Carolina Fernández Rodríguez

Quaker characters have peopled many an American literary work-most notably, "Uncle Tom's Cabin"-as Quakerism has been historically associated with progressive attitudes and the advancement of social justice. With the rise in recent years of the Christian romance market, dominated by American Evangelical companies, there has been a renewed interest in fictional Quakers. In the historical Quaker romances analyzed in this book, Quaker heroines often devote time to spiritual considerations, advocate the sanctity of marriage and promote traditional family values. However, their concern with social justice also leads them to engage in subversive behavior and to question the status quo, as illustrated by heroines who are active on the Underground Railroad or are seen organizing the Seneca Falls convention. Though relatively liberal in terms of gender, Quaker romances are considerably less progressive when it comes to race relations. Thus, they reflect America's conflicted relationship with its history of race and gender abuse, and the country's tendency to both resist and advocate social change. Ultimately, Quaker romances reinforce the myth of America as a White and Christian nation, here embodied by the Quaker heroine, the all-powerful savior who rescues Native Americans, African

El trabajo que aquí se presenta nace del espíritu de preservación y análisis de la cuentística de las escritoras de nuestros días. Se nutre, además, del pensamiento feminista que anima a muchas de ellas, y esta presidido por el convencimiento de que no existe la obra desligada de una tradicion o de un contexto dado. Todo texto inscribe una ideologia y todo texto, tambien, contesta a otro, previo a el o, incluso, posterior. Los que aqui se analizaran, las consideradas versiones clasicas, canonicas y oficiales del cuento de Cenicienta y las posteriores revisiones que varias autoras contemporaneas han hecho de ellas, se relacionan entre si de manera dialogica. La confrontacion de ambas ha de resultar sumamente interesante. El objetivo ultimo es hallar los codigos ideologicos que subyacen en cada uno de los dos grupos y, asimismo, demostrar que el contexto historico modifica de manera sustancial la obra literaria, razon por la que las Cenicientas de hoy en dia difieren radicalmente de las de epocas preteritas.