Criticism > Contemporary Literary Criticism > Castillo, Ana - Anne Bower (essay date 1997)

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Anne Bower (essay date 1997)

SOURCE: “Remapping the Territory: Ana Castillo's The Mixquiahuala Letters,” in Epistolary Responses: The Letter in 20th-Century American Fiction and Criticism, University of Alabama Press, 1997, pp. 132–50, 194–95.

[In the following essay, Bower explores Teresa's relationship with herself, Alicia, and the other characters in The Mixquiahuala Letters.]

Epistolary novels place primacy on the acts of writing and reading. I have contended that as they write to others of various events, feelings, and thoughts and as they read others' responses to their letters, characters in these novels rewrite or redefine themselves. In addition, they offer to themselves and others the possibilities of rereadings. That is, the epistolary heroine may use the letter as a place to solve mysteries, undo misconceptions, and perceive patterns previously hidden from her view, discovering new interpretations of past...

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1. Introduction
2. Principal Works
3. Criticism
   1. Norma Alarcón (essay date 1989)
   2. Margaret Randall (review date September 1989)
   3. Alvina E. Quintana (essay date 1991)
   4. Yvonne Yarbro-Bejarano (essay date Spring 1992)
   5. Irene Campos Carr (review date Spring 1993)
   6. Barbara Kingsolver (review date 16 May 1993)
   7. James Polk (review date 31 May 1993)
   8. Irene Campos Carr (review date Fall 1993)
   9. Heiner Bus (essay date Fall–Winter 1993)
   10. Ana Castillo with Elsa Saeta (interview date 1993–1994)
   11. Ilan Stavans (review date 14 January 1994)
   12. Ibis Gómez-Vega (essay date Spring–Summer 1994)
   13. Tanya Hellein (review date 30 September 1994)
   14. Ana Castillo with Samuel Baker (interview date 12 August 1996)
   15. Sandra Scofield (review date 25 August 1996)
   16. Louise Titchener (review date 1 September 1996)
   17. Tanya Long Bennett (essay date Fall 1996)
   18. Anne Bower (essay date 1997)
   19. Brian Evenson (review date Spring 1997)
   20. Colette Morrow (essay date Spring 1997)
   21. Jane Caputi (review date May 1997)
   22. Carmela Delia Lanza (essay date Spring 1998)
   23. Roland Walter (essay date Spring 1998)
   24. Manuel Luis Martinez (review date 26 September 1999)
   25. Maya Socolovsky (essay date Fall 1999)
   26. Renee H. Shea (essay date March–April 2000)
   27. Ralph E. Rodriguez (essay date Summer 2000)
   28. Silvio Sirias and Richard McGarry (essay date Summer 2000)
4. Further Reading
5. Copyright