Killing Spanish: Literary Essays on Ambivalent U.S. Latino/a Identity

✍ Scribed by Lyn Di Iorio Sandín (auth.)

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan US
• Year: 2004
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 169
• Edition: 1
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

In this intelligent monograph for women's studies, literature and Latin American studies, Lyn Di Iorio Sandin asserts that there is a significant ambivalence surrounding identity that is present in the works of Latino writers such as Cristina Garcia, Edward Rivera, and Abraham Rodriguez. Sandin incorporates the theories of allegory and 'double identity' to talk about fragmentation of the Latino psyche. What Sandin finds compelling is that in all of the works of this diverse group of writers, there is a common theme of anxiety about origins that manifests itself through the symbols of dead women, ghosts, or madwomen. Using specific examples from literature ranging from Cuban American Cristina Garcia's The Aguero Sisters to Puerto Rican Rosario Ferre's Maldito amor , Sandin finds that fragmented ethnic identification is an area that is just beginning to be explored within the analysis of U.S. Latino fiction.

✦ Table of Contents

Front Matter....Pages i-x
Introduction: Toward a Typology of U.S. Latino/a Literature....Pages 1-15
When Papi Killed Mami: Allegory’s Magical Fragments in Cristina García’s The Agüero Sisters....Pages 17-32
Killing “Spanish”: Rosario Ferré’s Evolution from autora puertorriqueña to U.S. Latina Writer....Pages 33-61
“That Animals Might Speak”: Doubles and the Uncanny in Loida Maritza Pérez’s Geographies of Home....Pages 63-81
Latino Rage: The Life and Work of Edward Rivera....Pages 83-100
Melancholic Allegorists of the Street: Piri Thomas, Junot Díaz, and Yxta Maya Murray....Pages 101-133
Back Matter....Pages 135-167

✦ Subjects

Literary Theory; Gender Studies; Ethnicity Studies; Latin American Culture; North American Literature