When Whiteness Means Imagining Blackness and Signifying Socio-cultural Difference in Rosario Ferré’s “Cuando las mujeres quieren a los hombres”

Abstract

Due to Ferré’s intentions to politicize literature to expose the contradictions of a patriarchal society, a vast bibliography of literary criticism concerning her narrative’s gender implications in coalescence with class intersections can be found. However, the importance of Ferré’s narrative’s racial repercussions remain today an understudied field. This essay aims to explore the junctures of prior scholarly studies on class and gender with that of race as a principal focus, primarily, in “Cuando las mujeres quieren a los hombres.” We will examine Ferré’s white literary imagination as the evidence of how her instrumentalization of blackness is the axis to shape whites’ subjectivity and sensibility. In doing so, we intend to understand how Ferré’s whiteness mediates her stories and intercedes to signify socio-cultural differences through her characters.