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Feminist Narratives in Marigold Wreaths: Memory Politics and Gender Deconstruction in Coco

Author(s)

Yingshuo Chen1, Pinghua Liu2,*

Affiliation(s)

1School of Foreign Languages, Guangdong University of Science and Technology, Dongguan, China 2School of General Education, Guangdong University of Science and Technology, Dongguan, China *Corresponding Author

Abstract

This paper explores the feminist narratives in Coco through the cultural lens of the Mexican Day of the Dead, analyzing how female characters like Imelda and Coco subvert patriarchal norms through memory and ritual. It examines Imelda’s use of shoemaking tools as symbols of narrative power, Coco’s aging body as a repository of emotional memory, and the collective labor of female kin through sewing machines to construct alternative gendered epistemologies. The study deconstructs the film’s spatial and visual metaphors—such as the marigold bridge, altar configurations, and color palettes—to reveal women’s roles in redefining family history and resisting male-centric memory politics. By weaving together Mexican feminist theory, cultural anthropology, and film semiotics, the paper argues that Coco foregrounds women’s agency in preserving and reconstructing memory, offering a poetics of resilience that challenges digital-era amnesia and advocates for embodied, communal remembrance.

Keywords

Feminist Narratives; Memory Politics; Gender Deconstruction; Day of the Dead; Cinematic Metaphor

References

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