The Language of the In-Between

Erika Almenara

ISBN 10: 0822947277 / ISBN 13: 9780822947271

Published by University of Pittsburgh Press, US, 2022

About this Item

Often, the process of modern state formation is founded on the marginalisation of certain groups, and Latin America is no exception. In The Language of the In-Between, Erika Almenara contends that literary production replicates this same process. Looking at marginalised communities in Chile and Peru, particularly writers who are travesti, trans, cuir/queer, and Indigenous, the author shows how these writers stake a claim for the liminal space that is neither one thing nor the other. This allows a freedom to expose oppression and to critique a national identity based on erasure. By employing a language of non-normative gender and sexuality to dispute the state projects of modernity and modernisation, the voice of the poor and racialised travesti evolves from powerlessness to become an agent of social transformation.

Seller Inventory # LU-9780822947271

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Language of the In-Between
• Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press, US
• Publication Date: 2022
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0822947277
• ISBN 13: 9780822947271
• Binding: Hardback
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

Often, the process of modern state formation is founded on the marginalization of certain groups, and Latin America is no exception. In The Language of the In-Between, Erika Almenara contends that literary production replicates this same process. Looking at marginalized communities in Chile and Peru, particularly writers who are travesti, trans, cuir/queer, and Indigenous, the author shows how these writers stake a claim for the liminal space that is neither one thing nor the other. This allows a freedom to expose oppression and to critique a national identity based on erasure. By employing a language of nonnormative gender and sexuality to dispute the state projects of modernity and modernization, the voice of the poor and racialized travesti evolves from powerlessness to become an agent of social transformation.

About the Author

Erika Almenara is assistant professor of Spanish in the Department of World Languages, Literatures, and Cultures at the University of Arkansas. Her research interests include twentieth- and twenty-first-century Latin American cultural production, especially in the cases of marginalized subjects and communities.