Voices, Discourse and Identity in Chicano Narrative
Keywords:
Chicano narrative, Sandra Cisneros, narrative voices, identity conflict, new stylistics, discourse analysisAbstract
This article analyzes the different narrative voices and ways of presenting characters’ speech and thought in Chicano fiction, focusing on Sandra Cisneros’ novels: The House on Mango Street (1984, 1991), Woman Hollering Creek (1991), and Caramelo (2002). Using the ‘new stylistics’ approach proposed by Fowler (1975) and developed by Leech and Short (1981), Fowler (1986), and Simpson (1993), the paper explores how narrative techniques evolve in complexity over time. The study demonstrates that narrative voices and discourse presentations in Cisneros’ fiction run parallel to one of the key concepts in Chicano literature: identity conflict. The article argues that Chicano narratives, particularly those written after 1970, depict Mexican American characters experiencing a process of bicultural identification. Through an analysis of Cisneros’ works, the author contends that the identity conflict is always present either implicitly or explicitly in the characters’ speech. This work investigates how the use of internal narrative modes, such as first-person and third-person narrators, enriches the thematic depth and uniqueness of Cisneros’ fiction.
(The abstract and keywords were prepared retrospectively for indexing purposes using AI-assisted tools and editorial review, based on the original article. They did not appear in the original publication.)
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