Bending the Rules in the Quest for an Authentic Female Identity

Book excerpt: The narrative style of both Clarice Lispector and Carmen Boullosa is characterized by a postmodern tendency toward an increased reader participation. This is accomplished by a process of liberalizing a pre-established socio-cultural repertoire with respect to female identity. The female protagonists, created by Lispector and Boullosa and examined in this book, struggle to find their true voices and their real life experiences. The resulting literary style of both these authors parallels this struggle, subverting traditional narrative structure and utilizing a dialogue that is particularly suited to describe this feminine process of conscientization.