Overview

The sixteen essays in Writing Off the Hyphen approach the literature of the Puerto Rican diaspora from current theoretical positions, with provocative and insightful results. The authors analyze how the diasporic experience of Puerto Ricans is played out in the context of class, race, gender, and sexuality and how other themes emerging from postcolonialism and postmodernism come into play. Their critical work also demonstrates an understanding of how the process of migration and the relations between Puerto Rico and the United States complicate notions of cultural and national identity as writers confront their bilingual, bicultural, and transnational realities. The collection has considerable breadth and depth. It covers earlier, undertheorized writers such as Luisa Capetillo, Pedro Juan Labarthe, Bernardo Vega, Pura Belpré, Arturo Schomburg, and Graciany Miranda Archilla. Prominent writers such as Rosario Ferré and Judith Ortiz Cofer are discussed alongside often-neglected writers such as Honolulu-based Rodney Morales and gay writer Manuel Ramos Otero. The essays cover all the genres and demonstrate that current theoretical ideas and approaches create exciting opportunities and possibilities for the study of Puerto Rican diasporic literature.

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9780295988139

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Reviews

A comprehensive view of the evolution of U.S. Puerto Rican literature through a number of new critical essays that cover some of its most important themes and trends and include a very good representation of leading authors from different historical periods. Puerto Ricans are the second largest group among the nationalities included under the Hispanic/Latino rubric, and this body of writings, which has grown considerably in recent decades, is important to both U.S. and Puerto Rican literary traditions. Edna Acosta-Belen, University at Albany, State University of New York Fills in a dearth of critical anthologies on U.S. Puerto Rican literature as well as it foregrounds the critical works of both established and younger scholars in the field. There is no other literary anthology that is timely, up to date, and that brings together such a wide array of topics and approaches that do justice to the complexities of U.S. Puerto Rican literature. Frances R. Aparicio, University of Illinois at Chicago

Author Information

José L. Torres-Padilla is associate professor of English, State University of New York at Plattsburgh. Carmen Haydée Rivera is associate professor of English, University of Puerto Rico.

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