Kirsten Wood

Date of Award

2018

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Humanities

First Advisor

Labrador-Rodriguez, Sonia

Area of Concentration

Spanish Language and Culture

Abstract

Adrienne Rich presented the double-life theory to explain the common experience of women loving one another despite pressure to prioritize their heterosexual relationships. My thesis applies Rich’s double-life theory in two contemporary Cuban films, Vestido de novia and La película de Ana, and thus addresses the question of how compulsory heterosexuality and masculinist hegemony affect the cinematic representation of women and female relationships in post-revolutionary Cuba. I argue that male power is maintained and expanded by new Cuban nationalism, applying text by Joane Nagel, and identify five examples of actions by the Castro regime which support my assertion. I examine the central female relationship in Vestido de novia in contrast with the protagonist’s relationship with her husband and conclude that although the protagonist acquiesces to compulsory heterosexuality, her transformation occurs as a result of the positive impact the other female character has on her life. I look at the relationship between the female characters in La película de Ana and the ways in which is differs from the relationship between the protagonist and her husband. I determine that the female relationship propels both women in their narrative journeys in spite of the destructive influence of the male characters, especially the protagonist’s husband. Finally, I conclude with a discussion in bullet points of the application of Rich’s doublelife theory in modern Cuban cinema.

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