Narrative Beginnings: Theories and Practices

10. Recessive Origins in Julia Alvarez’s Garcia Girls

10 Recessive Origins in Julia Alvarez’s Garcia Girls A Feminist Exploration of Narrative Beginnings C A T H E R I N E R O M A G N O L O In his seminal study Beginnings: Intention and Method, Edward Said defines beginnings as “the first step in the intentional production of meaning” (5). Implicit in Said’s study is an understanding of beginnings as integral to comprehending the ways narratives construct knowledge, experience, subjectivity, and identity. Although this “intentional production of meaning” has been a central concern of feminist literary criticism since feminism was in its first wave, feminist theorists have examined nearly every aspect of narrative—except this first step. Several narrative theorists have established the importance of formal beginnings, but with the sole exception of Said they offer almost exclusively formalist readings of canonical male-authored texts, ignoring the difference that gender and social identity make.1 These studies consistently overlook the full spectrum of textual functions beginnings can perform, an oversight that contributes to their neglecting the ideological and social valences of narrative beginnings. Recognizing critical lapses in such studies compels us to examine seriously the variables of identity that have been elided in the theorization of narrative beginnings. Interestingly, these critical elisions persist despite the fact that so many writers thematically foreground beginnings in their narratives. Texts as various as Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse, Edith Wharton’s Summer, Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club, Toni Morrison’s Beloved, and Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony, to name just a few, center on issues concerning beginnings of all types (cultural, national, familial, artistic, etc.). Furthermore, cultural, nationalist, postcolonial, minority, 150 C A T H E R I N E R O M A G N O L O and feminist discourses have all brought scholarly attention to the problems with and importance of beginnings and origins in relation to any discussion of subjectivity, identity, and nation formation. Of particular interest here are feminist scholars of American studies such as Amy Kaplan, Priscilla Wald, and Toni Morrison, who argue for a reexamination of the role origins play in the construction of “American ” culture, literature, and national identity. They point out ways that American originary myths obfuscate the historical dependency of American national identity upon U.S. imperialism and colonialism. As Kaplan argues, U.S. cultural and literary studies need to account for “the multiple histories of continental and overseas expansion, conquest, conflict, and resistance which have shaped the cultures of the United States and the cultures of those it has dominated within and beyond its geopolitical boundaries” (4). Despite their theoretical interest, however, none of these critics examine the interconnections between formal and conceptual beginnings. Extending their critical focus on origins, I suggest that the centrality of the concepts of origins and beginnings in critical as well as literary texts compels us to examine the mutually constitutive signification of conceptual and formal beginnings in narrative fiction. Julia Alvarez’s How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents displays a rich thematic exploration of the recessive nature of beginnings and a formal complexity that make it an ideal text with which to sketch out an example of this type of examination. Alvarez, like many other feminist writers, makes strategic use of beginnings, perhaps because, as Said has asserted, beginnings “immediately establish relationships with works already existing, relationships of either continuity or antagonism or some mixture of both” (3). Beginnings often evoke authority, tradition, and filiation, all ideas upon which the narratives of patriarchy, racism, and nationalism have heavily relied—ideas that feminist thinkers have historically resisted. But, as Alvarez shows us, they may also evoke innovation and a break from the past. Making use of the suggestive power of beginnings, Alvarez works to destabilize hegemonic connotations of beginnings while embracing their subversive potential. Exploring relationships among concepts that are integrally connected to beginnings, such as language, authenticity, home, family, Recessive Origins in Alvarez’s Garcia Girls 151 and collective identity, Alvarez’s narrative suggests the importance of an examination of beginnings to a better understanding of her text. And yet, despite her focus, the extant criticism leaves much to be uncovered . For example, while Julie Barak, William Luis, and Ricardo Castells recognize the importance of beginnings in Alvarez’s novel, they seem to lack a vocabulary to discuss her strategic use of formal beginnings. In trying to disentangle the different...