Skip to Main Content
 

Global Search Box

 
 
 
 

Files

File List


Oriol Dissertation.pdf (744.36 KB)

ETD Abstract Container

Abstract Header

Bodies of Knowledge: Representations of Dancing Bodies in Latina Literature

Oriol, Rachel Anne
http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1204-7159
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1595121438676286

Abstract Details

2020, Doctor of Philosophy, Miami University, English.
Bodies of Knowledge promotes the investigation of dance literature, or texts that emphasize dance choreography, cultural origins of dance forms, and the development of a kinesthetic sense of self. In particular, I look at how Latina writers embrace dance as a way of negotiating and expanding experiences of cultural difference. To do so I use the term "embodied knowledge" - developed from dance studies scholars like Didre Sklar and Susan Leigh Foster (among others) - to identify the way bodily practices inform social identities. I expand upon this term by arguing that it is part of a process of becoming wherein a dancer's somatic awareness also informs her gender, sexuality, and cultural belonging. I align this term with Latina writers like Cherrie Moraga and Gloria Anzaldua, who argue that the racialized body is a site of transformation through the imagination. Through the literary representations of dancing Latina bodies, I contend language is a vital component of the embodied knowledge of dance because it activates what Joseph Roach calls the kinesthetic imagination. I argue the narratives in this dissertation initiate embodied knowledge through the kinesthetic imagination which results in complex representations of Latinas. I focus on dance literature written in the transition between the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. During this period, Latina authors presented narratives where protagonists began to make choices independent of either Latin American or United States cultures. The first-person narratives in this dissertation emphasize the crucial role the body plays in both learning how to dance and learning how to navigate cultural contexts as Latinas, in all various iterations, because of this attention to embodiment. The texts - Esmeralda Santiago's memoirs, When I Was Puerto Rican (1993), Almost a Woman (1998), and The Turkish Lover (2004), Alma Guillermoprieto's memoir, Dancing with Cuba (2004), Ana Castillo's novel Peel My Love Like an Onion (1999), and Reyna Grande's novel, Dancing with Butterflies (2009) - show how the embodied practice of dance materializes knowledge of the body into knowledge of the self. Ultimately, it is through attention to the kinesthetic self that a reader may recognize the shared physical vulnerability we all possess.
Andrew Hebard (Advisor)
Katie Johnson (Committee Member)
Tim Melley (Committee Member)
Elena Albarrán (Committee Member)
131 p.
Dance; Literature; Performing Arts
Latina literature, embodiment, dance, kinesthetic imagination, identity, kinesthetic self, memoir

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Oriol, R. A. (2020). Bodies of Knowledge: Representations of Dancing Bodies in Latina Literature [Doctoral dissertation, Miami University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1595121438676286

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Oriol, Rachel. Bodies of Knowledge: Representations of Dancing Bodies in Latina Literature. 2020. Miami University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1595121438676286.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Oriol, Rachel. "Bodies of Knowledge: Representations of Dancing Bodies in Latina Literature." Doctoral dissertation, Miami University, 2020. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1595121438676286

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

miami1595121438676286
512
© 2020, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Miami University and OhioLINK.