South America Mi Hija (Pitt Poetry Series) - Softcover

Doubiago, Sharon

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0822954508 ISBN 13: 9780822954507

Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1992

Synopsis

When Shawn Doubiago graduated from high school, she and her mother Sharon, embarked on a journey through Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. In Cuzco, Peru, standing before an alter where the Incas had sacrifced their female virgins, the daughter asked, “Are there any good men?” South American Mi Hija is Sharon Doubiago’s reply.

Set amidst the mysteries and tragedies of South American culture, this book-length narrative poem is both an account of their journey and a feminist exploration of the struggle between the sexes.

About this title

About the Author:

Sharon Doubiago is the author of three book-length poems: South America Mi Hija; The Husband Arcane: The Arcane of O; and Hard Country. Her poetry collections include: Psyche Drives the Coast: Poems, 1975-1987; Body & Soul; and Greatest Hits, 1976-2003. Doubiago is also the author of two short story collections: The Book of Seeing With One's Own Eyes and El Niño. She is the recipient of three Pushcart Prizes and has twice been nominated for the National Book Award.

From Publishers Weekly:

In this book-length poem, Doubiago ( El Nino ) recounts a trip through Latin America with her 15-year-old daughter that was also a quest "to find the words." "The words" represent a means of explaining--and averting--the tragedies of "gender identity": the process in which men "deny their mothers . . . to find / themselves / to develop / technology / to make /war" and women deny "the Feminine" in themselves "to keep our fathers." Doubiago casts her quest in mythic terms, linking her journey south with Persephone's abduction "into the abyss" after being raped by Pluto. Like Persephone, Latin America is the forsaken hija , the daughter who suffers under the Patriarchy: "the Third World / screams, it drools, / it pisses, it hisses, it / stinks." Yet like Doubiago's daughter, it embodies the promise of a future in which "the gender balance / of Nature" is restored. Doubiago's impressive grasp of European and indigenous American mythologies allows her to find universal significance in personal trauma. Poetically, however, this universalizing urge often results in abstract psychosexual equations ("all patriarchies / longing for the father") and offers little in the way of pleasure.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press
• Publication date: 1992
• ISBN 10: 0822954508
• ISBN 13: 9780822954507
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 312