborah L. Madsen, in her book ''Understanding Contemporary Chicana Literature'', praises Cisneros' work, stating that "[t]he narrative techniques of her fiction demonstrate daring technical innovations, especially in her bold experimentation with literary voice and her development of a hybrid form that weaves poetry into prose to create a dense and evocative linguistic texture of symbolism and imagery that is both technically and aesthetically accomplished".<ref name="madsen105" /> In a later book, Madsen notes that Cisneros uses "the strategies described in post-colonial theory as "counter-discourse" to engage and deconstruct the oppressive cultural narratives that are a legacy of Mexican America's colonial past".<ref>{{Harvnb|Madsen|2003|p= 5}}</ref>
This is a fictional book composed of short stories. "Cisneros dislikes length. Most of the entries are short: between one and fifteen pages."<ref>{{Harvnb|Stavans|1991|p= ???}}</ref>{{page number}} Most of the book is written in the third person, and "[h]er style is candid engaging, rich in language".<ref>{{Harvnb|Stavans|1991|p= ???}}</ref>{{page number}} Deborah L. Madsen, in her book ''Understanding Contemporary Chicana Literature'', praises Cisneros' work, stating that "[t]he narrative techniques of her fiction demonstrate daring technical innovations, especially in her bold experimentation with literary voice and her development of a hybrid form that weaves poetry into prose to create a dense and evocative linguistic texture of symbolism and imagery that is both technically and aesthetically accomplished".<ref name="madsen105" /> In a later book, Madsen notes that Cisneros uses "the strategies described in post-colonial theory as "counter-discourse" to engage and deconstruct the oppressive cultural narratives that are a legacy of Mexican America's colonial past".<ref>{{Harvnb|Madsen|2003|p= 5}}</ref>

==Film adaptation==
⚫
There is no film adaptation to this book, but there is a short film about "La Llorona" which was released in 1998.<ref>{{citation|title=La Llorona|publisher=Internet Movie Database|url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0259401|accessdate=2008-09-21}}</ref>


==Reception==
==Reception==
The book ''Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories'' was well received because not only Latin women could relate to the stories but all women of different cultures could relate. It is mentioned that "Cisneros surveys woman's condition-a condition that is both precisely Latina and general to women everywhere. Her characters include preadolescent girls, disappointed brides, religious women, consoling partners and deeply cynical women who enjoy devouring men. They are without exception strong girls, strong women."<ref>{{Harvnb|Prescott|1991|p= ??}}</ref>{{page number}} Her work is said to be more than words is seen more as "a mosaic of voices of Mexican-Americans who joke, love, hate and comment on fame and sexuality [...] They are verbal photographs, memorabilia, reminiscences of growing up in a Hispanic milieu."<ref name="stavans524">{{Harvnb|Stavans|1991|p= 524}}</ref>
The book ''Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories'' was well received because not only Latin women could relate to the stories but all women of different cultures could relate. It is mentioned that "Cisneros surveys woman's condition-a condition that is both precisely Latina and general to women everywhere. Her characters include preadolescent girls, disappointed brides, religious women, consoling partners and deeply cynical women who enjoy devouring men. They are without exception strong girls, strong women."<ref>{{Harvnb|Prescott|1991|p= 60}}</ref> Her work is said to be more than words is seen more as "a mosaic of voices of Mexican-Americans who joke, love, hate and comment on fame and sexuality [...] They are verbal photographs, memorabilia, reminiscences of growing up in a Hispanic milieu."<ref name="stavans524">{{Harvnb|Stavans|1991|p= 524}}</ref>


One criticism is that Cisneros stereotypes men in her stories<!--This is somewhat inaccurate; in fact, Stavans argues that she stereotypes both men *and* women-->. Stavans argues that "the image of Hispanic men [...] is grim and depressing [...] the guys are always abusive, alcoholic and egotistical".<ref name="stavans524" />
One criticism is that Cisneros stereotypes men in her stories<!--This is somewhat inaccurate; in fact, Stavans argues that she stereotypes both men *and* women-->. Stavans argues that "the image of Hispanic men [...] is grim and depressing [...] the guys are always abusive, alcoholic and egotistical".<ref name="stavans524" />

⚫
The "La Llorona" story was adapted into a short film which was released in 1998.<ref>{{citation|title=La Llorona|publisher=Internet Movie Database|url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0259401|accessdate=2008-09-21}}</ref>


==Notes==
==Notes==
Line 60: Line 73:


==References==
==References==
*{{citation|last= Brown-Guillory |first= Elizabeth |title= Women of Color: Mother-daughter Relationships in 20th-century Literature |place= Austin, TX |publisher= University of Texas Press |year= 1996 |isbn= 9780292708471 }}.
*{{citation|last= Brady|first= Mary Pat |title= The Contrapuntal Geographies of ''Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories'' |journal= American Literature |date= March 1999 |year= 1999 |volume= 71 |issue=1|pages= 117-150 |url= http://www.jstor.org/stable/2902591 |accessdate= 2008-09-26 }}. ([[JSTOR]] subscription required for online access.)

*{{citation|last= Brown-Guillory |first= Elizabeth |title= Women of Color: Mother-daughter Relationships in 20th-century Literature |place= Austin, TX |publisher= University of Texas Press |year= 1996 |isbn= 978-0292708471 }}.


*{{citation|last=Cisneros |first= Sandra |title=Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories |place= New York |publisher= Random House |year= 1991 |isbn= 978-0394576541}}.
*{{citation|last=Cisneros |first= Sandra |title=Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories |place= New York |publisher= Random House |year= 1991 |isbn= 978-0394576541}}.


*{{citation|last= Fitts|first= Alexandra |title= Sandra Cisneros's Modern Malinche: A Reconsideration of Feminine Archetypes in ''Woman Hollering Creek'' |journal= The International Fiction Review |year= 2002 |date= January 2002 |volume= 29 |issue= 1-2 |page= 11-22 |url= http://find.galegroup.com/itx/infomark.do?contentSet=IAC-Documents&docType=IAC&type=retrieve&tabID=T002&prodId=CPI&docId=A91036596&userGroupName=ubcolumbia&version=1.0&searchType=PublicationSearchForm&source=gale |accessdate= 2008-10-05 }}.
*{{citation|last= Fitts|first= Alexandra |title= Sandra Cisneros's Modern Malinche: A Reconsideration of Feminine Archetypes in ''Woman Hollering Creek'' |journal= The International Fiction Review |year= 2002 |date= January 2002 |volume= 29 |issue= 1-2 |page= 11-22 |url= http://find.galegroup.com/itx/infomark.do?contentSet=IAC-Documents&docType=IAC&type=retrieve&tabID=T002&prodId=CPI&docId=A91036596&userGroupName=ubcolumbia&version=1.0&searchType=PublicationSearchForm&source=gale |accessdate= 2008-10-05 }}.

*{{citation|last= Ganz|first= Robin |title= Sandra Cisneros: Border Crossings and Beyond|journal= MELUS |date= Spring 1994 |year= 1994 |volume= 19 |issue=1 |pages= 19-29 |url= http://www.jstor.org/stable/467785 |accessdate= 2008-09-29 }}. ([[JSTOR]] subscription required for online access.)

*{{citation|last= Gunst |first= Elise |title= Taste deeply of Hispanic culture with Sandra Cisneros as guide |newspaper= Houston Chronicle |date= May 5, 1991 |year= 1991 |pages= 23 |publisher= Houston Chronicle Publishing Company Division|url= http://www.chron.com/CDA/archives/archive.mpl?id=1991_781045 |accessdate= 2008-10-12 }}.


*{{citation|last= Hart |first= Patricia |title= Babes in Boyland |journal= The Nation |date= May 6, 1991 |year= 1991 |volume= 252 |issue= 17 |pages= 597-598 |url= http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=9105062695&site=ehost-live |accessdate= 2008-09-21 }}. ([[EBSCO]] subscription required for online access.)
*{{citation|last= Hart |first= Patricia |title= Babes in Boyland |journal= The Nation |date= May 6, 1991 |year= 1991 |volume= 252 |issue= 17 |pages= 597-598 |url= http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=9105062695&site=ehost-live |accessdate= 2008-09-21 }}. ([[EBSCO]] subscription required for online access.)


*{{citation|last= Madsen |first= Deborah L. |title= Understanding Contemporary Chicano Literature |place= South Carolina |publisher= University of South Carolina Press |year= 2000 |isbn= 157003379X }}.
*{{citation|last= Madsen |first= Deborah L. |title= Understanding Contemporary Chicano Literature |place= Columbia, SC |publisher= University of South Carolina Press |year= 2000 |isbn= 978-1570033797 }}.


*{{citation|editor-last=Madsen |editor-first= Deborah L. |title= Beyond the Borders: American Literature and Post-Colonial Theory |place= Sterling, VA |publisher= Pluto |year= 2003 |isbn= 0745320465}}.
*{{citation|last= Madsen |first= Deborah L. |chapter= Introduction: American Literature and Post-colonial Theory |pages= 1-?? |editor-last=Madsen |editor-first= Deborah L. |title= Beyond the Borders: American Literature and Post-Colonial Theory |place= London |publisher= Pluto |year= 2003 |isbn= 978-0745320458}}.{{page number}}


*{{citation|last=McCraken |first= Ellen |title= New Latina Narrative: the feminine space of postmodern ethnicity |place= Arizona |publisher= The University of Arizona Press |year= 1999 |isbn= 0816519412}}.
*{{citation|last=McCracken |first= Ellen |title= New Latina Narrative: the feminine space of postmodern ethnicity |place= Tucson, AZ |publisher= The University of Arizona Press |year= 1999 |isbn= 978-0816519415}}.


*{{citation|last= Prescott |first= P.S., last= Springen |first= K. |title= Seven for Summer |journal= Newsweek |date= June 3, 1991 |year= 1991 |volume= 117 |issue= 22 |pages= 60 |url= http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?vid=1&hid=9&sid=5daa2781-bada-4463-8014-87495568db10%40sessionmgr7&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=a9h&AN=9106031072 |accessdate= 2008-09-26 }} ([[EBSCO]] subscription required for online access.)
*{{citation|last= Moore Campbell|first= Bebe |title= Crossing Borders. Review of ''Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories'' |newspaper= The New York Times |date= May 26|year= 1991 |pages= BR6 |url= http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=116016832&sid=2&Fmt=2&clientId=6993&RQT=309&VName=HNP |accessdate= 2008-09-27 }}.

*{{citation|last= Prescott |first= P.S., last= Springen |first= K. |title= Seven for Summer |journal= Newsweek |date= June 3, 1991 |year= 1991 |volume= 117 |issue= 22 |pages= 60 |url= http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?vid=1&hid=9&sid=5daa2781-bada-4463-8014-87495568db10%40sessionmgr7&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=a9h&AN=9106031072 |accessdate= 2008-09-26 }}. ([[EBSCO]] subscription required for online access.)


*{{citation|last= Reichardt |first= Mary |title= Catholic Women Writers: A Bio-Bibliographical Sourcebook |place= Westport, CT |publisher= Greenwood |year= 2001 |isbn= 9780313311475 }}.
*{{citation|last= Reichardt |first= Mary |title= Catholic Women Writers: A Bio-Bibliographical Sourcebook |place= Westport, CT |publisher= Greenwood |year= 2001 |isbn= 9780313311475 }}.

*{{citation|last= Rojas|first= Maythee G. |title= Cisneros's "Terrible" Women: Recuperating the Erotic as a Feminist Source in "Never Marry a Mexican" and "Eyes of Zapata"|journal= Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies |date= 1999 |year= 1999 |volume= 20 |issue=3 |pages= 125-157 |url= http://www.jstor.org/stable/3347227 |accessdate= 2008-09-29 }}. ([[JSTOR]] subscription required for online access.)


*{{citation|last= Stavans |first= Ilan |title= Una nueva voz |journal= Commonweal |volume= 118 |issue= 15 |date= September 13, 1991 |year= 1991 |pages= 524 |url= http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=9109301275&site=ehost-live |accessdate= 2008-09-21 }}. ([[EBSCO]] subscription required for online access.)
*{{citation|last= Stavans |first= Ilan |title= Una nueva voz |journal= Commonweal |volume= 118 |issue= 15 |date= September 13, 1991 |year= 1991 |pages= 524 |url= http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=9109301275&site=ehost-live |accessdate= 2008-09-21 }}. ([[EBSCO]] subscription required for online access.)


*{{citation|last= Tager |first= Marcia |title= Review of ''Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories'' |journal= Library Journal |date= April 1, 1991 |year= 1991 |volume= 116 |issue=6 |pages= 149 |url= http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=9104292316&site=ehost-live |accessdate= 2008-09-21 }}.
*{{citation|last= Steinberg |first= Sybil |title= ''Woman Hollering Creek: And Other Stories'' |journal= Publishers Weekly| date= February 15, 1991 |year= 1991 |volume= 238 |issue=9 |page= 76 |url= http://find.galegroup.com/itx/infomark.do?contentSet=IAC-Documents&docType=IAC&type=retrieve&tabID=T003&prodId=CPI&docId=A10393784&userGroupName=ubcolumbia&version=1.0&searchType=PublicationSearchForm&source=gale |year= 1991 |accessdate= 2008-09-27 }}.

*{{citation|last= Stoneham |first= Geraldine |chapter= U.S. and US: American Literatures of Immigration and Assimilation |pages= 238-2?? |editor-last=Madsen |editor-first= Deborah L. |title= Beyond the Borders: American Literature and Post-Colonial Theory |place= London |publisher= Pluto |year= 2003 |isbn= 978-0745320458}}.{{page number}}

*{{citation|last= Tager |first= Marcia |title= Review of ''Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories'' |journal= Library Journal |date= April 1, 1991 |year= 1991 |volume= 116 |issue=6 |pages= 149 |url= http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=9104292316&site=ehost-live |accessdate= 2008-09-21 }}. ([[EBSCO]] subscription required for online access.)

*{{citation|last= Van Ostrand |first= Maggie |title= La Llorona: Does She Seek Your Children? |journal= Texas Escapes |url= http://www.texasescapes.com/MaggieVanOstrand/La-Llorona-Does-She-Seek-Your-Children.htm |year= 2008 |accessdate= 2008-09-21 }}.


*{{citation|last= Van Ostrand |first= Maggie |title= La Llorona: Does She Seek Your Children? |journal= Texas Escapes |url= http://www.texasescapes.com/MaggieVanOstrand/La-Llorona-Does-She-Seek-Your-Children.htm |year= 2008 |accessdate= 2008-09-21 }}/
*{{citation|last= Wyatt |first= Jean |title= On Not Being La Malinche: Border Negotiations of Gender in Sandra Cisneros's "Never Marry a Mexican" and "Woman Hollering Creek"|journal= Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature |date= Autumn 1995 |year= 1995 |volume= 14 |issue=2 |pages= 243-271 |url= http://www.jstor.org/stable/463899 |accessdate= 2008-09-26 }}. ([[JSTOR]] subscription required for online access.)


[[Category:Single-author short story collections]]
[[Category:Single-author short story collections]]

Revision as of 20:51, 19 October 2008

Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories
Front cover
Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories first edition cover.
AuthorSandra Cisneros
Cover artistSusan Shapiro & Nivia Gonzales
CountryUSA
LanguageEnglish
PublisherRandom House, Inc.
Publication date
April 3, 1991
Media typePrint (Hardcover)
ISBNo-679-73856-8 Parameter error in {{ISBNT}}: invalid character

Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories is a book of short stories by renowned Chicago-based Chicana writer Sandra Cisneros. The collection reflects Cisneros's multicultural background of being raised in a country which is not quite her own, but is the only one she truly knows. As a reviewer noted, "taken together, these vignettes give a vivid, colorful picture of life on the Texas/Mexico border"[1], with characters "as unforgettable as a first kiss."[2] Newsweek commended such genuine writing, saying "her feminist, Mexican-American voice is not only playful and vigorous, it's original—we haven't heard anything like it before".[3]

Background

The legend of La Llorona (Spanish for "weeping woman") is a ghost story found in Mexico and Texas. Woman Hollering Creek, a body of water just off Interstate 10 in Texas, is part of that same myth. As one columnist notes, the premise goes "a beautiful young woman named Maria falls in love and marries a handsome, rich boy, and their union is blessed with two sons and a daughter".[4] Soon after, the boy loses his affection for his wife. Maria, knowing that her husband doesn't love her, drowns their three children in the river and then herself. Upon reaching heaven, Maria is told that she can not enter until she has found her children. She is sent back to Earth where she wails sorrowfully for her babies. According to legend, any child that happens upon her ghost is pulled into the river and drowned. Other versions of this story are recognized throughout the world among the Aztecs, the Greek, the Spaniards, and found its way into Cisneros's work.

Amongst the collection of short stories is a chapter with the collection's title of Woman Hollering Creek. Her tale presents a woman who is physically abused by her husband and feels drawn towards the near-by creek, but finds help in two strangers before she is led to do anything drastic. As Patricia Hart, in The Nation, cleverly remarks, "anger repressed bursts the seams of life for Cisneros’ female characters, who struggle valiantly to make something beautiful from the ugly fabric fate has given them to work with".[5]

Growing up in Chicago as a Mexican-American sparked "the convergence of rootlessness and love that shaped [Cisneros's] family's history".[6] Cisneros was born into a family of seven children; she was the only daughter, which always left her to be singled out on account of gender.[7] Although there were enough siblings to go around, Cisneros always felt lonely as a child, thus prompting her to begin creating stories to vary the "dull routine of her life".[7] And as such, Madsen notes, "she creates stories, not explanations or analyses or arguments"; which in turn describe her feminist views with "more provisional, personal, emotional, and intuitive forms of narrative".[8] Madsen goes on to define this "Chicano feminism" as something that "has largely arisen from the need to contest the feminine stereotypes that define machismo, while at the same time identifying and working against the shared class and racial oppression that all chicanos/as....experience." [9]

Although such feminism is the groundwork of many of the stories in Woman Hollering Creek, some critics say that "Cisneros has struggled to give voice to the female body within her feminine writing."[10] She appears to feel more of a connection to her writing than to any male figure in her life; as Prescott notes: "For her, men seem to be a utility that a woman turns on and off as required." [11] Moore Campbell adds to this by observing that Cisneros "uses the behavior of men as a catalyst that propels her [female characters] into a search deep within themselves for the love that men have failed to give them."[12]

Plot Summary

Cisneros’ collection of stories, which are more like “verbal photographs, memorabilia, and reminiscences of growing up in a Hispanic milieu "[13] are divided into three life stages: "childhood innocence", troubled adolescence; and "turbulent adulthood".[14] These stages correspond directly with the titles of the book's three major sections: "My Lucy Friend Who Smells Like Corn", "One Holy Night", and "There Was a Man, There Was a Woman".[15]

“Most of the stories include teasing, flirtatious exchanges, joking asides and minor secrets; some make deadly serious revelations. Their digressive and fragmentary nature highlights minor details and experiences, but more importantly it forces the reader to look around, to linger and remember”.[16]

The first section entitled, “My Lucy Friend Who Smells Like Corn”, is comprised of seven vignettes that are like “tiles in a mosaic”.[17] These so called tiles “give a vivid, colourful picture of life on the Texas/Mexico border. [...] The stories are often about the romantic dreams of young girls longing to escape stifling small-town life who discover that things are not much different on the other side of the border”.[18] The short story, “Eleven”, is about a young girl who ends up “spill[ing] tears of shame over her humiliation by her teacher on her 11th birthday”.[19] In another narrative called “Barbie-Q”, Cisneros “tells us of the unadulterated pleasure two little girls feel when they come upon an unexpected prize”.[20]

The book’s second segment, “One Holy Night”, contains two short narratives focusing on preadolescents and young women who “evince a shared, uneasy awareness that their self-worth depends on a loyalty to Mexico strained, all the same, by the realities of their lives up North”.[21] The second of the two vignettes entitled “My Tocaya” is “about a friendship between two girls, one of whom disappears and is presumed dead until she appears at the police station, to the surprise of everybody in town”.[22]

In her book’s final section entitled, "There Was A Man, There Was A Woman," Cisneros illustrates “the need to join the female body with the political struggle against male oppression.”[23] Author and Journalist Jean Wyatt discusses the problem faced by women in “Never Marry a Mexican” and in the title story “Woman Hollering Creek”: these female characters “wrestle with Mexican icons of sexuality and motherhood that, internalized, seem to impose on them a limited and even negative definition of their own identities as women”.[24] The two female protagonists in “Never Marry a Mexican and “Eyes of Zapata” “turn to their bodies in an attempt to make sense of their displaced existences”.[25] These women are able to start articulating “their oppression and objectification”[26] which in turn reveals “how their identities have been shaped by the ways in which the men they "love" have capitalized on the sexual nature of their relationships”.[27] In the end, “their social roles as mistresses become the focal point in their ideological and political struggles for selfhood”.[28]

Editor Sybil Steinberg states that “in this sensitively structured suite of sketches, [...] Cisneros's irony defers to her powers of observation, so that feminism and cultural imperialism, while important issues here, do not overwhelm the narrative”.[29]

Characters

Cisneros bases most of her cast on stereotypes. As critic Ilan Stavans observes, “The image of Hispanic men, for instance, is grim and depressing: while the guys are always abusive, alcoholic, and egotistical, the girls are naive, doll-like, occasionally in control yet obsessed with how nature transforms itself, how relationships deteriorate, and how people escape their responsibilities to meet a different, although not a better fate.”[30]

There are three major feminine archetypes highlighted by Cisneros that represent Mexican womanhood. They are: "the passive virgin, the sinful seductress, and the traitorous mother".[31] These figures are portrayed in a few of Cisneros's stories as "La Malinche in 'Never Marry a Mexican,' the Virgin of Guadalupe in 'Little Miracles, Kept Promises,' and La Llorona in 'Woman Hollering Creek'".[31]

In "Never Marry a Mexican", the protagonist epitomizes the figure of La Malinche as she is "doomed to exist within a racial and class-cultural wasteland, unanchored by a sense of ever belonging either to her ethnic or her natal homeland".[32] The revenge achieved in this vignette by the protagonist, Clemencia, is not only sought for La Malinche, but for "all the women who are led to believe that marriage is the only mechanism by which their lives may be validated and if they are not married then they themselves are somehow invalid".[33]

Cisneros identifies with her own characters because they embody her existence, as Fitts wrote in January of 2002: "She must live on the fence because she can never occupy a full place in any of the cultures to which she nominally belongs. In the U.S., she is separated by her color, her language, and her history. In Mexican and Chicano societies, she is defined and limited by the traditions of machismo and the teachings of the Catholic Church."[34]

Themes

One of the major themes in the book is women's social role. Critic Mary Reichart observes that in Cisneros's previous work as well as "in Woman Hollering Creek (1991), the female characters break out of the molds assigned to them by the culture in search of new roles and new kinds of relationships. Cisneros portrays woman who challenge stereotypes and break taboos, sometimes simply for the sake of shocking the establishment, but most often because the confining stereotypes prevent them from achieving their own identity."[35] McCracken observes the visible representation of the book and remarks that "the cover art, a painting by the Chicana artist Nivia González, ... is a polysemous text that simultaneously can work to confirm stereotypes of the Mexican woman as a folkloric figure for the other readers who lack in-depth contact with Mexican Americans".[36]

Another theme of the book is that of conflicting love and failed relationships between man and woman and also between mother and daughter. For example, critic Elizabeth Brown-Guillory notes of the story "Never Marry a Mexican" that it is about a "failed relationship between mother and daughter that has generational implications. [...] Cisneros portrays the mother as a destructive emotional force, alienating and condemning her daughter to repeating her own mother’s destructive powers." This failed relationship between daughter and mother also affects the ways in which women relate to men and “the story blames the mother for the failed relationships they have had with men.”[37]

Deborah L. Madsen asserts that Cisneros' "mixed ethnic background ... is reflected in the cultural hybridity that is one of [her] recurring themes".[38]

Style

This is a fictional book composed of short stories. "Cisneros dislikes length. Most of the entries are short: between one and fifteen pages."[39][page needed] Most of the book is written in the third person, and "[h]er style is candid engaging, rich in language".[40][page needed] Deborah L. Madsen, in her book Understanding Contemporary Chicana Literature, praises Cisneros' work, stating that "[t]he narrative techniques of her fiction demonstrate daring technical innovations, especially in her bold experimentation with literary voice and her development of a hybrid form that weaves poetry into prose to create a dense and evocative linguistic texture of symbolism and imagery that is both technically and aesthetically accomplished".[38] In a later book, Madsen notes that Cisneros uses "the strategies described in post-colonial theory as "counter-discourse" to engage and deconstruct the oppressive cultural narratives that are a legacy of Mexican America's colonial past".[41]

Reception

The book Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories was well received because not only Latin women could relate to the stories but all women of different cultures could relate. It is mentioned that "Cisneros surveys woman's condition-a condition that is both precisely Latina and general to women everywhere. Her characters include preadolescent girls, disappointed brides, religious women, consoling partners and deeply cynical women who enjoy devouring men. They are without exception strong girls, strong women."[42] Her work is said to be more than words is seen more as "a mosaic of voices of Mexican-Americans who joke, love, hate and comment on fame and sexuality [...] They are verbal photographs, memorabilia, reminiscences of growing up in a Hispanic milieu."[43]

One criticism is that Cisneros stereotypes men in her stories. Stavans argues that "the image of Hispanic men [...] is grim and depressing [...] the guys are always abusive, alcoholic and egotistical".[43]

The "La Llorona" story was adapted into a short film which was released in 1998.[44]

Notes

  1. ^ Tager 1991, p. 149
  2. ^ Moore Campbell 1991, p. 6
  3. ^ Prescott 1991, p. 60
  4. ^ Van Ostrand 2008
  5. ^ Hart 1991, p. 598
  6. ^ Ganz 1994, p. 19
  7. ^ a b Madsen 2000, p. 106
  8. ^ Madsen 2000, p. 109
  9. ^ Madsen 2000, p. 108
  10. ^ Rojas 1999, p. 135
  11. ^ Prescott 1991, p. 60
  12. ^ Moore Campbell 1991, p. 6
  13. ^ Stavans 1991, p. 524
  14. ^ Rojas 1999, p. 136
  15. ^ Madsen 2000, p. 110
  16. ^ Brady 1999, p. 120
  17. ^ Tager 1999, p. 149
  18. ^ Tager 1999, p. 149
  19. ^ Gunst 1991, p. 23
  20. ^ Gunst 1991, p. 23
  21. ^ Steinberg 1991, p. 76
  22. ^ Stavans 1991, p. 524
  23. ^ Rojas 1999, p. 136
  24. ^ Wyatt 1995, p. 243
  25. ^ Rojas 1999, p. 136
  26. ^ Rojas 1999, p. 136
  27. ^ Rojas 1999, p. 136
  28. ^ Rojas 1999, p. 136
  29. ^ Steinberg 1991, p. 76
  30. ^ Stavans 1991, p. 524
  31. ^ a b Fitts 2002, p. 11
  32. ^ Stoneham 2003, p. 244
  33. ^ Madsen 2000, p. 112
  34. ^ Fitts 2002, p. 11
  35. ^ Reichardt 2001, p. 59
  36. ^ McCracken 1999, p. 17
  37. ^ Brown-Guillory 1996, p. 164
  38. ^ a b Madsen 2000, p. 105
  39. ^ Stavans 1991, p. ???
  40. ^ Stavans 1991, p. ???
  41. ^ Madsen 2003, p. 5
  42. ^ Prescott 1991, p. 60
  43. ^ a b Stavans 1991, p. 524
  44. ^ La Llorona, Internet Movie Database, retrieved 2008-09-21

References

  • Brown-Guillory, Elizabeth (1996), Women of Color: Mother-daughter Relationships in 20th-century Literature, Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, ISBN 978-0292708471.
  • Cisneros, Sandra (1991), Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories, New York: Random House, ISBN 978-0394576541.
  • Hart, Patricia (May 6, 1991), "Babes in Boyland", The Nation, 252 (17): 597–598, retrieved 2008-09-21{{citation}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link). (EBSCO subscription required for online access.)
  • Madsen, Deborah L. (2000), Understanding Contemporary Chicano Literature, Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, ISBN 978-1570033797.
  • Madsen, Deborah L. (2003), "Introduction: American Literature and Post-colonial Theory", in Madsen, Deborah L. (ed.), Beyond the Borders: American Literature and Post-Colonial Theory, London: Pluto, pp. 1-??, ISBN 978-0745320458.[page needed]
  • McCracken, Ellen (1999), New Latina Narrative: the feminine space of postmodern ethnicity, Tucson, AZ: The University of Arizona Press, ISBN 978-0816519415.
  • Prescott, K. (June 3, 1991), "Seven for Summer", Newsweek, 117 (22): 60, retrieved 2008-09-26{{citation}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link). (EBSCO subscription required for online access.)
  • Reichardt, Mary (2001), Catholic Women Writers: A Bio-Bibliographical Sourcebook, Westport, CT: Greenwood, ISBN 9780313311475.
  • Stavans, Ilan (September 13, 1991), "Una nueva voz", Commonweal, 118 (15): 524, retrieved 2008-09-21{{citation}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link). (EBSCO subscription required for online access.)
  • Stoneham, Geraldine (2003), "U.S. and US: American Literatures of Immigration and Assimilation", in Madsen, Deborah L. (ed.), Beyond the Borders: American Literature and Post-Colonial Theory, London: Pluto, pp. 238-2??, ISBN 978-0745320458.[page needed]
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