Emotional living: Identity and the power of emotion in the fiction of Paula Martinac, Nella Larsen, Cristina Garcia and Loida Maritza Perez

This dissertation examines the impact of the primary emotions of pleasure, anger, grief and fear on narrative formations of identity in fictional texts by Paula Martinac, Nella Larsen, Cristina Garcia and Loida Maritza Perez. In my discussions of literary texts, I integrate recent work by neuroscientists, sociologists, anthropologists and feminist scholars to draw out the central role of emotions in narrative formations of identity and to reclaim emotion from its past negative association with non-rationality. As recent scientific studies reveal, emotion works in conjunction with cognitive processes and the physical body. Therefore, this dissertation argues that we need to bring an awareness of emotions into discussions of narrative, since narrative forms the basis of identity, and explore their role in reading, interpreting and storytelling.;The first chapter provides a theoretical framework for examining emotion and identity, and each successive chapter focuses on a single literary text and one of the primary emotions. In chapter two, I explore pleasure in Paula Martinac's Out of Time and argue that pleasure, achieved through fulfilling desires, is the most generative emotion in terms of creating narratives of identity. In chapter three, I explore anger in Nella Larsen's Passing and suggest that anger both entrenches identities and exposes vulnerabilities in them. In chapter four, I examine grief in Cristina Garcia's Dreaming in Cuban and argue that grief leads to repetition of narrative identities both within single characters and across generations. Finally, in chapter five I explore fear in Loida Maritza Perez's Geographies of Home and argue that fear is the least generative of the primary emotions since it inhibits new narratives of identity from forming.;This dissertation makes a contribution to literary studies through its focus on emotion, its framing of narrative through a lens of emotion, and its combining of scientific insights with literary ones. These literary texts offer a rich environment for this exploration because of their focus on the emotion-filled narrative processes at the center of embattled identities.