American
An Overview of Contemporary Chicano/a Literature
By , University of the Basque Country, Spain (June 2006)
Sections: American
Subjects: Literature, Politics.
Periods: 1000 - 1999, 1900-1999.
Key Topics: gender, monarchy, identity, race, feminism, sexuality, government .
Abstract
This paper aims to review and highlight the main themes and ideas of contemporary Chicano/a literature. Given that the awakening of this literature is closely connected with the Chicano Movement, the early literature reflects a similar socio-political agenda, with an emphasis on the recuperation of historical memory. Despite a rich literary production since the 1960s, the last two decades have witnessed the appearance of writers such as Gloria Anzaldúa and Sandra Cisneros who have placed Chicano/a writing on the literary map. Thus my paper analyses in more detail this later literature, arguing that it foregrounds gender and (homo)sexuality, issues previously ignored during the male-dominated era of the 1960s and 1970s. This later production is characterised by individualistic and self-critical voices such as that of Richard Rodriguez who open up the boundaries and contribute to the creation of a more multifaceted literature.
DOI: 10.1111/j.1741-4113.2006.00347.x
This article abstract has been viewed 5243 times.
Top 5 related articles
-
The More Things Stay the Same: African American Literature and the Politics of Responsibility
By , University of Nebraska-Lincoln
(Vol. 3, June 2006)
Literature Compass -
Between Hoax and Hope: Miscegenation and Nineteenth-Century Interracial Romance
By , Manchester College
(Vol. 3, June 2006)
Literature Compass -
Whittaker Chambers's Witness and the Dilemma of a Modern Conservatism
By , The Catholic University of America
(Vol. 3, September 2006)
Literature Compass -
Cross-Cultural and Tribally-Centered Politics: An Overview and a Response to the Current Split in American Indian Literary Studies
By , University of Warwick
(Vol. 1, December 2004)
Literature Compass -
‘Grammar. In a Breath’: Breathing in Gertrude Stein's Tender Buttons
By , Florida State University
(Vol. 5, April 2008)
Literature Compass
Top 5 Related Blackwell Reference Chapters
Gender, Race, and Class
When land is gone and money spent Then learning is most excellent.(Medieval lyric)Over the past quarter-century, ...
By Micaela di Leonardo
Time and Identity in Feminist Science Fiction
SF is increasingly recognized for its ability to articulate complex and multifaceted responses to contemporary ...
By Jenny Wolmark
Gendered Politics, or the Self-Praise of Andres Agathoi
There is no space, in ancient cultures, for gender blindness. Bodies, habits, and rights, the necessary ...
By Giulia Sissa
A Loving Gentleman and the Corncob Man: Faulkner, Gender, Sexuality, and The Reivers
Meta Carpenter, William Faulkner's Hollywood lover, called her memoir of their affair A Loving Gentleman ...
By Anne Goodwyn Jones
Race Technologies
One of the central challenges in understanding race and racism is to grasp simultaneously the utter social ...
By Thomas Biolsi