Altermundos: Latin@ Speculative Literature, Film, and Popular Culture (Aztlan Anthology)
Altermundos is an edited collection crossing Latin@ speculative literature, film, and popular culture. It rereads colonialism, immigration, globalization, race, and gender through speculative imagination.
Work Information
Thinking other worlds becomes a way to reread the power relations of this one.
With contributions from more than twenty-five scholars, writers, and artists, the volume reworks speculative genres often framed as white and male from the perspective of Chicana/o and Latina/o studies.
Review Summaries
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The collection is valued for its cross-disciplinary range and pioneering role. It is academically dense, but its mix of essays, interviews, and creative work opens several points of entry.
Book Information
- Publisher
- Chicano Studies Research Center
- Published
- 2017-04-04
- Pages
- 492 pages
- Language
- 英語
- Size
- 14.99 x 2.29 x 22.86 cm
- ISBN-13
- 9780895511638
- ISBN-10
- 9780895511638
- Price
- 5206 JPY
- Category
- 洋書/Politics & Social Sciences/Social Sciences/Specific Demographics/Ethnic Studies
Speculative fictionencompassing both science fiction and fantasyhas emerged as a dynamic field within Chicana/o and Latina/o studies, producing new critical vocabularies and approaches to topics that include colonialism and modernity, immigration and globalization, race and gender. As the first collection engaging Chicana/o and Latina/o speculative cultural production, Altermundos: Latin@ Speculative Literature, Film, and Popular Culture provides a comprehensive alternative to the view of speculative fiction as a largely white, male, Eurocentric, and heteronormative genre. It features original essays from more than twenty-five scholars as well as interviews, manifestos, short fiction, and new works from Chicana/o and Latina/o artists.
Cathryn Josefina Merla-Watson is assistant professor in the Mexican American studies program at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. B. V. Olguín is professor of English at the University of Texas at San Antonio. He is the author of La Pinta: Chicana/o Prisoner Literature, Culture, and Politics and coeditor Latina/os and WWII: Mobility, Agency, and Ideology .
Reviews
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Reconnecting us to our indigenous outer space gente in a beautiful manner
Not only does Altermundos give a fresh look at some classic Chicano work with a new speculative lens, it brings forward many works of Latino Sci-fi, Fantasy, and Horror that have been in the periphery. Latin@ Rising gave us a look at the present and future of US Latino Speculative Fiction; Altermundos validates our past and with its many essays discussing issues ranging from feminist, queer, social, post-colonial and social justice gives us a future to look forward to. After finding and reading/viewing/listening to most of the work critiqued or mentioned in Altermundos (I had read a few before and a few others had been on my radar), I found that many of these works come from the periphery. Though sci-fi and fantasy are booming—just look at how superhero movies have become big blockbusters rather than underfunded or fan made over the last two decades--our Mexican American works are still ignored, pushing in at the corners, or thought of as lesser. There are several essays upon the work of the father of Chicano Sci-fi, Ernesto Hogan. I’m already a fan of his work and reading criticism on two of my favorite books, Smoking Mirror Blues and High Aztech enhances my understanding and appreciation. The choices in this collection are an education in Chicano Sci-fi, I found out about the Ragdoll Plagues, a great book that combines historical fiction and Sci-fi realms that connect via found scholarship on a plague that affects three different ages. Many of these works blur the lines between genres. I love the speculative story “Poison Men: A Chicana Vampire Tale” that deals with the first Mexican American recorded as lynched in the US. She’s a vampire and her tale now empowering in our mental space. Likewise, “For those seeking signs of intelligent life” by Deborah Kueztzpal Vasquez is a story that empowers by reconnecting us to our indigenous outer space gente in a beautiful manner. This first book of Latino Speculative Criticism is necessary…because we can discover and look deeply at how we portray the world in which we are human. Scholarship is necessary for any form and you may be surprised how long Latina/o/x Speculative works have been around. In short, Altermundos is an excellent selection of criticism that would allow anyone to know the Mexican American experience better.
Related Literary Awards
- American Book Awards Edition 39 (2018) ・Winner・Winner