Spanish American feminist literary theory: An approach through the concept of willing

Literary works written by contemporary Latin American women have contributed new perspectives to literary criticism and theory development. Feminist readings of such works have flourished and have produced, in turn, a need for a comprehensive review of Hispanic women's literary contributions.;Women critics in Spanish America have used North American and European theories to experiment and pave new directions in developing national strategies with regard to women's literary discourses. The dialogues generated confront women and culture, women and society and women and national history, while challenging patriarchal standards.;Each nation's multi-cultural make-up urges a different orientation and approach to feminist thinking. To write from a feminist perspective, in Latin American nations, is considered a political option: contrary to this notion are women who write without feminist concerns in mind. Women who choose to write from this political platform have stimulated the growth of feminist literary criticism and have generated the need for Spanish American feminist literary theories. These theories, in turn, derive from criticism of aesthetic works that express women's representational existence. Women's discourses are pressing for development strategies on class, race, ethnicity and sexual orientation derived from Hispanic national realities.;This study proposes to offer a discourse on the concept of Willing, nurtured by women's literary themes. An approach through Willing can enrich the literary experience and broaden understanding of Latin American women's own perspective of self in society. It is based on two premises: (1) that women's lived experiences are valuable referents to literary analysis, and (2) that the action imparted by the work stimulates social consciousness of women's lives and cultural conditioning.;Ten works of literature have been selected, among so many others, to develop and formulate the social concept of Willing in three aspects: Becoming, The Public Sphere and Gender and Nation. The three chosen components stem from topics found in works written by authors from the Caribbean, Mexico, Central America and South America that interact with Willing's own components of experience and action. The ten authors are: Excilia Saldana, Rosario Ferre, Rosario Castellanos, Sara Sefchovich, Gioconda Belli, Rigoberta Menchu, Ana Istaru, Isabel Allende, Diamela Eltit and Alejandra Pizarnik. The three components outlined are formulated through an interdisciplinary approach to feminist thinking with the aid of Hispanic, North American and European theories.;The approach through Willing hopes to celebrate Spanish American women's differences and develop new discourses imparted by the literature women produce.