Sandra Cisneros Summary

Sandra Cisneros (1954 -) American short story writer, poet, and novelist. Sandra Cisneros: Introduction Sandra Cisneros: Principal Works Sandra Cisneros: Primary Sources Sandra Cisneros: General Comme... Read more

Drawing heavily upon her childhood experiences and ethnic heritage Sandra Cisneros (born 1954) creates characters who are distinctly Hispanic and often isolated from mainstream American culture by emp... Read more

With her fiction and poetry Sandra Cisneros creates poignant stories and brings an original twist to universal themes, notably love. Yet, as Jim Sagel in Publishers Weekly pointed out, "Cisneros knows... Read more

Sandra Cisneros, poet and short-story writer, is best known for The House on Mango Street (1983), a Chicana novel of initiation, which won the Before Columbus American Book Award in 1985. In this lyri... Read more

In the following essay, Wyatt explores the transformations of feminine "icons" of Anglo and Mexican gender ideology by "borderland" cultural assumptions in "Never Ma... Read more

The following is a compilation of two interviews. In an author's note, interviewer Martha Satz states: "The first was conducted in 1985 under the auspices of the Dallas Public Library in... Read more

In the following essay, Busch examines Esperanza's exploration of her Chicana identity in Cisneros's short story collection. A counterstance locks one into a duel of oppressor and op... Read more

In the following essay, Wyatt explores the relationship between the internalized icons of womenhood and the tension between Anglo and Mexican cultures to determine how it affects the female protagonis... Read more

In the following essay, Olivares discusses the theme of space in Cisneros's first short story collection, and demonstrates the manner with which she employs her imagery as "poetics of sp... Read more

In the following essay, Olivares examines Cisneros's use of imagery in The House on Mango Street, analysing the metaphor of the house and the dialectics of inside vs. outside, here vs. there, i... Read more

In the following essay, Olivares provides analysis of central themes within The House on Mango Street, and suggests some possible approaches to teaching the work. A. Analysis of Themes and Forms Sa... Read more

In the following essay, Szadziuk examines the autobiographical novels of three women writers: The House on Mango Street, by Cisneros, When I Was Puerto Rican, by Esmeralda Santiago, and Loving in the ... Read more

In the following essay, Brunk asserts that Cisneros's construction of a multiple and shifting narrative point-of-view in The House on Mango Street works to reveal the social realities of the ur... Read more

In the following review, Randall offers high praise for Cisneros's Caramelo, judging it to be an ambitious, captivating, and masterfully written novel. In 1984 Arte Publico Press in Houston ... Read more

In the following review, Kaveney lauds Cisneros's skillful blending of autobiography and fiction in Caramelo, calling the novel an “achieved and enjoyable book.” The stories th... Read more

In the following essay, Cujec discusses the dominant themes and influences of Caramelo. In her new novel Caramelo, Sandra Cisneros bathes our senses in Latino culture as we accompany her characters... Read more

In the following essay, Valdes provides an overview of critical responses to The House on Mango Street, based on reviews published in three different sets of sources: mainstream newspapers, academic j... Read more

In the following essay, Busch contends that The House on Mango Street represents the protagonist's development of Chicana feminist empowerment and a fluid and progressive notion of Chicana iden... Read more

In the following excerpt, Carter examines three autobiographical texts by female authors: The House on Mango Street, by Cisneros, In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens, by Alice Walker, and Your Na... Read more

In the following interview, Cisneros discusses her cultural identity, her personal and family history, her literary influences, and feminism. Chicano literature, like many other new literatures in ... Read more

In the following essay, Muske celebrates Cisneros for resisting the constraints of genre by writing poems that speak naturally and prose that sings. Why do most American graduate writing programs g... Read more

In the following essay, Estill examines the collection My Wicked Wicked Ways alongside Cisneros's novel The House on Mango Street, tracing the narrators' barrio childhoods, their struggl... Read more

In the following essay, Carbonell investigates the influence of the fertility goddess Coatlicue and the mythical Mexican figure of La Llorona in “Woman Hollering Creek” and Helena Maria ... Read more

In the following essay, Fitts discusses Cisneros's representations of three Hispanic female icons in the stories of Woman Hollering Creek: La Malinche in “Never Marry a Mexican;” ... Read more

In the following essay, Doyle examines Cisneros's utilization of the La Llorona myth in her story “Woman Hollering Creek” and argues that the story “charts psychological, l... Read more

In the following essay, Griffin considers how cultural influences shape and limit the lives of the women in Woman Hollering Creek. In her prefatory poem to My Wicked, Wicked Ways, Sandra Cisneros a... Read more

In the following essay, Phelan utilizes the dialogue form in order to explore the relationship between “Woman Hollering Creek,” Phelan's rhetorical analysis, and the cultural crit... Read more

In the following essay, Brady examines the representation of space in Woman Hollering Creek, arguing that “Cisneros's stories perform their critique of the production of space in multipl... Read more