UCLA

In my dissertation, I examine the representation of prostitution in the novels of twentieth-century Mexicana writers. This study will focus on what I call the Mexicana novel of prostitution, texts that feature female protagonists who have been compelled to enter the profession of prostitution out of necessity for financial or personal reasons. Examples of this genre that I analyze include Antonia Mora's "Del oficio" (1972), Sarah Sefchovich's Demasiado amor (1990), and Cristina Rivera Garza's Nadie me verá llorar (1999). Although the Mexicana novels of prostitution in some ways are a continuation of the social and historical approach to prostitution established in the nineteenth century, they constitute a literary genre that dialogues and also breaks with the male-authored literary discourses of the past. In Chapter One, I examine the expansion and industrialization of Paris, London, Madrid, New York, and Mexico City along with the emergence of the male novel of prostitution in this socio-historical context. I also consider legislation that emerged during the nineteenth century to control prostitutes. These important components of the emergence of the modern city are examined in order to establish the literary, social, and historical background of the Mexicana novel of prostitution. In Chapter Two, I focus on Antonia Mora's Del oficio (1972). In this urban testimonio, Mora professes to be a strong authority on the subject of prostitution, based on her personal experience. Because her novel is in no way a moralizing tale but rather is an honest portrayal of life in "el oficio," a life that has not been appropriated by anyone else, I assert that a strong distinction can be made between Mora's work and that of the male authors that precede her. In Chapter Three, I focus on Sara Sefchovich's Mexicana novel of prostitution, Demasiado amor (1990), as a response to and a dramatic departure from the Mexican literature of the mid-eighties. I conclude this chapter by analyzing the novel's relation to Sefchovich's most recent work of fiction, Vivir la vida (2000), positing that in both works the main characters live lives shaped mostly by oppressive circumstances that they are unable to escape, even in exile and death. The author uses her novels to reflect on the fact that the situation of women in Mexico has not sufficiently improved. In Chapter Four, I examine Cristina Rivera Garza's Nadie me verá llorar (1999), arguing that her identity as a fronteriza writer with a Chicana/Latina sensibility shapes her novel. Indeed, the novel presents within itself a theory of what a novel should be; it is an "interview" and exploration of a historical document that merges photography, history, and the author's own written voice and lived experience. Finally, Chapter Five, analyzes the current state of prostitution in Mexico City and reflects on the state of Mexican Feminism manifested in the Mexicana novel of prostitution and in the streets through the activism of mujeres "en la vida."