Reconstituting self family and community a feminist reading of Isabel Allendes novels

Abstract

The research projects is a feminist study of Isabel Allende s reconstitution of the Self, Family and Community in her six novels. To reconstitute is to reconstruct or to change the organisation of something so that it appears as a different form. The first chapter studies Allende s two memoirs Paula and The Sum of Our Days and investigate how Allende reconstitutes her Self and identity as a strong and courageous woman in the patriarchal society of Chile and as an immigrant and later a citizen in the United States. The chapter also studies Allende s reconstruction of her identity as a mother, during her daughter s illness and after her death, thus, the novels are moulded in the framework of mother-daughter relationship. The second chapter entails the study of certain ways and methods using which, Allende re- defines the family in her family trilogy The House of the Spirits, Daughter of Fortune and Portrait in Sepia. The focus is on women s experiences and the different ways in which they are subjugated in the private realm of the family. The traditional conception of family is re-defined as Allende creates unconventional family structures that reconstitute it in various ways. The third chapter focuses on the transnational community of women the Allende creates in Eva Luna and the above three novels. Allende weaves in the thread of solidarity and sisterhood among the women trespassing racial, societal, national and class differences. Allende reconstitutes the community of women by depicting solidarity and through the process of consciousness-raising, that empowers women to come out, adopt a voice which renders them visible.