Latinx Literature Unbound
Undoing Ethnic Expectation
by Ralph E. Rodriguez
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Pub Date May 08 2018 | Archive Date Mar 31 2018
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Description
Since the 1990s, there has been unparalleled growth in the literary output from an ever more diverse group of Latinx writers. Extant criticism, however, has yet to catch up with the diversity of writers we label Latinx and the range of themes about which they write. Little sustained scholarly attention has been paid, moreover, to the very category under which we group this literature. Latinx Literature Unbound, thus, begins with a fundamental question “What does it mean to label a work of literature or an entire corpus of literature Latinx?” From this question others emerge: What does Latinx allow or predispose us to see, and what does it preclude us from seeing? If the grouping—which brings together a heterogeneous collection of people under a seemingly homogeneous label—tells us something meaningful, is there a poetics we can develop that would facilitate our analysis of this literature?
In answering these questions, Latinx Literature Unbound frees Latinx literature from taken-for-granted critical assumptions about identity and theme. It argues that there may be more salubrious taxonomies than Latinx for organizing and analyzing this literature. Privileging the act of reading as a temporal, meaning-making event, Ralph E. Rodriguez argues that genre may be a more durable category for analyzing this literature and suggests new ways we might proceed with future studies of the writing we have come to identify as Latinx.
Advance Praise
"Ralph Rodriguez has done the unimaginable: analyzed and accommodated the multiplicities, dynamism, growth, complex sensibilities and allegiances known as Latinx literature in one majestic volume. Eschewing the fictions of monolithic identities, he argues for expanding the "interpretive horizon" of genre and the spectrum of interlocking cultural productions. A groundbreaking book, Latinx Literature Unbound is essential reading for scholars, writers, and readers alike."—Cristina García, author of Dreaming in Cuban and Here in Berlin
"As Ralph Rodriguez acutely and brilliantly demonstrates, the
‘troublingly unstable signifier’ has always provoked artistic risk from
our writers. In disentangling—but not disengaging—the word from the art
itself, he provides a widening spotlight to the fascinating range of
aesthetic practices and narrative approaches at the root of so many of
our complex representations of race, class, gender, and desire."—Manuel Muñoz, author of What You See in the Dark and The Faith Healer of Olive Avenue
Available Editions
| EDITION | Other Format |
| ISBN | 9780823279241 |
| PRICE | $33.00 (USD) |
| PAGES | 200 |
Featured Reviews
Cardyn B, Media/Journalist
In the aftermath of ongoing public conversations like #WeNeedDiverseBooks and #1000blackgirlbooks, Prof. Ralph E. Rodriguez offers an examination of the complexity of the mechanics of ethnic identity as a system of literary categorizations in Latinx Literature Unbound. His text is saturated with questions about the often arbitrary and contrived criteria used to define ethnicity and cultural authenticity.
The inviting tone of Latinx Literature Unbound projects a sense that the author is sharing with readers his private debate about the pros and cons of grouping literature according to imprecise, shifting ethnic labels. His rigorous dismantling (absent malice) of authors and their works both supports and contradicts many of his theories. References to literary theory and theorists don't detract from the accessibility of the content.
Latinx Literature Unbound is an intriguing conversation about the variety and complexity of internal and external elements that contribute to the composition of each unique, multifaceted human being as artist. It makes a strong case for incorporating other comprehensive ways of describing literature created by people who are not Anglo, male, hetero, socioeconomically privileged or for other reasons considered mainstream.
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