coldhearted scientist وداد

I have so many words written, and so many intuitions, and so much research done, and so much left to do. But getting a certain piece of writing done is essential, because it will allow me to work out a key idea. I am writing this abstract so that I can then write the paper that will work out what my EVOKE-AND-ELIDE concept really is.

Latin American and Chican@ writers from Bolívar to Anzaldúa have evoked mestizaje and border-crossing as ways of healing the “colonial wound” (Mignolo), whether by establishing modern nations (Bolívar), or transgressing persistent colonial and imperial hierarchies (Anzaldúa). Invocations of mestizaje, hybridity and transculturation can, however, also function to contain difference, and to maintain social hierarchy while masking its workings and in particular its racialized nature. This presentation is part of a project on race and state discourse in modern Latin American literature, and on the ways certain foundational and canonical works teach readers to see race and unsee racism.

To be continued…

Axé.