A Re-mapping of Womanhood and Creativity

A Re-mapping of Womanhood and Creativity investigates the diverse ways in which women set out to find a matrilineal line as a wellspring for creative transformation, and, through a lens of analytical psychology, how we read women's literary history and narratives about womanhood. While following the feminine influences that forged her own search and nature as a writer, this book re-maps the life and work of Clara Oropeza's literary mother, Anaïs Nin, focusing on Nin's formative affinity with her mother, alongside her own personal mother. In this mother-map, Oropeza looks closely at the relationship between mothers and daughters, the formation of the maternal wound, and ways to move towards healing. Oropeza examines the pivotal role that a reconnection to a maternal line has in shaping a woman's creative life. This book argues that synthesizing our intellectual, spiritual and ancestral ways of knowing, away from the harmful narratives that shape our lives, is essential today. With scholarly and personal insight, Oropeza sheds new light on how women come to shores of understanding themselves beyond unresolved familial and historical tensions. Combining literature, myth and psychology, this book will be an illuminating read for students, scholars and professionals in the areas of literature, psychoanalysis and mythology. This book will be crucial reading for women, in particular women of color, interested in the process of individuation, creativity and womanhood.

Clara Oropeza, PhD, is a Professor of English Composition and Literature at Santa Barbara City College. Her research combines literary studies, comparative mythology, feminist and cultural theory, and depth psychology. She is the author of Anaïs Nin: A Myth of Her Own and various essays. She received her BA and MA in English Literature from California State University, Los Angeles, and her PhD in Comparative Mythology and Literature with an emphasis in Depth Psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute.

Preface: Lay of the Land: A Mother-Map; 1. Introduction: To be Indigenous on this Land: Searching for a Matrilineal Legacy; 2. Feminine Identity and a Matrilineal Legacy in the Life and Work of Anaïs Nin: (Cuba, France and the United States); 3. The Individuation Path of a Mexican Woman: Fuerte y Desahogada (Strong and Undrowned): (Mexico and the United States); 4. In Search of My Mother's Mythos: (Tucson, Arizona and Santa Barbara, California); 5. Seasons of My Discontent; Epilogue: Cartography of the Feminine Gaze; Index