AbstractsLanguage, Literature & Linguistics

Clay Women: A Triptych presents a narrative exploration of temporal shamanism – the way in which time mediates the intersection between the real and the fantastic – in the realismo mágico tradition. Each of three novella-length pieces uses elements of temporality and the shamanistic power of objects and places to discover and ultimately recuperate from shared, inter-generational traumas and, further, to utilize them as a jumping-off point for self-discovery. Through the shared and separate experiences of three women – Angelita, Josie and Dianne – a picture of Hegellian desire comes into being, their burgeoning self-awareness manifests incarnations of Anzaldúa's mestiza and the contradictions which create her. As each woman moves along the jagged, barely perceptible boundary between the worlds of child and adult she follows the phenomenological journey of embracing a new identity and endures the psychic pain of becoming other than she was. From this conflict is born ability and the concomitant importance of its discovery in an otherwise realist modern context where it becomes coded as magical. Unity and reconciliation are found in rejecting the dominant temporality of Anglo culture and simultaneously reaching backwards and forwards for the recognition of self in others, specifically women of the line. Utilizing the themes of Bildüngsroman, Hegellian desire, the ways in which time/temporalism factors into identity construction as well as the particular ways in which each of these interact with the concerns of gender and ethnicity, I have explicated how the narratives of Clay Women continue the tradition of shamanistic communication in the genre of magical realist fiction. Advisors/Committee Members: Morales, Juan (advisor), Arnegard, Iver (committee member), Taylor, Cynthia Hinkel (committee member).