Women’s Poetry that Heals across Borders: A Trans-American Reading of the Body, Sexuality, and Love

Carolina Núñez-Puente

doi:10.14198/fem.2021.37.14

Abstract

Drawing on the idea of literature as healing (Wilentz), this article examines the anti-dualistic restoring defense of the body, sexuality, and love in Angelou (African American), Cisneros (Chicana), and Peri Rossi (Uruguayan Spanish). My trans-American comparative reading seeks to transcend frontiers and join the poets’ efforts to demolish racist, (hetero) sexist, and other prejudices. The authors insist on the body and emotions as providing reliable sources of knowledge; they propose that women can cure themselves by loving their bodies, poetry can close up the wounds of sexist violence, and respect for lesboeroticism can heal intolerant communities. While celebrating the female, the poetic personae embrace non-binary positions that defy sexual and gender stereotypes; moreover, their poems’ cross-cultural and multi-tonal dimension functions as a bridge among people. In sum, the poetry of Angelou, Cisneros, and Peri Rossi has the power to cross borders and heal the world.

Highlights

HEALING WITH POETRY AND LOVE IN ANGELOU, CISNEROS, AND PERI ROSSIAround the world, the curative power of chant has been celebrated in cultures from time immemorial, not least as part of the ancient healing rituals of our ancestors
This paper evaluates the restorative features of the poems of Maya Angelou (African American), Sandra Cisneros (Chicana), and Cristina Peri Rossi (Uruguayan Spanish)
The messages of the poems, which can be deemed curative formulas, are addressed to women readers: black women should heal themselves by loving their bodies and communities, while white women should learn to love their black counterparts as a means of definitively eradicating the epidemic of racism (Angelou); poetry can close up the wounds of sexist violence in the woman poet and reader (Cisneros); society should respect lesboeroticism as a valid form of existence, and so overcome the illness of heterosexism (Peri Rossi)

Summary

INTRODUCTION

The curative power of chant has been celebrated in cultures from time immemorial, not least as part of the ancient healing rituals of our ancestors. The messages of the poems, which can be deemed curative formulas, are addressed to women readers: black women should heal themselves by loving their bodies and communities, while white women (and men) should learn to love their black counterparts as a means of definitively eradicating the epidemic of racism (Angelou); poetry can close up the wounds of sexist violence in the woman poet and reader (Cisneros); society should respect lesboeroticism as a valid form of existence, and so overcome the illness of heterosexism (Peri Rossi). The poetry of Angelou, Cisneros, and Peri Rossi can be taken as alternative therapies to help us overcome the dualisms that infect the planet (mind/body, white/black, English/Spanish, heterosexual/ homosexual, and so on); therein, they often embrace hybrid ideas and methodologies that aspire to a realm of ethical relationships, and of health. As my analyses will demonstrate, Angelou, Cisneros, and Peri Rossi cure themselves and their communities, while illustrating that poetry can go across borders to heal the whole world

MAYA ANGELOU

SANDRA CISNEROS

CRISTINA PERI ROSSI

CONCLUSION

This piece of research has been supported by the project «Bodies in Transit