Trans-American Voices of Feminity: the Strengths and Angsts of Mujica’s “Frida” and Wurtzel’s “Prozac Nation”.

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EXTENDED ESSAY

Subject: English Literature

Presented by: Catalina Echeverri

TRANS-AMERICAN VOICES OF FEMINITY:THE STRENGTHS AND ANGSTS OF MUJICA’S “FRIDA” AND WURTZEL’S “PROZAC NATION”

 

Number of Words: 3012

November 2003

ANGLO COLOMBIAN SCHOOL

Bogotá, Colombia

 

ONTENT

 Contents                                                                               ....   Page 1

 Extract                                                                                      ....   Page 2

 Main Body                                                                                   ....   Page 3

 Bibliography                                                                                    ....  Page 13

“Prozac Nation” by Elizabeth Wurtzel and “Frida” by Barbara Mujica are two amazingly similar texts, deriving from unbelievably different socio-cultural contexts. Elizabeth Wurtzel is a  character of amazing wit and courage who is trapped between the bars of  clinical depression. Through a profound and touching biography, Wurtzel portrays the typical life of young females in contemporary America. Frida Kahlo is a woman of admirable intelligence and unique personality, constantly tortured by a physically mutilated figure.  

Despite obvious contrasts of location and upbringing, both principal protagonists’ experience remarkably parallel sentiments in terms of vulnerability and confidence. This leads the judicious reader to believe that there are innumerous psychoanalytical and literary depictions of the femenine being but, ultimately, women are unarguably shown to be intrinsically united throughout the American continent: the reader encounters most astonishing examples of mutual strengths and angsts.

 Frida Kahlo and Elizabeth Wurtzel are two extraordinary female protagonists who, regardless of time and space, display extraordinary intelligence and stamina. Barbara Mujica and Elizabeth Wurtzel portray their characters as profound, self-analytical beings who reflect through their femenine voices, the strengths and angsts of  existence, in the midst of two juxtaposing American cultures.

    Barbara Mujica depicts Frida Kahlo as a woman whose strength stems from an atypical intelligence. Despite the femenine clichés of the time, Kahlo manifests exceptional intellect and sagacity, (consireded an exclusively male quality at the time)  when attending medical school.

“Frida was smart...smart enough to be a doctor (...) a mind such as Frida’s (...) ought not to be wasted”   

Such a distinctive approach generated inmense controversy among Coyoacán society, as female capacities were barely contemplated beyond cooking and raising children. Using intelligence as a weapon, Frida always contrived to respond with astounding wit and courage. Not only did she manage to vindicate herself, but to defy social conventions. Such comportment is manifested by Kahlo when entering the medical world, initially censored to the “weaker sex”.

“And now father wanted to send her to a man´s proffession (...) Decent girls from nice families didn’t need the kind of education it offered (...) In those days a young girl never went unacompanied, but Frida wandered around like a boy”  

Because intelligence was considered an exclusive masculine characteristic, Frida Kahlo is seen by the reader as a  “sui generis” female, masculinized and consequently rejected by Mexican social circles.

   In the same way as we see Frida’s trauma stemming from her extreme sensitivity, Elizabeth Wurtzel is also a woman of prodigious intelligence, whose level of introspection precipitates many crises. Elizabeth is also a victim of the rigid and emerging society of contemporary America,a culture were men and women are “equally” positioned in social status and rational capacity. This is successfully portrayed in Wurtzel’s “Prozac Nation”, where the reader is able to appreciate Elizabeth’s intellectual capacity in both scholar and professional performance. Because of this, like Frida in Mexico, Wurtzel is considered as an erudite rarity among her society.

“I was perfectly content to be left alone with one of my many odd projects (...) zoomig ahead through multiplication and division when everyone else in first grade was learning how to add and subtract. My inner resources were so thorough and complete that I often had no idea what to do with other children”

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 Barbara Mujica mentions the exlcusion suffered by Frida as a result of her outstanding intellectual capacities. Kahlo was the perpetual focal point of discrimination. Mujica uses both mental and physical uniqueness in the character to accentuate this social rejection. A victim of polio at the age of six, Frida is subject to debasing remarks and sexist mockery from her fellow Mexican peers .

“ Come let’s see ya’

peg-leg Frida!

One leg’s good

The other’s just wood!”

Her extensive and often vulgar vocabulary was socially demeaned and ditched out of the conservative circle of Coyoacán. Considering the ...

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