Student Papers

Brown, Cara

I plan to research Judith Ortiz Cofer’s personal life and writing career from beginning to end using a creative writing approach. Creative Nonfiction values the absolute truth of the subject, and the hunger to dive deeper. My research on Cofer will ultimately provide factual evidence of how she was shaped into a successful writer and the trials and tribulations she faced in her journey. Furthermore, I will contribute my personal experience upon reading certain works of Cofer’s because as a writer myself, I find her routine, style, and ambition to be extremely influential. Upon reading a good bit of her work, I found myself immersed in several of her pieces as well as her overall sense of being. I gained a new perspective on life by reading her work. From growing up in a totally different culture as I did, to gaining her success as a Latina writer and facing situations of despair and optimism, Judith Ortiz Cofer’s work is timeless.

Diaz-Infante, Alexis

In my paper, “Generational Relationships: The Impact of Mother-Daughter Connections on The  Understanding of Self,” I will explore the nuances of the generational relationships between both  Rosa and Sarita, and Ramona, and Marisol in Judith Ortiz Cofer’s The Line of The Sun. I will  structure the definition of ‘Self’ as multifaceted and break it down into sections: body, language, home, and identity. Through this investigation into the nuances of mother-daughter relationships,  I want to bring forth how the daughter’s understanding of their mother, in combination with their  upbringing, influences the conceptualization of their ‘self’. This piece requires me to use a  feminist, post-colonial, and intersectional lens to properly break down these complex networks.  In addition to this, I will be referencing other Latinx and Caribbean scholarship, along with  Cofer’s own nonfiction pieces, to further strengthen the claims I make about the mother-daughter  relationships in The Line of The Sun. 

Gadia, Andrei

This project takes a pedagogical approach to argue for the inclusion of Judith Ortiz Cofer’s literary work in Georgia’s K-12 educational curriculum. This argument entails using Critical Race Theory (CRT). In its broadest form, CRT views race as a social construct and that racism is shaped by public policy. The theoretical framework of CRT will then be tied to Georgia’s list of approved books and censorship which aims to suppress books that are considered unacceptable and more towards canonized western literature. With that, the insertion of JOC in Georgia’s K-12 educational curriculum is plausible because it fulfills the need for more diverse authors and their work. JOC is Puerto-Rican American who resided for a majority of her life in Georgia. Not only does this paper argue to include diverse authors but, it also aims to insist on the inclusion of more Georgia authors within the curriculum. 

Gunter, Matthew

In this piece, “The Universal Odyssey”, I strive to generate connections between Homer's Odyssey and Judith Ortiz Cofer's The Line of the Sun in order to illuminate character developments and potential literary roles they fill within the novel. In particular, by drawing lines between certain characters within the novel to established characters in the Odyssey I might reveal an unexpected role they might play in the novel. 

Hinton, Odessa

Throughout Judith Ortiz Cofer’s body of work, there are significant ties between identity and place-making, intersectional with one’s identities that both influence and are influenced by one’s positionality, socially and physically. Using Bhabha’s The Location of Culture and Barvosa’s Wealth of Selves, this project looks to analyze the ways Ortiz Cofer’s identities fit within the spaces her character and authorial selves find themselves in throughout her life. For this project, primary texts used will be Silent Dancing (1990) and The Cruel Country (2016) to discuss her fictional and autobiographical works to this end. 

Polhill, Ellie

This paper explores Judith Ortiz Cofer’s religious deconstruction as conveyed through her short stories and poems.  Crucially, her experience of diverging from her family’s faith can be framed as a symptom of a larger rejection of her Puerto Rican identity and her subsequent “Americanization”.  Despite this, we later see Cofer arrive at a place of embracing of her mother’s materials for making meaning. Over the course of this essay, I will examine the dichotomy of Cofer and her mother and later experiences that illuminate a shift in Cofer’s approach to faith.  Essentially, I will posit that through the act of writing, Cofer is attempting to channel faith through her mother; consequently, she strives to bridge the gap between her “Americanized” and Puerto Rican identities.  In this sense, faith can be positioned as a means to access her mother and preserve that relationship. Relevant methodology will include close readings of various poems and short stories as well as an examination of scholarly work on religious deconstruction, identity construction and performance, and mother-daughter relationships.  

Smith, Marindi

In Judith Ortiz Cofer’s In the Line of the Sun, Cofer presents different versions of assimilation by Puerto Rican migrants. These forms of assimilation present in what Gloria Anzaldúa describes as mestiza consciousness and Wendy D. Roth describes as patterns of ‘Racial Schema,’ in which both attempt to describe migrant perception of self-identity under three categories: full assimilation and acceptance of U.S. racial schema (Rafael); occupation with no assimilation or National Racial Schema (Ramona); and constant transition between cultures or mestiza consciousness (Marisol). Viewed through materialist theories, we can begin to cultivate an understanding of the different versions of identity that Puerto Rican migrants create in order to function in the geographical space of the United States.