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Abstract

In this paper I will argue that Chicana feminist artist Laura Aguilar, Alma Lopez, Laura Molina, and Yreina D. Cervantez established a continuing counter-narrative of cultural hegemony and Western essentialized hegemonic identification. Through artistic expression they have developed an oppositional discourse that challenges racial stereotypes, discrimination, socio-economic inequalities, political representation, sexuality, femininity, and hegemonic discourse. I will present a complex critique of both art and culture through an inquiry of the production and evaluation of the Chicana feminist artist, their role as the artist, and their contributions to unfixing the traditional and marginalized feminine. I argue that third wave Chicana feminist artists have developed a unique representational arena of the feminine or unfeminine that continues to challenge Western hegemonic imagery and is engaged in a more complex Chicana feminist epistemological and theoretical aesthetic. I will take a semiotic approach to contextualize Chicana feminist artists Laura Aguilar, Alma Lopez, Laura Molina, and Yreina D. Cervantez. I argue aesthetic portrayals of the Chicana body; in addition I will analyze art works for a visual representation of oppositional discourse in Chicana feminist aesthetics, in which they reveal and reconstruct the female body, reclaim “space”, and evoke reclamation identification by revealing new interpretations, and revealing perspectives of Chicana identity disrupting Western hegemonic discourse, thus putting Chicana Feminist Theory into practice.

DOI

10.5642/lux.201301.22

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