During the last decade, women's narrative has become a recognized force in Mexican letters. The essays in this collection explore the recent work of nine contemporary Mexican women writers. Many of the works have been translated into English; some, like Laura Esquivel's "Like Water for Chocolate," have become international best sellers. The unprecedented commercial success of these novels has generated mixed reactions: at the same time that the secondary status afforded women's narrative has come to be questioned in many academic circles, some authors are dissociating themselves from...

"A comprehensive and original examination of colonial Latin American religious women s spiritual autobiographies, Ibsen s book widens and deepens our vision of these texts, their authors, and the world in which they were produced."--Stacey Schlau, West Chester University

"In its fascinating discussion of mediated authorship in the spiritual autobiographies of the colonial period in Spanish America, Ibsen s study illuminates for us the discursive strategies used by religious women to reinforce as well as subvert power relations in the convent." Sherry Velasco, University of...