1st Edition

Auto/Biography across the Americas Transnational Themes in Life Writing

Edited By Ricia A. Chansky Copyright 2017
    268 Pages
    by Routledge

    268 Pages
    by Routledge

    Auto/biographical narratives of the Americas are marked by the underlying themes of movement and belonging. This collection proposes that the impact of the historic or contemporary movement of peoples to, in, and from the Americas—whether chosen or forced—motivates the ways in which identities are constructed in this contested space. Such movement results in a cyclical quest to belong, and to understand belonging, that reverberates through narratives of the Americas. The volume brings together essays written from diverse national, cultural, linguistic, and disciplinary perspectives to trace these transnational motifs in life writing across the Americas. Drawing on international scholars from the seemingly disparate regions of the Americas—North America, the Caribbean, and Latin America—this book extends critical theories of life writing beyond limiting national boundaries. The scholarship included approaches narrative inquiry from the fields of literature, linguistics, history, art history, sociology, anthropology, political science, pedagogy, gender studies, critical race studies, and indigenous studies. As a whole, this volume advances discourse in auto/biography studies, life writing, and identity studies by locating transnational themes in narratives of the Americas and placing them in international and interdisciplinary conversations.

    CONTENTS





    List of Figures





    Foreword





    Acknowledgments





    Introduction: Reading beyond Boundaries





    Chapter One: Timescapes, Backpacks, Networks





    Chapter Two: Art, Identity, and Narration





    Chapter Three: A Transnational Autobiographical Pact





    Chapter Four: Between Nations, Between Selves





    Chapter Five: Talking beyond Borders





    Chapter Six: The Mediated Self in the Contested Domain of Caribbean Autobiography





    Chapter Seven: Mapping Out a Treacherous Terrain





    Chapter Eight: Decolonial Translation in Embodied Auto/Biographical Indigenous Performance





    Chapter Nine: "See how I talk about the slavemaster"





    Chapter Ten: Class and Class Awareness in Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl





    Chapter Eleven: The Paradoxical Demand for Realism





    Chapter Twelve: "Forward!" National Identity, Animalographies, and the Ethics of Representation in the Posthuman Imaginary





    Contributors





    Index

    Biography

    Ricia Anne Chansky is Associate Professor of Literature at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez. She is editor of the journal Auto/Biography Studies and co-editor of The Routledge Auto/Biography Studies Reader (Routledge, 2016).

    "In Auto/Biography Across the Americas, Chansky has collected twelve thought-provoking essays focusing on “points of connectivity”, linking life writing across the Americas. Chansky argues that these narratives are characterized broadly by two key themes: movement and belonging. More generally, she argues that auto/biography studies would benefit from centering theories, narratives, and disciplinary perspectives that destabilize nationalist frameworks for understanding literature and identity."- Theresa A. Kulbaga, Miami University