Breath, Eyes, Memory | Essays and Criticism

  • The Genesis, Recurring Themes, and Critical Reception of Breath, Eyes, Memory

    In the following essay, the author discusses the genesis, recurring themes, and critical reception of Breath, Eyes, Memory.

  • Lespoua fe viv: Female Identity and the Politics of Textual Sexuality in Nadine Magloire's Le Mal de Vivre and Edwidge Danticat's Breath, Eyes, Memory

    In the following essay on Edwidge Danticat's Breath, Eyes, Memory, author Myriam J. A. Chancy discusses the concepts of female and sexual identity within textual and cultural contexts. Chancy shows the reader that the literary structuring used in Danticat's work serves as an illustration of and framework for both Haitian social culture and the alienation of women from themselves, their bodies, and each other. This emphasis on the novel's structure, according to Chancy, further underscores the important theme of the function of literacy for the women in Danticat's novel.

  • Breath, Eyes, Memory

    In this brief review of Edwidge Danticat's Breath, Eyes, Memory, Mary Mackay outlines the pain and struggle of the women in the novel, and describes it as a compelling record of the Haiti that Danticat wishes to be remembered, ‘‘a rich landscape of memory.''

  • Book Review of Breath, Eyes, Memory

    The following brief review describes Danticat's Breath, Eyes, Memory as a graceful first novel outlining the coming-of-age story of Sophie, the novel's protagonist and narrator, in a world where traditions clash and the beauty of Haiti is inexorably mixed with the burden of sexual trauma, mental brutality, and political terror.