Femmenism and the Mexican Woman Intellectual from Sor Juana to Poniatowska

Hind draws on poetry, short stories, plays, novels, photographs, personal correspondence, advertising, and interviews to make visible the anti-feminine tendencies in femmenism and to imagine a femmenism that will appeal to the next generation of women.

"Innovative and daring . . . taking into account a wide panorama of century Mexican writers of the 20th century, Emily Hind proposes a new critical language to study the role of intellectual women who for various reasons have written in small rooms themselves." - Revista de Estudios Hispánicos

"Hind's new book takes a highly original and seriously entertaining look at the performances of the role of the 'Mexican woman intellectual' by writers from Sor Juana to Antonieta Rivas Mercado, Elena Poniatowska to Guadalupe Loaeza. In language as inventive and perverse as the careers of the women she has studied, Hind shows how a Busted Criticism can read sympathetically the Boob Lit written by Mexican Diva-Lectuals, Bearded Ladies, 'Señoras' and Barbies. No fan of saints, heroes, or notions of 'relentless progress' and 'social improvement,' Hind values the improper and the unreasonable in women's writing. In her own work she balances an abundance of humorous wordplay with a more traditional critical language and exhaustive research to create a 'femmenist' voice that is at once playful, irreverent, and truly scholarly." - Beth E. Jörgensen, University of Rochester

"With intelligence, knowledge, irreverence, and humor, Femmenism and the Mexican Woman Intellectual from Sor Juana to Poniatowska dispels our conceived notions about the construction of Mexican culture, women, and feminism. Hind's cheeky tone engages readers' hearts and minds while teaching us whatshe knows (and what a lot she knows!) about the culture, society, and literature of Mexico. Those interested in feminist theory, Mexico, or the writing of women, ignore this daring and painstakingly researched work at their peril. Few critics today have Hind's intimate understanding of contemporary Mexico." - Gustavo Pellón, University of Virginia

"Emily Hind's highly original study of Mexican women intellectuals from the colonial period to the present and their struggles to create a place for themselves as intellectuals in a society hostile to that notion, makes a valuable and unique contribution to literary studies and to feminist criticism in Latin America and beyond." - Hispanófila

EMILY HIND Assistant Professor of Spanish at the University of Wyoming, USA.