See "Introduction"
to Second Edition at back of book
Begin with p63
“Coatlicue State” and discuss rest of book (though you can skip through poems
in second half/section, focus on a few to see what she is doing etc); also
focus on: Structure and organization of
book as whole, “progression”?
Think about
construction from a writing perspective, how is the book constructed, written,
what is creative, transgenre, transformative about it?
Form (How) --
Content (What)
Form
-- structure, dis/organization, language,
vocabulary, visual, sound, process, narrative, fragmentation, revolt, de/construction,
rebel, transgress (ie vs regress, progress, etc), transgender, transgenre,
transculture…
Content -- queer, culture, language,
history/myth/story, gender, identity/identification
Anzaldua:
lists of identifying characteristics including language(s) and different types
of Spanish (8 kinds p.77) + Indian language and history + English that circle
and repeat in different ways to reiterate that there is no one language, no one
cultural identity, no one narrative about culture and identity to claim that
articulates this identity
Chicano pachuco:
create own language, (like Lorde, Brossard, Cixous suggestion to create own
language) if the dominant language doesn’t make sense, doesn’t express, as a means
of rebellion; language is about ways/means of expression; dominant language
oppresses non-English speakers but also in structure as a reiteration of
hegemonic, (patriarchal), hierarchal, linear (white mainstream) logic and form
(that inhibits “other” forms of expression, voice, recognition…)
Critique as/toward alternative, positive, claim Other
as (new, visible, spoken) model
