The poetics and politics of identity at the Crossroads of cultural difference and

Abstract

This essay traces the relational dynamics of cultural difference and diversity as represented in Pan-American fiction by Gisèle Pineau, Maryse Condé, Dionne Brand, T. C. Boyle, Conceição Evaristo, and AlejoCarpentier. In the process, it addresses and problematizes the following questions: How is identity constituted, produced, and enacted when identity- based forms of oppression deny or delimit the negotiation and comprehension of its meanings? How do difference and diversity designate the other? How are boundaries of difference and borderlands of diversity constituted, maintained or deconstructed? And finally, if these boundaries and borderlands constitute the space of power relations where identifications are performed, then, what are their effects on the formation of identity?