UC Riverside

My research centers on the narratological analysis, market, and sociological connotations of female light literature, also known as “best- seller literature”. Female light literature is the type of literature that by its cover is categorized as best- seller, captivating the popular sector by its wide market availability, and its entertaining plots, that connect and disconnect the reader from its surroundings. Due to the high number of books sold, female light literature is perceived as the type of commercial literature that circulates in the editorial market as a consumption object and not as a literary work, as it’s assumed that it does not implement an intellectual and artistic base in its narrative. The main purpose of this study is to locate the multiple functions of female light literature, how it connects with the global market, and its translatable international image. My research contributes to the Latin American field by going beyond the common connotation about female light literature being treated as second class literature and opening a space in academia that presents and formally analyzes a complete investigation of the impact that it has in the consumption of popular culture.

In my dissertation The Other Side of Female Light Literature, I claim that even though it is often argued that female light literature is viewed as simple in content this does not make it “simple” or light. On the contrary, the idea that this type of literature can take on the global market makes it more complex, since within its totality we can find a literary work but also a consumption “object” that is able to create a bridge between the many aspects of entertainment and the artistic and theoretical narratives. For example, in the second chapter of my dissertation, I read the work of Guadalupe Loaeza, a Mexican female writer, often seen as lacking seriousness in her literary work merely for being one of the top best- seller female writers in Mexico. Through a different perspective, in chapter two of my dissertation, “The Capitalist Labyrinth in Compro, luego existo (1992) by Guadalupe Loaeza”, I claim that Loaeza’s work is a labyrinthic capitalist space that has two functions: that of being a representation of speculation and consumption that I understand as “light literature” and that of structuring itself as an accumulative collage. In this chapter, I also make a parallel analogy between the structure of a labyrinth with that of a mall, and I make a comparison by explaining how spaces are created within them. The other chapters of my dissertation analyze the work of Mexican female writers Ángeles Mastretta and Laura Esquivel, which also explore the main functions of female light literature. On the contrary, in chapter one of this study, you will see an analysis from the literary work of two female writers, Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda (1814 – 1873) and Sandra Cisneros (1980 – present). Even though they are not view as light literature by the literary cannon; they are a significant key to the introduction of my research of female narrative analysis since they represent and explore different spectrums and centuries of female literature. This then establishes a strong and rich understanding of how female writers are capable to give the reader a unique experience through their creative narrative that needs to be taken seriously by the literary cannon.