The identity at stake: an autofictional approach to The House on Mango Street

Abstract

This article explains the autofictional construction of The House on Mango Street, literary work of the Chicana Sandra Cisneros. It is based on the theoretical basis that considers autofiction as a genre not subordinated to others, following the position of Vera Toro. It elaborates a study of the key elements of the poetic work, as well as the sociohistorical conditions in which it got written. It also analyzes how space is the fundamental narrative element that allows us to establish a relationship between literary creation, the creation of the identity of the Chicano people and the female narrator from the piece. In this study we are also taking into account the text’s strong critical character: on one side, we observe the Chicana identity at a community level, meeting this dynamic and hybrid or interstitial space, as Homi Bhabha conceptualizes it. On the other side, we see this identity enunciated from a feminine subject / alterity point of view or even from let’s say feminine alterities, bringing into dialogue this intermediary place with the paradoxical wild zone that entails Esperanza Cordero’s narration.