Classical Backgrounds to English Literature

Cherrie Moraga’s The Hungry Woman

Study Questions

1. How does Moraga manipulate space and time in this play? What is the significance of these temporal and spatial dynamics for Moraga’s interpretation of the ancient Greek Medea myth?

2. What implications do the Chicana and Lesbian elements of this play (and their political contexts) have for Moraga’s interpretation of Medea? In other words, why has she added these two elements to the myth, and how do these additions alter the myth’s meaning?

3. This is the first Medea myth we’ve read where the child actually plays a significant role. What’s the significance of Chac-Mool having a voice in this play? How does it change our view of Medea?

4. In the middle of the first act, Chac-Mool and Mama Sal hear La Llorona (“the crying woman”). La Llorona is a figure from Mexican folklore – she was seduced by a man and then abandoned after having several of his children. La Llorona then drowns her children. Her ghost wanders the earth, crying for her children. What is the significance of the La Llorona myth to Moraga’s play?

5. What is the significance of the hungry woman creation myth to the Medea story that Moraga rewrites?