Audrey's Reflective Writing for Latin American Lit

Two essays on Avellaneda's purposes in writing Sab:
Symbiosis Between Slavery and Feminism - Brigida Pastor
Stranger in a Strange Land - Stacey Schlau


As I was searching the internet for some valid articles that would hopefully contextualize the novel with Cuban society and Avellaneda's biography and agenda, these two articles presented themselves with distinctive arguments about similar concepts.  As I had been wondering, the articles addressed the issue of labeling Sab as guided by Feminist or Abolitionist principles. Both authors seem to assert that both notions go hand-in-hand since both are, essentially, reactions to oppression. However, Pastor's article seems to suggest that Avellaneda uses slavery to communicate her objection to the restrictiveness embodied in the, "existing male tradition" (Pastor 195). Schlau appears with a different perspective and instead discusses Avellaneda's estrangement from the contemporary world, which, as Schlau argues, led to Avellaneda's expression of all types of equal oppression through her characters. Whether or not Avellaneda's acknowledgment of her Spanish audience added confusion is still a concern. Regardless, both articles are a good read, though toilsome, and will definitely help in the process of materializing a starting point for a paper.