Overview

A landmark collection of the work of pioneering Chicana scholar,Norma Alarcn. Forced by Circumstance gathers in one volume foundational essays by, and interviews withone of the most highly esteemed intellectuals in Chicana/o, Latina/o, and Feminist Studies. Reading Alarcn's essays-from her early work on Mexican feminist writer Rosario Castellanos to her recent reflections on the carceral state and the political debacle that our contemporary situation presents-not only offers readers a sense of the intellectual trajectory of one of our most important Chicana feminist thinkers but also brings to a new generation of scholars and readers classic essays in Chicana/o Studies, Cultural Studies, Feminist Studies, and Literary Studies.

Full Product Details

Author:   Norma Alarcn ,  Norma E. Cant ,  Dionne Espinoza ,  Marisa Belausteguigoitia
Publisher:   Aunt Lute Books
Imprint:   Aunt Lute Books
ISBN:  

9781951874100

ISBN 10:   1951874102
Pages:   500
Publication Date:   15 January 2026
Audience:   General/trade ,  General
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Forthcoming
Availability:   Not yet available  
This item is yet to be released. You can pre-order this item and we will dispatch it to you upon its release.

Table of Contents

Forced by Circumstance Table of Contents Preface: “Forced by Circumstance,” Norma Alarcón Foreword: “Traversing Bordered Lands: The Work of Norma Alarcón,” Norma E. Cantú Introduction: “Making Chicana Feminist Theory from Scratch: An Appreciation of Norma Alarcón's Critical Praxis,” Dionne Espinoza PART I—HAY QUE INVENTARNOS 1. Chicana Feminist Literature: A Re-Vision Through Malintzin or, Malintzin, Putting Flesh Back on the Object 2. What Kind of Lover Have you Made me Mother?: Towards a Theory of Chicana Feminism and Cultural Identity Through Poetry 3. Making Familia from Scratch: Split Subjectivities in the Work of Helena María Viramontes and Cherríe Moraga 4. The Sardonic Powers of the Erotic in the Works of Ana Castillo 5. Traddutora, Traditora: A Paradigmatic Figure of Chicana Feminism 6. Chicana Literature: A Sexual and Racial Challenge from the Proletariat to the Patriarchy 7. Chicana Feminism: In the Tracks of “The” Native Woman 8. On Feminine Culture according to Rosario Castellanos/p> PART II—THEORETICAL SUBJECTS 1. The Theoretical Subjects of This Bridge Called my Back and Anglo American Feminism 2. Nymphomania: The Discourse of Difference 3. Cognitive Desires: An Allegory of/for Chicana Critics 4. Tropology of Hunger: The Miseducation of Richard Rodriguez; 5. Anzaldúa’s Frontera: Inscribing Gynetics 6. Conjugating Subjects in the Age of Multiculturalism 7. Anzaldúan Textualities: A Hermeneutic of the Self and the Coyolxauqui Imperative PART III--IMBRICATIONS/CONJUGATIONS/ MEDIATIONS 1. ...But You Don’t Look Mexican 2. Imbrications 3. Anzaldúa’s Insurrection of Subjugated Knowledges: An Interview with Norma Alarcón 4. Nepantla: Productions of Pathologies and Healing: A Conversation—Norma Alarcón, Marisa Belausteguigoitia and Romana Radlwimmer 5. Conjugations: The Insurrection of Subjugated Knowledges and Exclusionary Practices Afterword: “Pedagogies of Confoundedness: Movidas, Paradoxes and Dilemmas of the Subjects-in-Process,” Marisa Belausteguigoitia

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Author Information

Norma Alarcn is Professor Emerita in the Departments of Ethnic Studies, Spanish and Portuguese, and Gender and Women's Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. She was the founder and publisher of Third Woman Press, which began as a journal and gave voice to many Latina writers. She is the author of Ninfomana:el discurso feminista en la obra poetica de Rosario Castellanos (1992) and co-editor, among others, of Between Woman and Nation: Nationalisms, Transnational Feminisms, and the State(1999). Her writings have had an impact across disciplines in the humanities and social sciences and range from Chicana feminism and Chicana literature to topics such as gender, race, feminist politics, the U.S.-Mexico border, women of color feminisms, and contemporary social justice issues. Norma E. Cant, is a Professor Emerita from the Department of English, University of Texas at San Antonio, and currently serves as Murchison Professor of the Humanities at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas, where she teaches Creative Writing and Latinx/Chicanx Studies. Her most recently published anthologies are Chicana Portraits and the co-edited, Somos Tejanas! Tejana Identity and Tejanidad, as well as her single-authored book Fiestas in Laredo. Marisa Belausteguigoita, Professor at the School of Pedagogy in the Humanities at the Universidad Nacional Autnoma de Mexico and chair of the Gender Studies Center at UNAM (CIEG/UNAM). Her work focuses on the relationship between critical pedagogies, artistic and juridical practices focused on women's access to justice, and she has been active in translating, teaching and researching the work of Chicanas and Chicana discourse and theory in Mexico. Dionne Espinoza is Professor in the Department of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Cal State LA. She has co-edited two award winning books: Chicana Movidas (with Mara Cotera and Maylei Blackwell, 2018) and Enriqueta Vasquez and the Chicano Movement: Writings from El Grito del Norte (with Lorena Oropeza, 2006).

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