Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2014, American Culture Studies

This project explores how American literature reified and advanced the US national imaginary of the 1930s that relied upon depictions of a subordinate Mexican neighbor. I approach this topic through a multifocal lens that situates the stories of William Spratling and Katherine Anne Porter within their social environment and links their works to an imagined community contemporary to their publication. I problematize and interpret Spratling and Porter's stories to understand how their representations of Mexico and Mexicanness reproduce the US national imaginary during the Great Depression. I analyze their works as distinct bibliographies and as products of a specific space and generation that share similar themes and inform the US national imaginary. I work with a limited selection from each of the authors' bibliographies: Spratling's 1932 Little Mexico and three stories from Porter's 1935 anthology Flowering Judas and Other Stories, "Maria Concepcion," "Flowering Judas," and "Hacienda" form the base of the analysis I undertake in this project. I use each of these stories to illustrate different components of the US national imaginary in the 1930s. By depicting Mexicans as a primitive race inherently linked to the landscape, the authors situate Mexico against an imagined US nation-state in these stories. Spratling and Porter shape the identities of both their Mexican and Anglo characters through economic and cultural means that correlate with the strategies US nation-building policies of the time. Moreover, elements of modernity and objectivity in their narratives reflect how Spratling and Porter reflected the US national imaginary through their work. By placing Spratling and Porter's texts in conversation with these themes, I complicate the authors' ostensibly positive representations of Mexico and Mexicanness and suggest that their rendered homogeneity was a reaction against the economic uncertainty and social transformations of the Great Depression. Complying wit (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Jolie Sheffer PhD (Advisor); Susana Peña PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: American History; American Literature; American Studies

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2013, History

This thesis focuses on banana women's representations and how capitalism reinforces the patriarchal system in Honduras by utilizing three distinct yet interconnected discourses: The United Fruit Company, Honduran banana novels, and female banana union workers' testimonials. The Roosevelt Administration's Good Neighbor Policy (1933) with the collective help of the United Fruit Company and Hollywood presented Latin America and Latin American women stereotypically representing them as a sexualized and exotic persona in US mass media as observed through Carmen Miranda and shortly following, the creation of Miss Chiquita Banana.The three Honduran banana novels utilized in this thesis are: Prision verde (1950), Destacamento rojo (1962) by Ramon Amaya Amador, and Barro (1951) by Pacas Navas Miralda, that act as a counter United Fruit and Hollywood discourse. I analyze that although the novels provide a strong anti-United Fruit sentiment, the authors are also under a patriarchal discourse through their stereotypical representations of their female characters. I explore the testimonials of unionized banana women who have begun to take back their history by pursuing direct political action against gender discrimination and workers' exploitation.

Committee: Valeria Grinberg Pla PhD (Advisor); Amilcar Challu PhD (Committee Co-Chair); Francisco Cabanillas PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Gender Studies; Latin American History; Latin American Literature; Latin American Studies

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2013, Spanish

This thesis focuses on banana women's representations and how capitalism reinforces the patriarchal system in Honduras by utilizing three distinct yet interconnected discourses: The United Fruit Company, Honduran banana novels, and female banana union workers' testimonials. The Roosevelt Administration's Good Neighbor Policy (1933) with the collective help of the United Fruit Company and Hollywood presented Latin America and Latin American women stereotypically representing them as a sexualized and exotic persona in US mass media as observed through Carmen Miranda and shortly following, the creation of Miss Chiquita Banana. The three Honduran banana novels utilized in this thesis are: Prision verde (1950), Destacamento rojo (1962) by Ramon Amaya Amador, and Barro (1951) by Pacas Navas Miralda, that act as a counter United Fruit and Hollywood discourse. I analyze that although the novels provide a strong anti-United Fruit sentiment, the authors are also under a patriarchal discourse through their stereotypical representations of their female characters. I explore the testimonials of unionized banana women who have begun to take back their history by pursuing direct political action against gender discrimination and workers' exploitation.

Committee: Valeria Grinberg Pla PhD (Advisor); Amilcar Challu PhD (Committee Co-Chair); Francisco Cabanillas PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Gender Studies; Latin American History; Latin American Literature; Latin American Studies