From Lack to Excess

"Minor" Readings of Latin American Colonial Discourse

Yolanda Martínez-San Miguel

2008
241 pages
ISBN 9781611482980
Bucknell Studies in Latin American Literature and Theory

This book analyzes the narrative and rhetorical structures of Latin American colonial texts by establishing a dialogue with contemporary studies on minority discourse, minor literatures, and colonial and postcolonial theory. The first chapter reviews the current disciplinary debate between colonial Latin American studies and early modern, transatlantic, and postcolonial studies, paying attention to the epistemic and institutional junctures that explain the current reconfiguration of these fields of scholarship. As an alternative to an exhausted debate, this study uses Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari's notion of a "minor literature" along with current studies on minority discourse to propose new close readings of canonical texts by Hernán Cortés, Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, the Inca Garcilasco de la Vega, Carlos de Sigüenza y Góngora and Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz.

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Reviews

"Her highly perceptive interpretations will be of intense interest and benefit to colonial Latin American literary and cultural scholars, while the innovative perspective she brings to transatlantic and early modern approaches are also relevant to researchers of those fields."--Anna Nogar, Sección Bibliográfica

About the author:

Yolanda Martínez-San Miguel is Associate Professor of Romance Languages at the University of Pennsylvania.

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