Synopses & Reviews
Broken Souths offers the first in-depth study of the diverse field of contemporary Latina/o poetry. Its innovative angle of approach puts Latina/o and Latin American poets into sustained conversation in original and rewarding ways. In addition, author Michael Dowdy presents ecocritical readings that foreground the environmental dimensions of current Latina/o poetics.
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Dowdy argues that a transnational Latina/o imaginary has emerged in response to neoliberalismand#8212;the free-market philosophy that underpins what many in the northern hemisphere refer to as and#8220;globalization.and#8221; His work examines how poets represent the places that have been and#8220;brokenand#8221; by globalizationand#8217;s political, economic, and environmental upheavals. Broken Souths locates the roots of the new imaginary in 1968, when the Mexican student movement crested and the Chicano and Nuyorican movements emerged in the United States. It theorizes that Latina/o poetics negotiates tensions between the late 1960sand#8217; oppositional, collective identities and the present dayand#8217;s radical individualisms and discourses of assimilation, including the and#8220;post-colonial,and#8221; and#8220;post-national,and#8221; and and#8220;post-revolutionary.and#8221; Dowdy is particularly interested in how Latina/o poetics reframes debates in cultural studies and critical geography on the relation between place, space, and nature.
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Broken Souths features discussions of Latina/o writers such as Victor Hernand#225;ndez Cruz, Martand#237;n Espada, Juan Felipe Herrera, Guillermo Verdecchia, Marcos McPeek Villatoro, Maurice Kilwein Guevara, Judith Ortiz Cofer, Jack Agand#252;eros, Marjorie Agosand#237;n, Valerie Martand#237;nez, and Ariel Dorfman, alongside discussions of influential Latin American writers, including Roberto Bolaand#241;o, Ernesto Cardenal, David Huerta, Josand#233; Emilio Pacheco, and Raand#250;l Zurita.
Review
and#8220;Broken Souths succinctly stated is a magnificent piece of writing in terms of originality, sophistication, and scope.and#8221;and#8212;Francisco A. Lomeland#237;, co-author of Imagined Transnationalism: U.S. Latino/a Literature, Culture, and Identity
Review
andquot;A just account of the power of poetry to reimagine the social-political structures that confine, destroy, and/or displace entire populations. . . . This work serves as the literary complement to the treatises of Naomi Klein, Greg Gandin, and Stephen Kinzer, to name a few.andquot;andmdash;CHOICE Reviews
Synopsis
Broken Souths offers the first in-depth study of the diverse field of contemporary Latina/o poetry. Its innovative angle of approach puts Latina/o and Latin American poets into sustained conversation in original and rewarding ways. In addition, author Michael Dowdy presents ecocritical readings that foreground the environmental dimensions of current Latina/o poetics.
Synopsis
Broken Souths puts Latina/o and Latin American poets into sustained conversation in original and rewarding ways.
About the Author
Michael Dowdy is an assistant professor of English at Hunter College of the City University of New York. He is the author of American Political Poetry into theand#160;21st Century and a chapbook of poems, The Coriolis Effect.