Re-Semantization and Empowerment of Female Spaces in Como Agua Para Chocolate and Comment Cuisiner Son Mari A L'africaine

Abstract

In recent years, feminist literature has promoted a redefinition of the spaces once attributed to women by patriarchal society. Mexican and Cameroonian writers give new meaning to feminine spaces in their novels. Laura Esquivel and Calixthe Beyala through their female characters reclaim certain spaces. In concert with the thought of Virginia Woolf (1992), these writers transform the spaces to make them « a room of their own » for female empowerment. In this Work, we demonstrate how the protagonists of Como agua para chocolate and Comment cuisine son mari à l'africaine, resemantize their spaces thus upsetting the socio-cultural establishment by conceding a new sense of freedom, intimacy, self-determination and empowerment to female spaces.