Hispanisms (Hispanic) and Homosexualities (13 Essays) - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0822321815 ISBN 13: 9780822321811

Publisher: Duke University Press Books, 1998

Synopsis

A man masquerading as a lesbian in Spain’s Golden Age fiction. A hermaphrodite’s encounters with the Spanish Inquisition. Debates about virility in the national literature of postrevolutionary Mexico. The work of contemporary artists Reinaldo Arenas, Severo Sarduy, and María Luisa Bemberg. The public persona of Pedro Zamora, former star of MTV’s The Real World. Despite an enduring queer presence in Hispanic literatures and cultures, most scholars have avoided the specter of sexual dissidence in the Spanish-speaking world.
In Hispanisms and Homosexualities, editors Sylvia Molloy and Robert Irwin bring together a group of essays that advance Hispanic studies and gay and lesbian studies by calling into question what is meant by the words Hispanic and homosexual. The fourteen contributors to this volume not only offer queer readings of Spanish and Latin American texts and performances, they also undermine a univocal sense of homosexual identities and practices. Taking on formations of national identity and sexuality; the politics of visibility and outing; the intersections of race, sexuality, and imperial discourse; the status of transvestism and posing; and a postmodern aesthetic of camp and kitsch, these essays from both established and emerging scholars provide a more complex and nuanced view of related issues involving nationality, ethnicity, and sexuality in the Hispanic world.
Hispanisms and Homosexualities offers the most sophisticated critical and theoretical work to date in Hispanic and queer studies. It will be an essential text for all those engaged with the complexities of ethnic, cultural, and sexual subjectivities.

Contributors. Daniel Balderston, Emilie Bergmann, Israel Burshatin, Brad Epps, Mary S. Gossy, Robert Irwin, Agnes I. Lugo-Ortiz, Sylvia Molloy, Oscar Montero, José Esteban Muñoz, José Quiroga, Rubén Ríos Avila, B. Sifuentes Jáuregui, Paul Julian Smith

About this title

Review:

The late 20th century has produced a great deal of writing on homosexuality, mostly centered on the lives of those in mainstream American (primarily white) culture. Sylvia Molloy and Robert McKee Irwin's Hispanisms and Homosexualities is a stunning reminder that the complexities and intricacies of gay and lesbian life and desire permeate all cultures. This collection of 13 essays covers a wide range of topics, from spirited debates about the nature of masculinity in late-19th-century Mexican literature to the Inquisition's response to transgendered people, from an examination of lesbianism in the golden age of Spanish fiction to the politics of the closet in contemporary Spanish culture. The anthology is at its best when discussing the works of individual artists and writers: Emilie Bergmann's essay on the lesbian subtext of Maria Louise Bemberg's films and Brad Epps's analysis of Juan Goytisolo's novels are two insightful and illuminating examples. The politics of culture are also examined at length, particularly the effects of Cuba's antigay policies on art and culture (discussed in Paul Julian Smith's essay on the novels of Reinaldo Arenas and Nestor Almendros) and the ways AIDS has changed images of Latino men (in José Esteban Muñoz's piece on Pedro Zamora, the late star of MTV's The Real World). --Michael Bronski

From the Back Cover:

"By problematizing both 'hispanisms' and 'homosexualities,' this collection goes beyond the mere application of queer theory to Hispanic studies; it offers a series of meditations out of which both fields emerge enriched."--Arnaldo Cruz-Malave, Fordham University

About this edition

• Publisher: Duke University Press Books
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0822321815
• ISBN 13: 9780822321811
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 336
• Editor: Molloy Sylvia, Irwin Robert McKee