Gender and allegory in transamerican fiction and performance

251 Pages·2008·35.72 MB·English

by  Sugg

Gender and Allegory in
Transamerican Fiction and
Performance
Gender and Allegory in
Transamerican Fiction and
Performance
Katherine Sugg
palgrave
macmillan
* GENDER AND ALLEGORY IN TRANSAMERICAN FICTION AND PERFORMANCE
Copyright © Katherine Sugg, 2008.
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2008 978-0-230-60476-6
All rights reserved.
First published in 2008 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN® in the United States -
a division of St. Martin's Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world,
this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited,
registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills,
Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS.
Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies
and has companies and representatives throughout the world.
Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States,
the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries.
ISBN 978-1-349-37265-2 ISBN 978-0-230-61621-9 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9780230616219
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Sugg, Katherine.
Gender and allegory in transamerican fiction and performance I by
Katherine Sugg.
p.cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. American fiction-Minority authors-History and criticism.
2. American fiction-Hispanic American authors-History and criticism.
3. American fiction-Women authors-History and criticism. 4. Mexican
literature---Women authors-History and criticism. 5. Caribbean
literature (Spanish)-History and criticism. 6. Minorities in literature.
7. Group identity in literature. 8. Feminism in literature. I. Title.
PS153.M56S85 2008
809' .897-dc22 2008007165
A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library.
Design by Macmillan India Ltd.
First edition: November 2008
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2
Transferred to Digital Printing 2011
Contents
Preface: Gender and AllegoricalPedagogiesinthe Americas Vll
Acknowledgments XVll
CulturalPoliticsin Transamerica:Identity,Narrativity,and
Allegory
2 "TheUltimate Rebellion":PoliticalFictions ofChicana
Sexualityand Community 39
3 ApocalypticModernities: TransamericanAllegory,
Revolution,and Indigeneity inAlmanacoftheDead 67
4 Allegoryand TransculturalEthics:Narrating Differencein
RosarioCastellanos's Oficio detinieblas 101
5 Encrypted Diasporas:Writing,Affect,and the Nation in
ZoeValdes's CafeNostalgia 135
6 PerformingSuspendedMigrations: Novelsand Solo
PerformanceArt byU.S.Latinas 163
Notes 195
Bibliography 217
Index 229
Preface: Gender and
Allegorical Pedagogies in the
Americas
Thesnakessaythis:Fromoutofthesouththepeoplearecoming,likea
greatriverflowing restlesswiththespiritsofthedeadwhohavebeen
rebornagainand againalloverAfrica and theAmericas, reborneach
generationmorefierceandmorenumerous.Millionswillmoveinstinc
tively;unarmedandunguarded,theybeginwalkingsteadilynorth.
(AlmanacoftheDead)
LeslieMarmon Silko'sAlmanacoftheDeadimaginesahemispheric revo
lutionthatbegins in"theSouth"and moves inexorablynorthward.Taking
a cue from Silko's prophetic remapping of the Americas, Genderand
AllegoryinTransamericanFictionandPerformanceworks to trace afewkey
circuits ofpolitical desire and vocabulary that traverse the Americas. For
example,avehementcritiqueofneoliberalsocialformations andpolitical
norms has emerged in contemporaryLatin America. At more or lessthe
same time,indigenoussocialmovementsacrosstheAmericasincreasingly
adoptthe rhetoricandhuman rightsparadigmsofethnicidentity,' These
exchanges ofsocial and political languages, ideas, and activism illustrate
the "trans"in transamerica. GenderandAllegoryexplores such manifesta
tionsofculturalexchangeand influence astheyappearinaestheticcultural
production, particularly in narrative forms-in the stories that people tell
aboutthemselvesand to which audiences. AsSilkoalsoproclaims,particu
larstories and imageshavethe power to generate "an immenseenergy that
arouse(s) the living with a fierce passion and determination for justice"
(520).GenderandAllegoryisespeciallyinterestedin what such storiescan
teach us,bothaboutlocalcontextsand aboutthe roleandstatusofartistic
andpoliticalendeavorsintransamericaatthebeginningofthe twenty-first
century.
Understandinghow narratives travel throughtheAmericas requires a
methodology that is able to articulate their pathways across temporal
and geocultural borders-preferablywithout doingtoo muchviolence to
viii PREFACE
locally specific narratives, scenarios, and vocabulary in the process. Like
many interdisciplinaryand transnationallyoriented scholars,I often dis
covermyown wayinto these pathwaysbytracingcommonhauntingsthat
link practices, peoples, and regions and suggest patterns of contestation
andintensity.SaraAhmedhassaidthatshelikesto"followwords around;'
and some of what I do here echoes that Foucauldian cultural studies
approach.Ifind remarkable,for instance,the wordsawomaninthe Texas
borderlandschooses toexpressher outrageand exhaustionindealing with
the U.S.DepartmentofHomelandSecurity,exclaiming,"Yabasta!Enough
isenough!"
InJanuary2008,thisprotestbyRosieMolanoBlount("Yabasta"roughly
translatesas"enoughalready") consciously"cites"the popularslogan from
the 1994Zapatista uprising in Chiapas, Mexico (Norrell). That Blount, an
Apache tribal member and U.S.citizen in Del Rio,Texas,has so viscerally
absorbed boththe revolutionaryrhetoricand political lessons of a remote
indigenous underclass atthe outskirtsofsouthernMexicosuggestscircuits
and affectivelinks that profoundlyintrigue me, and preoccupythis book.
Thoughthe protestperhapssaysasmuchaboutthe globalizationofmedia
andthe commodificationofsocialmovementsdiscourse,Blount's outburst
alsodenotesatransnationalaffiliation incollectiveresistanceto state prac
ticesofcontroland totalitarianism,likethose ofthe U.S.governmentatthe
U.S.-Mexicoborder. In marking the extension ofthese forms ofinjustice
and state power in U.S.society,aswellasthe transnational networkingof
modes of collectiveresistance, Blount articulates the kind ofhemispheric
connections that are already being made "on the ground"in the Americas
andthat Ihopeto highlightandcontextualize for myreaders.
Iplacespecialimportanceon the waysthat gender operatesin such cir
cuits,particularlybecausethefigureof"woman"hassooften functionedas
an indexofcollectivedesiresand anxieties atanygivenhistorical and geo
cultural site-as the paradigmatic discourse of "La Malinche" so clearly
teaches.' The figuring ofgenderin politics,art, and ideology tends to offer
amaterialaswellasan epistemologicaltrackingofthe flowsand recombi
nationsofdiscourses andideologies ofcollectivityand history,bothhege
monicand contestatory (Mirzoeff).What can be most illuminatingabout
this trackingare itsunexpectedflashesof insight and uncomfortablecon
nections.Performanceart and theorizationsofperformativityhavefurther
helped shiftdiscussions awayfrom the ruts ofpositivistidentitytheoriesin
order to enable alternative modes of thinking about, experiencing, and
challenging the status quo of contemporary sociality. Sometimes these
challenges require their own optic, or at leastasuspendedframe ofrefer
ence,to fullycomprehendthe multiplicityofideas,affects,and representa
tions being deployed.
PREFACE ix
Culturaltheoristand performanceartistCocoFuscoillustrateshowart
can provide these newoptics inher 2006performancework,"ARoom of
One's Own:Women and Powerinthe NewAmerica."In this piece,Fusco
fashionsasmalland succinctartisticgrenade that shethrowsout into lib
eralpolitics,exploding customarydiscussionsof identity,technology,the
femalebody, and its cultural work. This performance exemplifiesDiana
Taylor'snotion of a "scenario" that disrupts narrative's linear modes of
understandingandhistoricizingsocialinformationand illustratestherad
ical potential of performance art."ARoom of One's Own" elaborates a
u.s.
harrowingyetsadlyplausibleoccasioninwhichafemale militaryper
sonnel (Fusco) appears alone on stage to offer the audience an inspira
tional speech aboutthe empowering opportunitiesavailabletowomen in
"today'smilitary." Ashercharacter"TheInterrogator"explainstotheaudi
ence, "The War on Terror offers an unprecedented opportunity to the
women ofthisgreatcountry.Our nationisputtingitstrustinourtalents,
and is providing the support weneed to show the world that American
women arethe linchpin in theworldwidestrugglefordemocracy" (Fusco
2006).
Among other things, Fusco spotlights the language of feminism, the
status oflanguage more generally,and the vulnerability of both to being
co-opted into anauthoritariannation-stateprojectofpolicingand terror
izingcertainpopulationsandpersons.Stayingincharacterthroughoutthe
"lecture-performance:' Fusco's Interrogator is a graduate of a military
intelligenceschool and advocateofboththe"fight againstterrorism" and
the useoffemalemilitary personnel in"de-patterning"detaineesthrough
theuseofsexualinnuendoand threat duringinterrogations.Sheexplains,
"Thestrugglefor democracy isbeingwagedbywomen plyingtheir trade
in rooms just asWoolfimagined.Thesearesimple rooms, furnished with
nothingmore than adeskand acoupleofchairs.Andinthesesanctorum
ofliberty,Americanwomenareusingtheirminds andtheir charmstosave
American lives"(Fusco2006).Yokingthe genealogyof modern feminism
to the liberalist discourses of "liberty" and "choice,""ARoom of One's
Own"simultaneouslyimplicatesthe usesofgender and sexualityand the
languageof"Americanfreedom"inprojectsofinterrogation,policing,and
torture.
The Interrogator appears on stage along with a video monitor that
showsa detainee being prepared for interrogation. Everynow and then
Fusco interrupts her speech and disappears from the stage,reappearing
on the monitor in the cellof the male detainee (actor EliyasQureshi).
Sincequestions of sexuality,power,and gender politics are being ironi
cally posed behind the foregrounded language of Western feminism,
these scenes are both counterpoint and illustration to the Interrogator's
x PREFACE
motivationalspeech."ARoomofOne'sOwn"thusgeneratesaprofounddis
comfort, and confusion,inU.S.audienceswhostruggletokeepupwiththe
iterationsand disjunctionsthat preoccupyFusco'sproject.Simultaneouslya
critiqueofWesternfeministdiscourseandofU.S.globalhegemonyandwar
mongering,Fuscooffersanuncannilyappalling,ifhilarious,re-presentation
of the militarization of public discourse,U.S.globalpower,and feminism
itself.
In its staging oficonic (and ironic) images of gender, of military uni
forms, and ofsurveillancetechnologies, Fusco'spiecesignalsthe complex
ity of contemporary allegorical modes. As a whole, "ARoom of One's
Own" combines profoundly unassimilable images and rhetorics to create
anallegoricalcompositionthat"organizesmultipleinterpretationsregard
ing collective experience" (Hariman 267). That is, Fusco's performance
pieceexemplifiesthe allegoricalencoding of an array of visual technolo
giesand emblematicscenarios,such asapodium and acelland an"info
mercial;' that saturate a widely shared cultural imaginary. In eschewing
narrative explanation and development, ''ARoom of One's Own" works
through an alternative logicsthat I affiliatewith this allegorical mode in
writing and performance. Robert Hariman has claimed that we are wit
nessingarisein,orreturnto,allegory"in nosmallpartbecauseitactivates
amodeofconsciousness that isideallysuited to managingcontemporary
paradoxes of cultural transformation" (289). Ofcourse, this understand
ing of allegory as paradoxical and affecting consciousness in new ways
runscountertoitsreputationasa"dogmatic"mode ofrepresentationthat
isoften"alignedeasilywith reactionaryrhetoricorideologicalhegemony"
(Hariman282).
Isuggestthatthis oscillation inallegorybetween beingahegemonicor
recuperative dogma and amode conveyingthe emblematic complexity of
juxtaposedscenarios and discourses fulfillsan importantbut underexam
ined function in aesthetic projects that narrativize identities, particularly
gender.AndasBillBrownnotes inhisseminal essayon allegory,the prob
lem oftheoryisfacing"the unsymbolizable realofhistory,the globalhis
torical process-whichwecanonlyapproachin itsnarrativization"(743).
Toexplorehowperformersand writers haveusedsuch narrativizationsto
challengeaudiences and readers and to induce new,or unexpected, affec
tive states, I turn to a variety of textual and performance archivesfrom
across the Americas. Chapter 2,for example, examines the cultural pro
ductionoflesbianChicanas inthe 1980sand 90s,suchasCherrie Moraga,
who worked to reclaim the political rhetorics ofChicano culturalnation
alism from the jaws of the dominant sexual and racial allegory of La
Malinche. Other chapters interrogate the function of identity narratives
and discourses of"origin"in the performancework of the DefPoetsand,
PREFACE xi
in Chapter 6, Carmelita Tropicana. These performers, like several of the
writers discussed,tendtobringadistinct(sometimeskitschyor postmod
ern) sensibility to their emblems and images of race and sex in the
Americas-asensibilitythatismore likelytodisrupt"official"storiesthan
upholdand reiterate them.
Oneofmyunderlyingclaimsisthat atsomeundecidablemomentinthe
latetwentiethcentury,"theNorth;'specificallytheUnitedStates,experienced
aparadigmshift-atleastatthelevelofpubliccriticalunderstanding-that
political theorists such asWendy Brown have described as an evacuation
of the public spheres of democratic culture. This growing awareness of a
fractal break that dislodgesthe concertedmechanisms ofstate power and
capital from the idealized scripts ofour political national imaginary has
been experienced as cataclysmic by U.S.intellectuals, particularly since
9/11. However,in Latin America such perceptions and critical awareness
took root in intellectual circlesand political and aesthetic critiques many
decades ago-signaling both an inversion of the standard U.S.version of
Americantemporalitiesof"North"and "South" and aprofoundopportu
nity.Artisticand theoreticalinsightsemerging from actorsoperatingatthe
supposedly"object" end of processes of globalization manifest a critical
pedagogyand narrativitythatareperhapstheproductof"theSouth"hav
ing fuller access to more explicit and intensified experiences of what
Achille Mbembe calls "necropower"-a biopolitics of capital and state
control that has long been fullyoperational in the United States,though
only intermittentlyperceived.'
This recently perceived paradigm shift, though, isn't the only catalyst
forthecomparativearchiveand methodologyofGenderandAllegory.Both
initsfaithinaesthetic projects and inthespecificworkofkeymultigeneric
artists suchasthe Chilean DiamelaEltit,LatinAmericanliteraryand artis
ticpractices offerproductiveand enabling models for the comprehension
and consumptionofculturalproductioninliteratureand performance.In
areviewessay,"ComparativeLiterary Studies oftheAmericas;'ClaireFox
callsfor more "Latin American material to beincorporatedinto ...com
parative studies, for it mightshed light on how the American Dream and
itspolitical realitiesinteractwith LatinAmerican nationalimaginariesthat
also exert pressure on U.S.-based Latina (0) populations" (880). I agree
with Foxbutthinkthatthese interactions and pressures extend deep into
U.S.nationalimaginariesin waysthat cannotbe limitedto Latina/o con
texts, though these contexts are certainly an important circuit of both
political and aesthetic transamerican transmissions. Gender andAllegory
addresses the imperative to consider the interrelationships and intersec
tions of national imaginaries in the Americas and the consensus that
transnational archives and methodologies are needed to broaden the