All Topics  
Ana Castillo

 

   Email Print
   Bookmark   Link






 

Ana Castillo



 
 
Ana Castillo (born 1953) is a Mexican-American Chicana
Chicano

Chicano is a word for a Mexican American . The terms Chicano and Chicana were originally used by and regarding U.S. citizens of Mexican descent....
 novel
Novel

File:2009 stapelweise Neuerscheinungen im Buchladen.JPGA novel is today a long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern Romance and in the tradition of the novella....
ist, poet
Poet

A poet is a person who writes poetry....
, short story
Short story

The short story refers to a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, usually in narrative format. This format or medium tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels or books....
 writer
Writer

A writer is anyone who creates a written work, although the word usually designates those who write creatively or professionally, as well as those who have written in many different forms....
, and essay
Essay

An essay is usually a short piece of writing. It is often written from an author's personal Perspective . Essays can be literary criticism, political manifestos, learned arguments, observations of daily life, recollections, and reflections of the author....
ist.

Life and career
Castillo was born and raised in an inner city
Inner city

The inner city is the central area of a major city or metropolis. In the United States, Canada, United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, the term is often applied to the poorer parts of the city centre and is sometimes used as a euphemism with the connotation of being an area, perhaps a ghetto or slum, where residents are less educated and mor...
 barrio
Barrio

Barrio is a Spanish language word meaning district or neighborhood. The word has come into use in English language mostly through the large Hispanic populations on both coasts of the United States....
 of Chicago, Illinois
Illinois

The State of Illinois is a U.S. state of the United States, the 21st to be admitted to the United States. Illinois is the most populous and demographically diverse Midwestern United States state and the fifth most populous state in the nation....
. After completing undergraduate studies, she immediately began teaching college courses. She earned her Master's degree
Master's degree

A master's degree provides a mastery or high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of profession. Within the area studied, graduates possess advanced knowledge of a specialized body of theory and applied topics; high order skills in analysis, Critical thinking and/or professional application; and the ability to problem solving a...
 in Latin America
Latin America

Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages ? particularly Spanish language and Portuguese language, and variably French language ? are primarily spoken....
n and Caribbean
Caribbean

The Caribbean is a region consisting of the Caribbean Sea, its islands , and the surrounding coasts. The region is located southeast of the Gulf of Mexico and Northern America, east of Central America, and to the north of South America....
 studies from the University of Chicago
University of Chicago

The University of Chicago is a private university located principally in the Hyde Park, Chicago neighborhood of Chicago. Although an older university by the same name existed prior to its founding, the modern University of Chicago credits its founding to the oil magnate John D....
 with a thesis entitled "The Idealization and Reality of the Mexican Indian Woman".






Discussion
Ask a question about 'Ana Castillo'
Start a new discussion about 'Ana Castillo'
Answer questions from other users
Full Discussion Forum



Encyclopedia


Ana Castillo (born 1953) is a Mexican-American Chicana
Chicano

Chicano is a word for a Mexican American . The terms Chicano and Chicana were originally used by and regarding U.S. citizens of Mexican descent....
 novel
Novel

File:2009 stapelweise Neuerscheinungen im Buchladen.JPGA novel is today a long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern Romance and in the tradition of the novella....
ist, poet
Poet

A poet is a person who writes poetry....
, short story
Short story

The short story refers to a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, usually in narrative format. This format or medium tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels or books....
 writer
Writer

A writer is anyone who creates a written work, although the word usually designates those who write creatively or professionally, as well as those who have written in many different forms....
, and essay
Essay

An essay is usually a short piece of writing. It is often written from an author's personal Perspective . Essays can be literary criticism, political manifestos, learned arguments, observations of daily life, recollections, and reflections of the author....
ist.

Life and career


Castillo was born and raised in an inner city
Inner city

The inner city is the central area of a major city or metropolis. In the United States, Canada, United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, the term is often applied to the poorer parts of the city centre and is sometimes used as a euphemism with the connotation of being an area, perhaps a ghetto or slum, where residents are less educated and mor...
 barrio
Barrio

Barrio is a Spanish language word meaning district or neighborhood. The word has come into use in English language mostly through the large Hispanic populations on both coasts of the United States....
 of Chicago, Illinois
Illinois

The State of Illinois is a U.S. state of the United States, the 21st to be admitted to the United States. Illinois is the most populous and demographically diverse Midwestern United States state and the fifth most populous state in the nation....
. After completing undergraduate studies, she immediately began teaching college courses. She earned her Master's degree
Master's degree

A master's degree provides a mastery or high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of profession. Within the area studied, graduates possess advanced knowledge of a specialized body of theory and applied topics; high order skills in analysis, Critical thinking and/or professional application; and the ability to problem solving a...
 in Latin America
Latin America

Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages ? particularly Spanish language and Portuguese language, and variably French language ? are primarily spoken....
n and Caribbean
Caribbean

The Caribbean is a region consisting of the Caribbean Sea, its islands , and the surrounding coasts. The region is located southeast of the Gulf of Mexico and Northern America, east of Central America, and to the north of South America....
 studies from the University of Chicago
University of Chicago

The University of Chicago is a private university located principally in the Hyde Park, Chicago neighborhood of Chicago. Although an older university by the same name existed prior to its founding, the modern University of Chicago credits its founding to the oil magnate John D....
 with a thesis entitled "The Idealization and Reality of the Mexican Indian Woman". She received her doctorate
Doctorate

A doctorate is an academic degree that in most countries represents the highest level of formal study or research in a given field. In some countries it also refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder to practice in a specific profession ....
 from the University of Bremen
University of Bremen

File:Bremen fallturm2.jpgThe University of Bremen is a university of approximately 23,500 people from 126 countries that are studying, teaching, researching, and working in Bremen , Germany....
, Germany
Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands....
, in American studies
American studies

American studies or American civilization is an Interdisciplinarity dealing with the study of the United States. It incorporates the study of Economy of the United States, History of the United States, American literature, art of the United States, Mass media, American cinema, urban studies, women's studies, and culture of the United St...
 in 1991. In lieu of a traditional dissertation, she submitted the essays later collected in her highly acclaimed work Massacre of the Dreamers.

Castillo writes about Chicana feminism
Chicana feminism

Chicana feminism, also called Xicanisma, is a group of social theory that analyze the historical, social, political, and economic roles of Mexican American, Chicano, and Hispanic women in the United States....
, which she dubs "Xicanisma", and her work centers on issues of identity, racism
Racism

Racism, by its simplest definition is the belief that Race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race....
, and classism
Classism

Classism is prejudice and/or discrimination on the basis of socioeconomic class. Like all forms of prejudice and discrimination it goes both ways....
. Many of her protagonists are fiercely independent, sometimes lesbian
Lesbian

File:Lesbian Couple from back holding hands.jpgLesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females....
, women. Her "imaginative fiction" shows the influence of magical realism. For example, the novel Sapogonia is about a fictional country that is the home to all mestizo
Mestizo

Mestizo is a Spanish language term that was used in the Spanish Empire to refer to people of mixed Europe and Indigenous peoples of the Americas ancestry in Latin America....
s. Much of her work has been translated into Spanish
Spanish language

Spanish or Castilian is a Romance languages that originated in northern Spain, and gradually spread in the Kingdom of Castile and evolved into the principal language of government and trade....
. She has also contributed articles and essays to such publications as the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times

The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California and distributed throughout the Western United States. It is the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in the United States and the fourth-most widely distributed newspaper in the United States....
 and Salon
Salon.com

Salon.com, part of Salon Media Group , often just called Salon, is an online magazine, with content updated each weekday. Modern liberalism in the United States politics of the United States is its major focus, but it covers a range of issues....
.

Her papers
Archive

An archive refers to a collection of historical records, and also refers to the location in which these records are kept.'Archives' are made up of records which have been accumulated over the course of an individual or organization's lifetime....
 are housed at the California Ethnic and Multicultural Archives
California Ethnic and Multicultural Archives

California Ethnic and Multicultural Archives is an archival institution that houses collections of primary source documents from the history of minority ethnic groups in California....
 at the University of California, Santa Barbara
University of California, Santa Barbara

The University of California, Santa Barbara, commonly known as UCSB or UC Santa Barbara, is a public university research university and one of the 10 general campuses of the University of California system....
.

So Far from God


So Far from God, Ana Castillo's third novel (1993), might best be described as a telenovela, in which intimate details of people’s loves and losses are told, and what will happen in the next day’s broadcast is hinted at. The novel, set in the tiny village of Tome, New Mexico, employs Magic Realism
Magic realism

Magic realism, or magical realism, is an artistic genre in which magical elements or illogical scenarios appear in an otherwise realistic or even "normal" setting....
 (lo real maravilloso) to examine the lives of Mexican-American women on the borders. The character Sofi, a middle-aged single mother, and her four daughters live at a crossroads between Chicano, Mexican, Spanish, and First Nations cultures. While juggling her small business duties and childcare, Sofi confronts both the modern technological moment and ageless traditions of birth, growth, and loss; for comfort, she and her neighbors are immersed in competing religious traditions of Catholicism, curanderismo, and folk-traditions concerning the nature of the spirit. As the novel opens, La Loca, Sofi’s youngest daughter, dies, examines the details of hell, and then comes back to Tome to live. Since she has experienced much of the spirit world, it is no wonder that she has epileptic fits, cannot stand the smell of people (preferring the company of horses), frequently talks with the Mexican-American folk character La Llorona, and despite her lack of body, dies once more of AIDS
AIDS

Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the HIV ....
. Sofi’s next youngest daughter’s, barhopping lifestyle leads to her rape, but not by a man, by an unidentified monster. Miraculously healed, this daughter, whose name is Caridad, trains to become a curandera (traditional healer), and joins the annual pilgrimage to Chimayo, where she meets her beloved, a woman. Francisco, the village santero (saint-carver), stalks Caridad, only to see her leap, with her beloved, from the great heights of Acoma, the pueblo built atop a mountain which was difficult for Spanish conquerors to take by surprise; and thus her exit enacts freedom from her male pursuer, freedom from “conquest,” and untouchable and undying faith in her love. Fe, the next daughter in line, immerses herself in a relentless pursuit of the American Dream, which for her include a husband and a house of her own. Led by her employer’s promises of more money, she undertakes jobs that place her in contact with dangerous chemicals, until she sickens and dies of cancer. Sofi’s eldest daughter, Esperanza, gains an education and moves away to have a life independent of that of the village. However, her job as news anchorwoman takes her to Iraq, where she is killed in the war. Her spirit walks with that of La Llorona
La Llorona

La Llorona is Spanish for "the weeping woman," and is a popular legend in Spanish-speaking cultures in the Americas, with many versions. The basic version is that La Llorona was a beautiful woman who killed her children to be with the man that she loved and was subsequently rejected by him....
 in Tome’s acequia (irrigation channel) and frequently converses with La Loca. At the novel’s conclusion, Sofi is strengthened, not destroyed, by the loss of her daughters and turns away from the traditional life of the home-maker to the life of a politician and reformer, seeking to create a weaving cooperative. Interestingly, names in this novel form a kind of allegory. Sofi, whose name means “wisdom,” having lost, in her daughters, the Christian tenets of faith (Fe), hope (Esperanza) and charity (Caridad), places her wisdom and strength at the service of her neighbors so that they may continue to survive. So Far from God is set within the United States, but as a border novel, it is neither Mexican nor American, but a hybrid form which records history and traditions in both cultures. Its title is from a quotation by Mexican president Porfirio Diaz
Porfirio Díaz

Jos? de la Cruz Porfirio D?az Mori was a Mexico politician who would later become the President of Mexico from 1876 to 1880 and from 1884 to 1911, and one of the most controversial figures of the country....
, a man who carried both Spanish and Indian genes, and who was popular for a time for refusing to join with the last foreign emperor of Mexico, Maximilian
Maximilian

Maximilian, Maximillian, or Maximiliaan is a name of Latin origin meaning "greatest." It may refer to:...
.

Publications

Ana Castillo

Novels

  • The Mixquiahuala Letters. Binghamton, N.Y. : Bilingual Press/Editorial Bilingue, 1986. ISBN 0-916950-67-0
  • Sapogonia: An anti-romance in 3/8 meter. Tempe, Arizona: Bilingual Press/Editorial Bilingüe, 1990. ISBN 0-916950-95-6
  • So Far From God. New York: W.W. Norton, 1993. ISBN 0-393-03490-9
  • Peel My Love Like an Onion. New York : Doubleday, 1999. ISBN 0-385-49676-1
  • My Daughter, My Son, the Eagle the Dove: An Aztec Chant. New York: Dutton Books, 2000. ISBN 0-525-45856-5
  • Watercolor Women, Opaque Men : A Novel in Verse. Willimantic, Connecticut: Curbstone Press, 2005.
  • The Guardians
    The Guardians

    The Guardians can refer to any of the following* The Guardians , 1970 novel by John Christopher* The Guardians, novel by Ana Castillo* The Guardians , 1971 UK television series...
    . New York: Random House, 2007. ISBN 978-1-4000-6500-4


Story collections

  • Loverboys. New York: W.W. Norton, 1996. ISBN 0-393-03959-5

Poetry

  • Otro Canto. Chicago: Alternativa Publications, 1977.
  • The Invitation. 1979
  • Women Are Not Roses. Houston: Arte Público Press, 1984. ISBN 0-934770-28-X
  • My Father Was a Toltec and selected poems, 1973-1988. New York: Norton, 1995. ISBN 0-393-03718-5
  • I Ask the Impossible. New York: Anchor Books, 2000. ISBN 0-385-72073-4

Non-fiction

  • Massacre of the Dreamers: Essays on Xicanisma. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1994. ISBN 0-8263-1554-2

Translations

  • Esta Puente, Mi Espalda: Voces de Mujeres Tercermundistas en los Estados Unidos (with Norma Alarcón). San Francisco: Ism Press, 1988. (Spanish adaptation of This Bridge Called My Back
    This Bridge Called My Back

    This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color was a ground-breaking feminism anthology edited by Cherr?e Moraga and Gloria E....
    : Writings by Radical Women of Color
    , edited by Cherríe Moraga
    Cherríe Moraga

    Cherr?e L. Moraga is a Chicana writer, feminist activist, poet, essayist, and playwright....
    .)


As editor

  • The Sexuality of Latinas (co-editor, with Norma Alarcón and Cherríe Moraga). Berkeley: Third Woman Press, 1993. ISBN 0-943219-00-0
  • Goddess of the Americas: Writings on the Virgin of Guadalupe / La Diosa de las Américas: Escritos Sobre la Virgen de Guadalupe (editor). New York: Riverhead Books, 1996. ISBN 1-57322-029-9


See also

  • List of Mexican American writers

Critical studies since 2000 (English only)

as of March 2008:

Journal articles

  1. Castillo's 'Burra, Me', 'La Burra Mistakes Friendship with a Lashing', and 'The Friend Comes Back to Teach the Burra' By: Ruiz-Velasco, Chris; Explicator, 2007 Winter; 65 (2): 121-24.
  2. 'The Pleas of the Desperate': Collective Agency versus Magical Realism in Ana Castillo's So Far From God By: Caminero-Santangelo, Marta; Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature, 2005 Spring; 24 (1): 81-103.
  3. Violence in the Borderlands: Crossing the Home Space in the Novels of Ana Castillo By: Johnson, Kelli Lyon; Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies, 2004; 25 (1): 39-58.
  4. Literary Syncretism
    Syncretism

    Syncretism consists of the attempt to reconcile disparate or contrary beliefs, often while melding practices of various schools of thought. The term may refer to attempts to merge and analogy several originally discrete traditions, especially in the theology and mythology of religion, and thus assert an underlying unity allowing for an inclu...
     in Ana Castillo's So Far From God By: Alarcón, Daniel Cooper; Studies in Latin American Popular Culture, 2004; 23: 145-52.
  5. The Second Tower of Babel: Ana Castillo's Borgesian Precursors in The Mixquiahuala Letters By: Jirón-King, Shimberlee; Philological Quarterly, 2003 Fall; 82 (4): 419-40.
  6. Creating a Resistant Chicana Aesthetic: The Queer
    Queer

    Queer has traditionally meant odd or unusual, but its use in reference to LGBT communities as well as those perceived to be members of those communities has largely replaced the traditional definition and application in modern usage....
     Performativity
    Performativity

    Performativity is a concept that is related to speech act theory, to the pragmatics of language, and to the work of J. L. Austin. It accounts for situations where a proposition may constitute or instantiate the object to which it is meant to refer, as in so-called "performative utterances"....
     of Ana Castillo's So Far from God By: Mills, Fiona; CLA Journal, 2003 Mar; 46 (3): 312-36.
  7. The Homoerotic Tease and Lesbian Identity in Ana Castillo's Work By: Gómez-Vega, Ibis; Crítica Hispánica, 2003; 25 (1-2): 65-84.
  8. Ana Castillo's So Far from God: Intimations of the Absurd
    Absurd

    Absurd may refer to:* Absurdism, a philosophy born of existentialism* Absurd or surreal humour* Absurd , a National Socialist Black Metal band...
     By: Manríquez, B. J.; College Literature, 2002 Spring; 29 (2): 37-49.
  9. Hybrid
    Hybridity

    Hybridity refers in its most basic sense to mixture. The term originates from biology and was subsequently employed in linguistics and in racial theory in the nineteenth century....
     Latina Identities: Critical Positioning In-Between Two Cultures By: Mujcinovic, Fatima; Centro de Estudios Puertorriqueños, 2001 Spring; 13 (1): 45-59.
  10. Con un pie a cada lado'/With a Foot in Each Place: Mestizaje as Transnational
    Transnational

    Transnational may mean:* International* Multinational* Transnationality* Transnational marriage* Transnational organized crime* Transnational crime...
     Feminisms in Ana Castillo's So Far from God By: Gillman, Laura; Meridians: Feminism, Race, Transnationalism, 2001; 2 (1): 158-75.
  11. La Llorona
    La Llorona

    La Llorona is Spanish for "the weeping woman," and is a popular legend in Spanish-speaking cultures in the Americas, with many versions. The basic version is that La Llorona was a beautiful woman who killed her children to be with the man that she loved and was subsequently rejected by him....
     and a Call for Environmental Justice in the Borderlands: Ana Castillo's So Far from God By: Cook, Barbara J.; Northwest Review, 2001; 39 (2): 124-33.
  12. Chicana/o Fiction from Resistance to Contestation: The Role of Creation in Ana Castillo's So Far from God By: Rodriguez, Ralph E.; MELUS, 2000 Summer; 25 (2): 63-82.
  13. Rebellion and Tradition in Ana Castillo's So Far from God and Sylvia López-Medina's Cantora By: Sirias, Silvio; MELUS, 2000 Summer; 25 (2): 83-100.
  14. Gritos desde la Frontera: Ana Castillo, Sandra Cisneros
    Sandra Cisneros

    Sandra Cisneros is a Chicano writer best known for her acclaimed first novel The House on Mango Street and her subsequent short story collection Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories ....
    , and Postmodernism
    Postmodernism

    Postmodernism literally means 'after the modernist movement'. While "modern" itself refers to something "related to the present", the movement of modernism and the following reaction of postmodernism are defined by a set of perspectives....
     By: Mermann-Jozwiak, Elisabeth; MELUS, 2000 Summer; 25 (2): 101-18.
  15. Chicana Feminist Narratives and the Politics of the Self By: Elenes, C. Alejandra; Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies, 2000; 21 (3): 105-23.
  16. 'Saint-Making' in Ana Castillo's So Far from God: Medieval Mysticism
    Mysticism

    Mysticism is the pursuit of communion with, Unio Mystica with, or conscious awareness of an ultimate reality, divinity, Spirituality, or God through direct experience, intuition, or insight....
     as Precedent for an Authoritative Chicana Spirituality By: Sauer, Michelle M.; Mester, 2000; 29: 72-91.


Book articles/chapters

  1. Determined to Indeterminacy: Pan-American and European Dimensions of the Mestizaje Concept in Ana Castillo's Sapogonia By: Köhler, Angelika. IN: Bottalico and Moncef bin Khalifa, Borderline Identities in Chicano Culture. Venice, Italy: Mazzanti; 2006. pp. 101-14
  2. Ana Castillo (1953-) By: Castillo, Debra A.. IN: West-Durán, Herrera-Sobek and Salgado, Latino and Latina Writers, I: Introductory Essays, Chicano and Chicana Authors; II: Cuban and Cuban American Authors, Dominican and Other Authors, Puerto Rican Authors. New York, NY: Scribner's; 2004. pp. 173-93
  3. The Spirit of a People: The Politicization of Spirituality in Julia Alvarez
    Julia Álvarez

    Julia Alvarez is a Dominican-American poet, novelist, and essayist. Born in New York City of Dominican descent, she spent the first ten years of her childhood in the Dominican Republic, until her father's involvement in a political rebellion forced her family to flee the country....
    's In the Time of the Butterflies, Ntozake Shange
    Ntozake Shange

    Ntozake Shange is an United States playwright, dancer, actor, director, author, lecturer, installation artist, and poet. As a self proclaimed Black feminism, much of the content of her work addresses issues relating to Race and feminism....
    's sassafrass, cypress & indigo, and Ana Castillo's So Far from God By: Blackford, Holly. IN: Groover, Things of the Spirit: Women Writers Constructing Spirituality. Notre Dame, IN: U of Notre Dame P; 2004. pp. 224-55
  4. 'A Question of Faith': An Interview with Ana Castillo By: Kracht, Katharine. IN: Alonso Gallo, Voces de América/American Voices: Entrevistas a escritores americanos/Interviews with American Writers. Cádiz, Spain: Aduana Vieja; 2004. pp. 623-38
  5. A Chicana Hagiography
    Hagiography

    Hagiography is the study of saints. A hagiography, from Greek ' and ' , refers literally to writings on the subject of such holy people, and specifically the biography of ecclesiastical and secular leaders....
     for the Twenty-first Century By: Alcalá, Rita Cano. IN: Gaspar de Alba, Velvet Barrios: Popular Culture & Chicana/o Sexualities. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan; 2003. pp. 3-15
  6. Ana Castillo as Santera: Reconstructing Popular Religious Praxis By: Pérez, Gail. IN: Pilar Aquino, Machado and Rodríguez, A Reader in Latina Feminist Theology: Religion and Justice. Austin, TX: U of Texas P; 2002. pp. 53-79
  7. A Two-Headed Freak and a Bad Wife Search for Home: Border Crossing in Nisei Daughter
    Monica Sone

    Monica Sone is a Japanese American writer, best known for her 1953 autobiography memoir Nisei Daughter, which tells of the Japanese American experience in Seattle during the 1920s and 30s, and in the World War II internment camps and which is an important text in Asian American Studies courses....
     and The Mixquiahuala Letters By: Cooper, Janet. IN: Benito and Manzanas, Literature and Ethnicity in the Cultural Borderlands. Amsterdam, Netherlands: Rodopi; 2002. pp. 159-73


Books

  1. New Visions of Community in Contemporary American Fiction: Tan
    Amy Tan

    Amy Tan is an United States writer of Chinese people descent whose works explore mother-daughter relationships. In 1993, Tan's adaptation of her most popular fiction work, The Joy Luck Club, became a commercially The Joy Luck Club ....
    , Kingsolver
    Barbara Kingsolver

    Barbara Kingsolver is an United States writer. She has written, or collaborated on, 12 books, most of which are novels, but including some poems, short stories and essays....
    , Castillo, Morrison
    Toni Morrison

    Toni Morrison , is a Nobel Prize in Literature-winning American author, editor, and professor. Her novels are known for their epic poetry themes, vivid dialogue, and richly detailed black characters; among the best known are her novels The Bluest Eye, Song of Solomon , and Beloved , which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1988...
     By: Michael, Magali Cornier. Iowa City: U of Iowa P; 2006.
  2. Exploding the Western
    Western (genre)

    The Western is a fiction genre seen in film, television, radio, literature, painting and other visual arts. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the later half of the 19th century in what became the Western United States , but also in Western Canada, Mexico , Alaska and even Australia ....
    : Myths of Empire on the Postmodern Frontier
    Frontier Thesis

    The Turner Thesis is the conclusion of Frederick Jackson Turner that the wellsprings of American exceptionalism and vitality have always been the American frontier, the region between urbanized, civilized society and the untamed wilderness....
     By: Spurgeon, Sara L.. College Station, TX: Texas A&M UP; 2005.
  3. Ana Castillo By: Spurgeon, Sara L.. Boise: Boise State U; 2004.


External links

  • at the California Ethnic and Multicultural Archives
    California Ethnic and Multicultural Archives

    California Ethnic and Multicultural Archives is an archival institution that houses collections of primary source documents from the history of minority ethnic groups in California....