SANDRA CISNEROS – BIOGRAPHY Born December 20, 1954 in Chicago, Sandra Cisneros is an American novelist, short-story writer, essayist, and poet. Cisneros is one of the first Hispanic-American writers who has achieved commercial success. She is lauded by literary scholars and critics for works which help bring the perspective of Chicana (Mexican-American) women into the mainstream of literary feminism. Cisneros received her B.A. from Loyola University in 1976 and her M.F.A from the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop in 1978. This workshop marks an important turning point in her career as a writer. Cisneros had periodically written poems and stories while growing up, but it was the frustrations she encountered at the Writer's Workshop that inspired Cisneros' realization that her experiences as a Latina woman were unique and outside the realm of dominant American culture. Thus, Cisneros decided to write about conflicts directly related to her upbringing, including divided cultural loyalties, feelings of alienation, and degradation associated with poverty. These specific cultural and social concerns, coupled with Cisneros' feelings of alienation as a Latina writer, came to life five years later in The House on Mango Street (1983). In addition to writing, Cisneros has taught at the Latino Youth Alternative High School in Chicago and has been a college recruiter and counselor for minority students at Loyala University of Chicago. She served as literature director for the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center in San Antonio, Texas, and was an artist in residence at the Foundation Michael Karolyi in Vence, France. She has been a guest professor at California State University, University of California, Berkeley, University of California, Irvine, Univerity of Michigan, Ann Arbor and the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque. Cisneros is also a member of PEN and Mujeres por la Paz, a women's peace group which helps organize. Cisneros was the only daughter among seven children, and her brothers attempts to make her assume a traditional female role is reflected in the feminist strains of her writing, glorifying heroines who dream of economic independence and celebrating the "wicked" sexuality of women. The family frequently moved between the United States and Mexico because of her father's homesickness for his native country and his devotion to his mother who lived there. Consequently, Cisneros often felt homeless and displaced. She began to read extensively, finding comfort in such works as Virginia Lee Burton's The Little House and Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Today, Cisneros' works give both solace and realistic lessons about feelings which, as a child, she felt were uniquely hers, namely cultural division, loneliness and shame. Bryan Stevenson is the executive director of
the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Alabama, and a professor of law at New York University Law School. He has won relief for dozens of condemned prisoners, argued five times before the Supreme Court, and won national acclaim for his work challenging bias against the poor and people of color. He has received numerous awards, including the MacArthur Foundation “Genius” Grant. |
A prime example of how Cisneros' writing speak to the experiences of the forgotten or invisible of American society is The House on Mango Street. In this work, widely celebrated by critics, teachers, adults and adolescents alike, Cisneros introduces the reader to Esperanza- a poor, Latina adolescent who longs for a room of her own and a house of which she can be proud. Although Cisneros is noted primarily for her fiction, her poetry has also garnered attention. In My Wicked, Wicked Ways (1987), Cisneros writes about her native Chicago, her travels in Europe, and, as reflected in the title, sexual guilt resulting from her strict Catholic upbringing. A collection of sixty poems, each of which resemble a short story, the work exemplifies one of Cisneros' acclaimed knack for combining and crossing the boundaries of genre.
Cisneros' other works include Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories (1991), and the poetry collections Bad Boys and Loose Woman (1994). She has also written a book for juveniles, Pelitos (1994). Cisneros has also contributed to numerous periodicals, including Imagine, Contact II, Glamour, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Village Voice and Revista Chicano-Riquena. These works, short in titles but great in fresh literary ideas and cultural resonance, have garnered Sandra Cisneros wide critical acclaim as well as popular success. By reaching deep into her Chicana-Mexican heritage and articulating sensations of displacement and longing, Sandra Cisneros has created a lasting tribute to those who must conquer similar battles as she, and has thereby left a lasting friend for all who have let their imaginations build a house all their own. Background
The House on Mango Street is a novella made up of forty-four vignettes. A vignette is a short, well-written sketch, descriptive scene, or story. It does not always have a plot, but it does reveal something about the elements in it. It may reveal character, mood, or tone. Each vignette has a theme or idea that it wants to convey. It is the description of the scene or the character that is important because each one contributes to the big picture. The vignettes add up, as Sandra Cisneros writes, "to tell one big story, each story contributing to the whole – like beads in a necklace." The vignettes are told through the poetic and imaginative voice of a young Latina girl, Esperanza Cordero. Esperanza learns about the realities of her world and struggles with growing up in Chicago’s poverty-stricken south side. Cisneros uses Esperanza’s journey to explore many aspects of human nature. Each vignette gives the reader an opportunity to look through a window and see a part of Esperanza’s world while also giving the reader a chance to look in the mirror and examine his or her own life. As Cisneros says, “You, the reader, are Esperanza...You cannot forget who you are.” As we read Esperanza’s struggles with growing up and creating her own identity, we will explore our own personal identity and what it means to be human. On Writing House on Mango Street
SOCRATIC QuestionsCharacterization Assessment
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Important Definitions
Novela: A short novel or a long short story. Motifs: A motif is a symbolic image or idea that appears frequently in a story. Motifs can be symbols, sounds, actions, ideas, or words. Motifs strengthen a story by adding images and ideas to the theme present throughout the narrative.The word motif (pronounced moh-teef) is derived from the French phrase motif meaning “pattern.” Symbols: A symbol is literary device that contains several layers of meaning, often concealed at first sight, and is representative of several other aspects, concepts or traits than those that are visible in the literal translation alone. Symbol is using an object or action that means something more than its literal meaning. Social Commentary: It is the act of expressing an opinion on the nature of society -Social commentary may be obvious or it may be a slightly hidden message in literature Bildungsroman: a novel depicting someone's growth from childhood to maturity. -The protagonist grows, learns, and changes in order to take his or her place in the world. -Bildungsroman is a German word that literally means “a novel of formation” -It is sometimes referred to as a coming of age story. |
Syle: The manner of expression of a particular writer produced by: choice of words, sentence structures, use of literary devices, rhythm, and other elements of composition -Many writers have their own particular style
-Some types of style are scientific, expository, poetic, and journalistic -For example, an article from a magazine or a newspaper is written in a different style than one from a scientific journal. -Newspaper: journalistic, factual but may be persuasive or biased, should appeal to wide variety of readers. -Scientific Journal: scientific, uses science-related words, should be solely factual, may only appeal to readers who share same scientific knowledge. Vignette: a short, well-written sketch or descriptive scene -It does not have a plot, which would make it a story, but it does reveal something about the elements in it. -It may reveal character, or mood, or tone. -It may have a theme or idea of its own that it wants to convey. -It is the description of the scene or character that is important. Juxtaposition: The arrangement of two or more ideas, characters, actions, settings, phrases, or words side-by-side or in similar narrative moments. Used for the purpose of comparison, contrast, rhetorical effect, suspense, or character development |