Race class : reading Mexican American literature in the era of neoliberalism, 1981-1984 / José Antonio Arellano.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Arellano, Antonio, author.

Series:

Cambridge elements. Elements in race in American literature and culture

Cambridge Elements. Elements in Race in American Literature and Culture 2753-6343

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

United States--Race relations.

United States.

Literature and race--United States.

Literature and race.

Mexican American literature (Spanish)--History and criticism.

Mexican American literature (Spanish).

Genre:

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Physical Description:

1 online resource.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, United Kingdom ; New York, NY : Cambridge University Press, 2025.

Summary:

"Race Class identifies two competing aesthetics, the“recognitional” and the “redistributive,” that developed in Mexican American literature during the 1980s. Recognitional literature seeks to express an ethnic identity via a circular narratological discourse of self-creation. This expressive view of literature fosters readerly sympathy via testimony and textual personification, the author argues, but ultimately forecloses interpretive judgment. Redistributive literature instead averts the readers’ sympathy to produce the evaluative distance through which interpretative judgment and structural critique are enabled. By tracking these competing aesthetics, Race Class shows why the Chicano Movement should not be understood as a working-class enterprise, why higher education cannot be a mechanism of social justice, and why the left continues to misunderstand the nature of economic inequality today."-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

The development of Chicano literature and culture

The limits of the Chicano solution

A critique of Chicano activism and literature: Richard Rodriguez Hunger of Memory (1982)

Recognitional witnessing versus redistributive representation: I, Rigoberta Menchú (1984)

Identifying the enemy: Daniel James Famous All Over Town (1983)

Recognitional novels: Arturo Islas The Rain God (1984)

The culture of poverty and the program era: Sandra Cisneros The House on Mango Street (1984)

Against literature? The redistributive within The House on Mango Street

Conclusion: on trying to get it right

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references.

Online resource; title from PDF title page (Cambridge University Press, viewed December 10, 2025)

Other Format:

Print version: Arellano, Antonio, Race class,

Print version: Arellano, Antonio Race class

ISBN:

9781009429566

1009429566

OCLC:

1546773078

Publisher Number:

CIPO000293561

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license