Elisabeth Mermann-Jozwiak

Postmodern Vernaculars examines the work of Chicana authors such as Gaspar de Alba, Anzaldúa, Cantú, Castillo, Cisneros, Mora, Pérez, and Viramontes in relation to theories of postmodernism. Working with a fluid concept of postmodernism, one that traces the term's evolution from the 1960s to the present, this book argues that Chicana literature is one vernacular, a regional variation of postmodernism. Drawing on the interdisciplinary scholarship that postmodernism itself has enabled - specifically recent developments in the fields of geography, ethnography, photography, history, and linguistics - Postmodern Vernaculars shows that Chicana literature participates in the ongoing reconstruction of postmodernism.

Chicana Literature and Postmodern Rhetoric

Postmodern Vernaculars

Nancy Sullivan

Through a series of interviews with nine acclaimed authors, Conversations with Mexican American Writers explores the languages and literature of the U.S.-Mexico borderlands as a confluence of social, cultural, historical, and political forces. In their conversations, these authors discuss their linguistic choices within the context of language policies and language attitudes in the United States, as well as the East Coast publishing industry's mandates. The interviews reveal the cultural and geographical marginalization endured by Mexican American writers, whose voices are muted because they produce literature from the remotest parts of the country and about people on the social fringes. Out of these interviews emerges a portrait of the borderlands as a dynamic space of international exchange, one that is situated and can only be understood fully within a global context.

Elisabeth Mermann-Jozwiak

About

Books

Join the club