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SELF-REPRESENTATION, CULTURAL FORMATION, AND
MEXICAN-AMERICAN MODERNISM
by
JESSICA BREMMER
_______________________________________________________
A Dissertation Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE USC GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
(ENGLISH)
DECEMBER 2012
Copyright 2012 Jessica Bremmer
Object Description
| Title | Self-representation, cultural formation, and Mexican-American modernism |
| Author | Bremmer, Jessica |
| Author email | bremmer@usc.edu;bremmerj@hotmail.com |
| Degree | Doctor of Philosophy |
| Document type | Dissertation |
| Degree program | English |
| School | College of Letters, Arts And Sciences |
| Date defended/completed | 2012-10-11 |
| Date submitted | 2012-11-04 |
| Date approved | 2012-11-05 |
| Restricted until | 2012-11-05 |
| Date published | 2012-11-05 |
| Advisor (committee chair) | Rowe, John Carlos |
| Advisor (committee member) |
Handley, William Deverell, William |
| Abstract | This dissertation focuses on Mexican-American literature and film from the first half of the twentieth century. Through the exploration of novels, plays, poetry, documentary texts, and films I argue that the work of Mexican-American writers, artists, and intellectuals in the early decades of the twentieth century is culturally generative as opposed to culturally reflective. I maintain that artistic expression and the opportunity for self-representation reflect an effort to forge a cultural identity in the face of institutionalized racism, increased modernization, repatriation efforts, and the upheavals associated with the Mexican Revolution and the Great Depression. Furthermore, I contend that in their decisive efforts to combat racist stereotypes about Mexicans and Mexican-Americans in texts from various genres, the writers I discuss contributed to a distinct Mexican-American modernism. ❧ The first section of my project focuses on two works from Josefina Niggli – her play The Singing Valley and her novel Mexican Village. I position Niggli as an important starting point for my project for multiple reasons. Not only do the characters in these texts arrive at a hybrid cultural identity after much internal struggle, but Niggli’s own cultural identity is often the subject of critical debate about whether or not her writing can be characterized as that of a Mexican-American. I suggest that it can and should, but of equal importance in my project is the very fact that these questions are asked at all. ❧ The next section explores the poetry of a figure whose place in Mexican-American literature is subject to no such debate – Américo Paredes. Paredes is considered foundational in Mexican-American literary and cultural studies, but his poetry is relatively unexamined. I focus on four poems from his collection Between Two Worlds – “The Rio Grande,” “The Mexico-Texan,” “Esquinita de mi pueblo,” and “Tres Faces del Pocho.” My position concerning these poems is that they reflect an impulse to look forward to what a fully realized Mexican-American identity means and that Paredes reconfigures the state of “in-betweenness” that comes from being both Mexican and American as a culturally generative space. ❧ The third section explores Anita Brenner’s documentary text The Wind That Swept Mexico, a written and photographic account of the Mexican Revolution. I argue that Brenner’s text challenges the notion that American documentary in the 1930’s was concerned only with the plight of the Southern sharecropper, and I offer her work as an example of the transnational concerns that are so often occluded in discussion about the genre. Brenner also reminds us that the Mexican Revolution had an impact that extended far beyond the borders of Mexico as she urges the United States to adopt a more transnational perspective about “America.” ❧ The final section of this project examines two films in relation to each other – John Steinbeck’s The Forgotten Village and director Herbert Biberman’s Salt of the Earth. The former focuses on the Mexican village of Santiago and relates the story of the villagers’ unwillingness to accept modern medical technology into their world, even if it could save the village children from a water-borne disease that springs from unhygienic conditions in the village’s water supply. The latter tells a story based on the true events of a Mexican-American miners’ strike in New Mexico. The miners engaged in a protracted battle for equal pay and the safe working conditions afforded to their Anglo counterparts, and with the help of their wives they managed to hold the picket line until company officials were forced to negotiate. My argument about these films is that, while Steinbeck professes to present a neutral document of what he and his crew witnessed in Mexico, he actively engages in a stereotypical presentation of Mexicans as innately backward-thinking. Salt of the Earth, on the other hand, reflects a remarkable moment of self-representation for Mexican-Americans in film. The filmmakers, members of the blacklisted Hollywood Ten, conceived of the movie with the clear purpose of allowing the miners to tell their own story and to present themselves as they wanted to be presented. It features actual Mexican-American union workers as actors, relied on Mexican-American miners for their advice about the script, and, I argue, ultimately allows them a voice in their own narrative. |
| Keyword | Mexican-American modernism; Josefina Niggli; Anita Brenner; Américo Paredes; Salt of the earth; The forgotten village |
| Language | English |
| Part of collection | University of Southern California dissertations and theses |
| Publisher (of the original version) | University of Southern California |
| Place of publication (of the original version) | Los Angeles, California |
| Publisher (of the digital version) | University of Southern California. Libraries |
| Provenance | Electronically uploaded by the author |
| Type | texts |
| Legacy record ID | usctheses-m |
| Rights | Bremmer, Jessica |
| Access conditions | The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the author, as the original true and official version of the work, but does not grant the reader permission to use the work if the desired use is covered by copyright. It is the author, as rights holder, who must provide use permission if such use is covered by copyright. The original signature page accompanying the original submission of the work to the USC Libraries is retained by the USC Libraries and a copy of it may be obtained by authorized requesters contacting the repository e-mail address given. |
| Repository name | University of Southern California Digital Library |
| Repository address | USC Digital Library, University of Southern California, University Park Campus MC 7002, 106 University Village, Los Angeles, California 90089-7002, USA |
| Repository email | cisadmin@usc.edu |
| Archival file | uscthesesreloadpub_Volume4/etd-BremmerJes-1267.pdf |
Description
| Title | Page 1 |
| Full text | SELF-REPRESENTATION, CULTURAL FORMATION, AND MEXICAN-AMERICAN MODERNISM by JESSICA BREMMER _______________________________________________________ A Dissertation Presented to the FACULTY OF THE USC GRADUATE SCHOOL UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (ENGLISH) DECEMBER 2012 Copyright 2012 Jessica Bremmer |
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