Linking Myth with Transnational Feminism: Developing Female Identity in Cristina Garcia's Dreaming in Cuban

In her debut novel, Dreaming in Cuban, Cuban American author Cristina Garcia investigates the complex social, cultural, political and psychological impact of postcolonialism on identity formation through the journey of three generation of Cuban women which reflects developing consciousness during Cuba's transition from colonisation to revolution. The paper aims to show the way through the remembrance and reimagination of three generations of women of del Pino family, which is made possible by the help of myth, magical occurrences and traditional healing practices, Garcia attempts to recover, to reconceive and to create and develop awareness of Cuban women and cultural heritage that might have been erased. By highlighting the heritage of Cuban women who strongly survived the volatile time during the Revolution, Garcia admits a history of trauma and female resistance to the nationalist male politics. The paper also aims to emphasise how the recurring experiences of these women from three consecutive generations expose Garcia's employment of a major metaphor based on 'phoenix' myth. The female characters go through cycles of cultural and sexual changes where Garcia reworks the myth with the cycles of death and rebirth. Last but not least, the paper attempts to demonstrate that by using myth and magical events, Garcia attempts to remove physical distance among women who are torn between cultural differences between Cuba and America and provides them with the sense of togetherness and empowerment, and by combining multiple voices and alternative viewpoints on past and present, she attempts to render marginal voices and realities and to subvert and deconstruct Eurocentric notions of identity, reality and truth.