¿Entiendes?: Queer Readings, Hispanic Writings (Series Q) (Paperback)

by Emilie L.Bergmann (Editor, Contributor), Paul JulianSmith (Editor, Contributor), Mary S.Gossy (Contributor), Daniel Balderston (Contributor), Jorge Salessi (Contributor), Agnes I.Lugo-Ortiz (Contributor), Arnaldo Cruz-Malavé (Contributor), Yvonne Yarbro-Bejarano (Contributor), Licia Fiol-Matta (Contributor), John K.Walsh (Contributor), Suzanne ChávezSilverman (Contributor), Luz MaríaUmpierre (Contributor) "Aldonza Lorenzo is butch..." (more)
Key Phrases: condesa sangrienta, auront des amies, sissy trick, New York, Puerto Rican, Buenos Aires (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"This is a courageous book, not just because of the sensitivity of its central topic, homosexuality in the Spanish-speaking world, but because it attempts a very wide coverage in terms of approaches, countries, and periods of a subject on which, inevitably, almost everything in the way of evidence is patchy or just plain lacking. . . . An admirable volume."
--John Gledson, "Bulletin of Latin American Research"

Product Description
"¿Entiendes?" is literally translated as "Do you understand? Do you get it?" But those who do "get it" will also hear within this question a subtler meaning: "Are you queer? Are you one of us?" The issues of gay and lesbian identity represented by this question are explored for the first time in the context of Spanish and Hispanic literature in this groundbreaking anthology.
Combining intimate knowledge of Spanish-speaking cultures with contemporary queer theory, these essays address texts that share both a common language and a concern with lesbian, gay, and bisexual identities. Using a variety of approaches, the contributors tease the homoerotic messages out of a wide range of works, from chronicles of colonization in the Caribbean to recent Puerto Rican writing, from the work of Cervantes to that of the most outrageous contemporary Latina performance artists. This volume offers a methodology for examining work by authors and artists whose sexuality is not so much open as "an open secret," respecting, for example, the biographical privacy of writers like Gabriela Mistral while responding to the voices that speak in their writing. Contributing to an archeology of queer discourses, ¿Entiendes? also includes important studies of terminology and encoded homosexuality in Argentine literature and Caribbean journalism of the late nineteenth century.
Whether considering homosexual panic in the stories of Borges, performances by Latino AIDS activists in Los Angeles, queer lives in turn-of-the-century Havana and Buenos Aires, or the mapping of homosexual geographies of 1930s New York in Lorca’s "Ode to Walt Whitman," ¿Entiendes? is certain to stir interest at the crossroads of sexual and national identities while proving to be an invaluable resource.


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Product Details

• Paperback: 448 pages
• Publisher: Duke University Press (June 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0822316153
• ISBN-13: 978-0822316152
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,451,734 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Extraordinary book, January 4, 2008

By	L. M. Umpierre (Rochester,NY) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is an extraordinary book and a landmark for serious Gay and Lesbian Studies in Literature. The articles are at the forefront of literary studies. There is no comparison to it unless one reads Elena Martinez' book from Garland Press. A must have!

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars mediocre book about a potentially great subject, May 3, 2002

By A Customer

This anthology looks at "queer" themes in Spanish-language and Latino cultural productions. Unfortunately, like many gay Hispanic books, there is too much focus on tedious Spanish materials and too little focus on the cool stuff that gay and lesbian Latino artists are currently doing. I prefered Munoz' "Disidentifications" and Manrique's "Imminent Maricones" much more than this. However, this is one of the first gay Hispanic anthologies, so I must give it some credit for its originality.