Antonia Castañeda has utilized scholarship from women’s studies and Mexican-American history to examine nineteenth-century literary portrayals of Mexican women. As Castañeda notes, scholars of women’s history observe that in the United States, male novelists of the period—during which, according to these scholars, women’s traditional economic role in home-based agriculture was threatened by the transition to a factory-based industrial economy—define women solely in their domestic roles of wife and mother. Castañeda finds that during the same period that saw non-Hispanic women being economically displaced by industrialization, Hispanic law in territorial California protected the economic position of “Californianas” (the Mexican women of the territory) by ensuring them property rights and inheritance rights equal to those of males.

For Castañeda, the laws explain a stereotypical plot created primarily by male, non-Hispanic novelists: the story of an ambitious non-Hispanic merchant or trader desirous of marrying an elite Californiana. These novels’ favorable portrayal of such women is noteworthy, since Mexican-American historians have concluded that unflattering literary depictions of Mexicans were vital in rallying the United States public’s support for the Mexican-American War (1846–1848). The importance of economic alliances forged through marriages with Californianas explains this apparent contradiction. Because of their real-life economic significance, the Californianas were portrayed more favorably than were others of the same nationality.


The “apparent contradiction” mentioned in the highlighted text refers to the discrepancy between the


legal status of Mexican women in territorial California and their status in the United States

unflattering depiction of Mexicans in novels and the actual public sentiment about the Mexican-American War

existence of many marriages between Californianas and non-Hispanic merchants and the strictures against them expressed in novels

literary depiction of elite Californianas and the literary depiction of other Mexican individuals

novelistic portrayals of elite Californianas’ privileged lives and the actual circumstances of those lives

考题讲解

此讲解的内容由AI生成,还未经人工审阅,仅供参考。

正确答案是 B。

该文提到,在1846-1848的墨西哥美战争中,不好的文学描绘对动员美国公众支持起到了重要作用。但同时,Castaeda 发现,19世纪小说中对加利福尼亚女士(Californianas)的描述要比其他同国人的描述褒义得多。这种表面上的矛盾,也就是“highlighted text”中指的矛盾,指的是小说中对墨西哥人的不好描绘与实际公众的情绪之间的差异。选项B正确地指出了这种矛盾。

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