Bodily encounters: Gloria Anzaldúa’s Borderlands/La Frontera
Abstract
Gloria Anzaldúa’s polymorphous text suggests a controversial and contradictory locus of bodily encounters, as the above quotes exemplify: on the one hand, it is, for her, a place which is necessarily defined by the metaphor of the crossroads as a positive and regenerating site that
demolishes frontiers and, on the other hand, it is conceived as a painful and treacherous place, a "thin edge of barbwire" (35). This locus of bodily encounters, like Anzaldúa’s text itself, is also clearly a gendered space: as she puts it, it is her home, the politicized place she speaks from—the place of the Chicana, the new mestiza.
demolishes frontiers and, on the other hand, it is conceived as a painful and treacherous place, a "thin edge of barbwire" (35). This locus of bodily encounters, like Anzaldúa’s text itself, is also clearly a gendered space: as she puts it, it is her home, the politicized place she speaks from—the place of the Chicana, the new mestiza.
Keywords
English Language; English
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PDF (Português (Brasil))DOI: https://doi.org/10.5007/2175-8026.2000n39p113
Copyright (c) 2000 Sandra Regina Goulart Almeida

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