Early literary works written in Spanish in what is today the American Southwest have been largely excluded from the corpus of American literature, yet these documents are the literary antecedents of contemporary Chicano and Chicana writing. This collection of essays establishes the importance of this literary heritage through a critical examination of key texts produced in the Southwest from 1542 to 1848. Drawing on research in the archives of southwestern libraries and applying contemporary literary theoretical constructs to these centuries-old manuscripts, the authors-all noted scholars in Chicano literature-demonstrate that these works should be recognized as an integral part of American literature.
Early literary works written in Spanish in what is today the American Southwest have been largely excluded from the corpus of American literature, yet these documents are the literary antecedents of contemporary Chicano and Chicana writing.This collection of essays establishes the importance of this literary heritage through a critical examination of key texts produced in the Southwest from 1542 to 1848. Drawing on research in the archives of Southwestern libraries and applying contemporary literary theoretical constructs to these centuries-old manuscripts, the authors--all noted scholars in Chicano literature--demonstrate that these works should be recognized as an integral part of American literature.CONTENTS Introduction: Reconstructing a Chicano/a Literary Heritage, by Mar�a Herrera-Sobek Part I: Critical Reconstruction Shipwrecked in the Seas of Signification: Cabeza de Vaca's La Relaci�n and Chicano Literature, by Juan Bruce-Novoa Discontinuous Continuities: Remapping the Terrain of Spanish Colonial Narrative, by Genaro Padilla A Franciscan Mission Manual: The Discourse of Power and Social Organization, by Tino Villanueva The Politics of Theater in Colonial New Mexico: Drama and the Rhetoric of Conquest, by Ram�n Guti�rrez The Comedia de Ad�n y Eva and Language Acquisition: A Lacanian Hermeneutics of a New Mexican Shepherds' Play, by Mar�a Herrera-Sobek Part II: Sources of Reconstruction Poetic Discourse in P�rez de Villagr�'s Historia de la Nueva M�xico, by Luis Leal Fray Ger�nimo Boscana's Chinigchinich: An Early California Text in Search of a Context, by Francisco A. Lomel� "�Y D�nde Estaban las Mujeres?": In Pursuit of an Hispana Literary and Historical Heritage in Colonial New Mexico, 1580-1840, by Tey Diana Rebolledo Entre C�bolos Criado: Images of Native Americans in the Popular Culture of Colonial New Mexico, by Enrique Lamadrid
Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage is a compendium of articles by the leading scholars on Hispanic literary history of the United States. The anthology functions to acquaint both expert and neophyte with the work that has been done to date on this literary history, to outline the agenda for recovering the lost Hispanic literary heritage and to discuss the pressing questions of canonization, social class, gender and identity that must be addressed in restoring the lost or inaccessible history and literature of any people.
Presents essays dealing with literature written by Hispanic Americans from the sixteenth century through 1960, evaluates individual authors, and examines the contributions of Latino authors in a multicultural, multilingual society.
This historic fourth volume of articles represents the finished, re-worked product of the biennial conferences of recovery, providing theoretical and practical approaches, and critical studies on specific texts. Jose Aranda and Silvio Torres-Saillant's introduction conceptualizes and unifies a broad historical swath that encompasses the Spanish and English-language expression of Hispanic natives, immigrants and exiles from the colonial period to 1960.
Colonial Legacies in Chicana/o Literature and Culture exposes the ways in which colonialism is expressed in the literary and cultural production of the U.S. Southwest, a region that has experienced at least two distinct colonial periods since the sixteenth century. Vanessa Fonseca-Chávez traces how Spanish colonial texts reflect the motivation for colonial domination. She argues that layers of U.S. colonialism complicate how Chicana/o literary scholars think about Chicana/o literary and cultural production. She brings into view the experiences of Chicana/o communities that have long-standing ties to the U.S. Southwest but whose cultural heritage is tied through colonialism to multiple nations, including Spain, Mexico, and the United States. While the legacies of Chicana/o literature simultaneously uphold and challenge colonial constructs, the metaphor of the kaleidoscope makes visible the rupturing of these colonial fragments via political and social urgencies. This book challenges readers to consider the possibilities of shifting our perspectives to reflect on stories told and untold and to advocate for the inclusion of fragmented and peripheral pieces within the kaleidoscope for more complex understandings of individual and collective subjectivities. This book is intended for readers interested in how colonial legacies are performed in the U.S. Southwest, particularly in the context of New Mexico, Texas, and Arizona. Readers will relate to the book’s personal narrative thread that provides a path to understanding fragmented identities.
This second volume in the series contains articles by the leading scholars on Hispanic literary history of the United States given at the annual convention on Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage. The articles in this volume are in five sections: The Recovery Project Comes of Age; Assimilation, Accommodation or Resistance?; History in Literature/Literature in History; Writing the Revolution; and Recovering the Creation of Community.
The literary culture of the Spanish-speaking Southwest has its origins in a harsh frontier environment marked by episodes of intense cultural conflict, and much of the literature seeks to capture the epic experiences of conquest and settlement. The Chicano literary canon has evolved rapidly over four centuries to become one of the most dynamic, growing, and vital parts of what we know as contemporary U.S. literature. In this comprehensive examination of Chicano and Chicana literature, Charles M. Tatum brings a new and refreshing perspective to the ethnic identity of Mexican Americans. From the earliest sixteenth-century chronicles of the Spanish Period, to the poetry and narrative fiction of the second half of the nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth century, and then to the flowering of all literary genres in the post–Chicano Movement years, Chicano/a literature amply reflects the hopes and aspirations as well as the frustrations and disillusionments of an often marginalized population. Exploring the work of Rudolfo Anaya, Sandra Cisneros, Luis Alberto Urrea, and many more, Tatum examines the important social, historical, and cultural contexts in which the writing evolved, paying special attention to the Chicano Movement and the flourishing of literary texts during the 1960s and early 1970s. Chapters provide an overview of the most important theoretical and critical approaches employed by scholars over the past forty years and survey the major trends and themes in contemporary autobiography, memoir, fiction, and poetry. The most complete and up-to-date introduction to Chicana/o literature available, this book will be an ideal reference for scholars of Hispanic and American literature. Discussion questions and suggested reading included at the end of each chapter are especially suited for classroom use.
Presenting an up-to-date critical perspective as well as a cultural, political and historical context, this book is an excellent introduction to Mexican American literature, affording readers the major novels, drama and poetry. This volume presents fresh and original readings of major works, and with its historiographic and cultural analyses, impressively delivers key information to the reader.
