Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
Date of Degree
6-2026
Document Type
Doctoral Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy
Program
English
Advisor
David S. Reynolds
Committee Members
Vanessa Pérez-Rosario
Talia Schaffer
David S. Reynolds
Subject Categories
American Literature | American Material Culture | Caribbean Languages and Societies | European Languages and Societies | Fashion Design | Latin American Literature | Literature in English, North America, Ethnic and Cultural Minority | Other Religion | Puerto Rican Studies | Women's History | Women's Studies
Keywords
Puerto Rican women’s literature, marriage and domesticity, group biography, print culture, fashion and material culture, women's history
Abstract
This dissertation examines the early stages of Puerto Rican women’s fiction in the long nineteenth century through a collective study of the first five women to publish novels on the archipelago—Josefa Martínez, Ana Roqué, María Manuela Fernández, Carmela Eulate, and María Eulalia Matos. I read their literary works alongside historical context and biographical research to analyze how they negotiated authority within the social structures of their time, including marriage, fashion, print culture, and religion. The study approaches group biography as a feminist recovery practice. It examines archival materials for collective patterns and silences in order to reconstruct these women’s literary works and lived experiences. In addition, I situate these writers in dialogue with transatlantic cultural currents and nineteenth-century U.S. women’s writing placing their work within broader nineteenth-century debates about gender and class. This dissertation repositions Puerto Rican women’s fiction as central to the archipelago’s literary and cultural history and argues that these early novelists laid important groundwork for Puerto Rican feminist thought by narrating women’s agency from within the limitations of their historical moment.
Recommended Citation
Rios, Adrianna, "The First Five: Reimagining Early Puerto Rican Women Novelists" (2026). CUNY Academic Works.
https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/6621
Included in
American Literature Commons, American Material Culture Commons, Caribbean Languages and Societies Commons, European Languages and Societies Commons, Fashion Design Commons, Latin American Literature Commons, Literature in English, North America, Ethnic and Cultural Minority Commons, Other Religion Commons, Puerto Rican Studies Commons, Women's History Commons, Women's Studies Commons
