A latinidad norte-americana vista pela ótica da literatura chica-lit: Alisa Valdes e sua obra Playing with boys

Abstract

This dissertation aims to study a literary genre called Chica-Lit, whose protagonists are Latina women between 20 and 30 years of age, in urban settings of the United States of America, and in constant conflict between their professional and personal aspirations. The genre stems from Chick-Lit, with a similar theme, but without the identity elements present in the Latin/Hispanic production. While Chick-Lit began with Helen Fielding's Bridget Jones's Diary (1996), Alisa Valdes was Chica-Lit'spioneer, with her books The Dirty Girls Social Club (2003) and Playing With Boys (2004). The Latinidad present in Valdes's works is pivotal to this study, since it establishes where the Latina/Hispanic protagonists are located, culturally and socially, within the American culture. After studying the history of Latino/Hispanic immigration to the USA, the social and political movement for Latino rights in the country, called Chicano Movement, the cultural production of this group in North America, we were able to establish the basis for this investigation, which also uses the theories of home, codeswitching and multiculturalism as components of the hybrid culture of the characters, who are found within the metaphorical area characterized by American researcher Mary Louise Pratt (1999) as contact zones, or the space where various cultures intertwine, and bring about a new space of their existence.