Bridges, Borders, and Breaks: History, Narrative, and Nation in Twenty-First-Century Chicana/o Literary Criticism

Description

This volume reassesses the field of Chicana/o literary studies in light of the rise of Latina/o studies, the recovery of a large body of early literature by Mexican Americans, and the “transnational turn” in American studies. The chapters reveal how “Chicano” defines a literary critical sensibility as well as a political one and show how this view can yield new insights about the status of Mexican Americans, the legacies of colonialism, and the ongoing prospects for social justice. Chicana/o literary representations emerge as significant examples of the local that interrogate globalization’s attempts to erase difference. They also highlight how Chicana/o literary studies’ interests in racial justice and the minority experience have produced important intersections with new disciplines while also retaining a distinctive character. The recalibration of Chicana/o literary studies in light of these shifts raises important methodological and disciplinary questions, which these chapters address as they introduce the new tools required for the study of Chicana/o literature at this critical juncture. Contents Acknowledgments Introduction: Chicana/o Narratives, Then and Now - William Orchard and Yolanda Padilla Chapter 1. The Diachronics of Difference: Chicano Narrative Then, Now, and before Chicanidad - Jesse Alemán Chapter 2. The Transnational Imaginaries of Chicano/a Studies and Hemispheric Studies: Polycentric and Centrifugal Methodologies - David Luis-Brown Chapter 3. The “Other” Novel of the Mexican Revolution - Yolanda Padilla Chapter 4. Desiring History in Sabina Berman’s and Sandra Cisneros’s Narratives of the Mexican Revolution - Belinda Linn Rincón Chapter 5. Finding Mexican Chicago on Mango Street: A Transnational Production of Space and Place in Sandra Cisneros’s The House on Mango Street and Caramelo - Olga L. Herrera Chapter 6. Resisting the Interpretive Schema of the Novel Form: Rereading Sandra Cisneros’s The House on Mango Street - Paula M. L. Moya Chapter 7. Chicano Narrative’s Hidden Print Cultures and the Chicano/a Literary Counterpublic - John Alba Cutler Chapter 8. I Digress: Reading Chicano Narrative and Manuel Muñoz’s “Monkey, Sí” - Ralph E. Rodriguez Chapter 9. Chicano Narrative Now: Literary Discourses in an Age of Transnationalism - Ramón Saldívar Chapter 10. “You Choose Your Space and You Fight There”: An Interview with Ramón Saldívar Notes Works Cited Contributors Index