Writing Catholic Women Contemporary International Catholic Girlhood Narratives

by DelRosso, Jeana

• ISBN13: 9781403967572
• ISBN10: 1403967571
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-08-06
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

This work examines the interplay of gender, race, ethnicity, nationality, and sexuality through the lens of Catholicism in a wide range of works by women writers, forging interdisciplinary connections among women's studies, religion, and late twentieth-century literature. Discussing a diverse group of authors, Jeana DelRosso posits that the girlhood narratives of such writers constitute highly charged sites of their differing gestures toward Catholicism and argues that an understanding of the ways in which women write about religion from different cultural and racial contexts offers a crucial contribution to current discussions in gender, ethnic, and cultural studies.

Author Biography

Jeana DelRosso is an Assistant Professor of English and Women's Studies at the College of Notre Dame of Maryland.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	ix
Introduction: Catholic Literature, Academia, and Feminism	1	(10)
1. Contemporary International Catholic Literature by Women	11	(20)
2. Sin, Sexuality, Selfhood, Sainthood, Insanity: Contemporary Catholic Girlhood Narratives	31	(44)
3. The Convent as Colonist: Catholicism in the Works of Contemporary Women Writers of the Americas	75	(24)
4. Catholicism's Other(ed) Holy Trinity: Race, Class, and Gender in Black Catholic Girl School Narratives	99	(22)
5. Catholicism and Magical Realism: Religious Syncretism in the Works of Contemporary Women Writers	121	(26)
6. What's So Funny? Feminism, Catholicism, and Humor in Contemporary Women's Literature	147	(22)
Conclusion: Catholic Girls, Grown Up: Parting Thoughts from a Catholic Woman	169	(6)
Notes	175	(6)
Bibliography	181	(10)
Index	191