Latino Fiction and the Modernist Imagination - Literature of the Borderlands (Hardcover)

This critical analysis examines a wide range of contemporary Latino novels and short stories written in English by mainland Puerto Ricans, Chicano/as, and Cuban Americans. Using dose readings of recent fiction, the work argues that modernist narrative techniques, stemming from both European and Latin American sources (from both Faulkner and Garcia Marquez), contribute to the Latino writer's depictions of cultural borderlands and dualities. Emphasizing the humor and stylistic subtleties of these works, the author provides a deeper understanding of how such Latino/a writers as Cisneros, Ed Vega, Cristina Garcia, Hijuelos, or Cecile Pineda give voice to characters who encounter such issues as stereotyping, multilingualism, gender, spirituality, and cultural hybridity. Unique in its detailed exploration of the Latino fiction writers use of language (both Spanish and English), this study often new insights into the complexity of prose works that stretch across linguistic boundaries. Covering fiction by both Latino and Latina writers from a variety of Latin American ethnic backgrounds, the work explores tissues that concern Latino-Latinas throughout the entire U.S., both urban and rural, form Miami to L.A., the Bronx to East Texas, Arizona to Chicago.