Reclaiming Medusa: Short Stories by Contemporary Puerto Rican Women

by Diana Velez

Book Overview

The short stories in Reclaiming Medusa bring a much-needed perspective to the Latin American literary scene. Creating spaces in which the socially prescribed "woman's place" is questioned, problematized, and often subverted, these narratives reclaim women's lost power in ways that are subtle, complex, and sometimes startling. This revised edition contains new stories by Carmen Valle and Carmen Lugo Filippi, as well as a provocative new "Translator's Note" by editor and translator Diana L. V lez.

Reclaiming Medusa is an excellent beginning, something solid to sink our hungry teeth into. It signals the existence of an explicitly feminist literary arena in which Puerto Rican women on both sides of the water can begin hashing out the differences that go beyond choice of language--differences rooted in class and race, in the hope and desperation of migration and the slow poison of colonial rule. -- Aurora Levins Morales, The Women's Review of Books

Any readers who still visualize the Latin American woman as either the cloistered daughter of aristocracy or the sturdy peasant bound to the soil in quasi-mystical communion will find it difficult to cling to such stereotypes after reading these thirteen stories by five contemporary Puerto Rican women writers. -- Belles Lettres

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1879960524
• ISBN13: 9781879960527
• Release Date: January 1997
• Publisher: Aunt Lute Books
• Length: 180 Pages
• Weight: 0.66 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.5" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Fun, thought-provoking

This collection of short stories is a fun, sometimes funny, thought-provoking read. I especially loved the last two stories by Ana Lydia Vega: "Three Love Aerobics" and "ADJ, Inc." The stories are like mind aerobics--they make you think and stretch basic ideas. Also interesting is the use of narration to show differing points of view on subjects like love and marriage. I don't know much about Puerto Rican writers, but the introduction gives a fairly good briefing. On the whole, this book was a great introduction to Puerto Rican female authors.