Buenas Noches, American Culture: Latina/o Aesthetics of Night
Author(s): María DeGuzmán (Author)
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Publication Date: 9 July 2012
Language: English
Print length: 326 pages
ISBN-10: 025300179X
ISBN-13: 9780253001795
Book Description
Often treated like night itself―both visible and invisible, feared and romanticized―Latina/os make up the largest minority group in the US. In her newest work, María DeGuzmán explores representations of night in art and literature from the Caribbean, Colombia, Central and South America, and the US, calling into question night’s effect on the formation of identity for Latina/os in and outside of the US. She takes as her subject novels, short stories, poetry, essays, non-fiction, photo-fictions, photography, and film, and examines these texts through the lenses of nationhood, sexuality, human rights, exoticism, among others.
Editorial Reviews
Review
DeGuzmán . . . offers new insights into how representations of night have been employed to form (impose) a Latino identity within and beyond the borders of the US. Juxtaposing historical illustrations with modern literary and artistic depictions of night from Central and South America, the Caribbean, and the US, she compellingly argues that there are new trends in representations of night used by Latino/a writers and artists as a means of self-representation.
― Choice
[T]he multidisciplinary approach of this work allows DeGuzmán to reflect on the complexity and multiplicity of Latinidades in both content and method, successfully situating the volume in the broad, and often deliberately complex and nuanced, fields of Latina/o Studies, American Studies, and Cultural Studies (to mention a few). Jan 2016
― Modern Language Review
Review
This wonderfully complex and comparative analysis of the aesthetics of night in Latino literature breaks new ground. . . . it offers a compelling argument about the transvaluation of night in Latino literature that is completely new, original and insightful, deepening scholarship on the critical role of Latino literature in the U.S. body politic.
— Theresa Delgadillo
Book Description
Night and darkness in Latina/o art and literature
About the Author
María DeGuzmán is Professor of English and Comparative Literature and Director of Latina/o Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is author of Spain’s Long Shadow: The Black Legend, Off-Whiteness, and Anglo American Empire.
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