Magical Feminism in the Americas: Resisting Female Marginalisation and Oppression through Magic

The book aims to show the way magical feminism resists female marginalisation and oppression in the Americas. Dealing with multiple victimisation of women in the Americas who have suffered not only because of their gender but also their race, ethnicity, political ideology, social status, financial insecurity and such, magical feminism provides a voice to them so that they can speak about their marginalisation and victimisation. In other words, by using magical feminism, these female authors attempt to give a voice to the oppressed women, enabling them to resist and challenge the traditional female role and to raise their voices against various social and political issues. The subversive and transgressive power of magical feminism enables the oppressed women to break patriarchal constraints and to reverse the traditional power structure. By creating an imaginary realm through traditions, local beliefs and rituals, myth, magic and the spirits of the dead ancestors as guides, magical feminist technique functions as a survival strategy for women in traumatic and oppressive situations and provides them consolation. The project includes a total of eight novels from African American (Gloria Naylor’s 'Mama Day'), Latin American (Isabel Allende’s 'The House of the Spirits'), Native American (Louise Erdrich’s 'Tracks'), Chicana (Ana Castillo’s 'So Far from God'), North American (Gail Anderson-Dargatz’s 'The Cure for Death by Lightning'), Central American (Gioconda Belli’s 'The Inhabited Woman'), Hawaiian American (Kiana Davenport’s 'Shark Dialogues') and Cuban American (Cristina García’s 'Dreaming in Cuban') background.

Preface

Chapter 1 Introduction
Chapter 2 Magical Realism, Feminism, and Magical Feminism: History, Features and Functions
Chapter 3 Magical Feminism and Female Marginalisation in the Americas

Part I. Attacking Dictatorship and Transforming Destructive Patriarchal System
Chapter 4 Resisting Patriarchy and Challenging Dictatorship in Isabel Allende’s The House of the Spirits
Chapter 5 Reconstructing Personal Identity and Creating an Alternative National History: Magical Realism and the Marginalised Female Voice in Gioconda Belli’s The Inhabited Woman

Part II. Resisting Colonial Constraints and Asserting Female Identity
Chapter 6 Relating Women with Cultural and Socio-Political Framework and Highlighting the Issues of Marginality in Kiana Davenport’s Shark Dialogues
Chapter 7 Resisting White Supremacy and Constructing Ethnic and Female Identity: Magical Resistance in Louise Erdrich’s Tracks

Part III. Protesting Cultural Domination and Challenging Nationalist Male Politics
Chapter 8 Linking Magical Realism and Transnational Feminism: Developing Female Identity in Cristina García’s Dreaming in Cuban
Chapter 9 Political and Gendered Magical Realism in Ana Castillo’s So Far from God

Part IV. Questioning Racial and Gendered Supremacy and Empowering Women
Chapter 10 Healing Trauma of Sexual Abuse and Rejecting Patriarchal Authority in Gail Anderson-Dargatz’s The Cure for Death by Lightning
Chapter 11 Challenging White History and Emphasising Female Solidarity in Gloria Naylor’s Mama Day
Chapter 12 Conclusion

Works Cited
Index

Md Abu Shahid Abdullah completed his MA in English and American Studies and his PhD in English literature at Otto-Friedrich University Bamberg, Germany. He is currently an Associate Professor in English at East West University, Bangladesh. His research interests include but are not limited to trauma, alienation, memory, identity, marginalisation, postcolonialism, eroticism and magical realism. He has published book chapters with publishing houses like Palgrave Macmillan and Cambridge Scholars Publishing and over 20 articles in different international journals. He has also presented over 50 research papers at national and international conferences. His first book 'Traumatic Experience and Repressed Memory in Magical Realist Novels: Speaking the Unspeakable' and his second book (edited collection) 'Trauma, Memory and Identity Crisis: Reimagining and Rewriting the Past' was published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing in 2020 and 2022 respectively.

Trauma, magical realism, magical feminism, feminism, marginalisation, identity, dictatorship, patriarchy, ecological imperialism, cultural domination