Revolutionary representations: Gender, imperialism, and culture in the Sandinista Era.

Abstract

This thesis employs the critical insights of poststructuralism, postcolonial scholarship, and Third World feminisms to intervene in feminist scholarship on women and war. It is argued that gender and political violence are mutually constituted and therefore there can be no assumed relationship of women to war. This study's primary focus was to trace discursive representations of gender, violence, citizenship, and nation in Sandinista Nicaragua and the United States during the Reagan presidency. Textual analysis of three cultural areas: memoirs and testimonials, murals, and newspaper articles was used to explore dominant constructions of gender as they intersected with Sandinista nationalism and imperialist U.S. foreign policy. The process of mutual constitution of gender and political violence are then examined in the specific cases of Nicaragua and the U.S. It is concluded that discursive constructions of gender were essential to the politics of both Nicaraguan revolution and U.S. imperialism.