Project

Masculinidades Marginales: Race, Gender, and the City in 21st Century Latin American Literature

Program

ACLS Fellowship Program

Department

World Languages & Cultures

Abstract

"Masculinidades Marginales" uses the theoretical framework of counterpublics to analyze contemporary Latin American literature with a focus on masculinity and race in urban settings. This study of literature in contemporary Latin American cities examines how writers from marginalized communities represent the reterritorialization of urban spaces as a response to racial and social inequality, and it looks at the ways in which literary productions facilitate the circulation of discourses that give voice to alternative publics. More broadly, these fictional narratives reflect larger social trends of the 21st century in which the citizenship and the humanity of BIPOC urban male youth are increasingly debated in the public sphere.