Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2015, English

In an age of infinite storytelling possibilities in traditional mediums as well as those heretofore unimagined, Latino narratives are exemplary for their use of intermediality. Intermediality is a way of understanding the relationships between two or more media either within a single text or artifact and/or in two or more texts or artifacts presented in different media. Intermedial storytelling transgresses media boundaries in order to engage both targeted and more diffuse audiences. The twenty-first century has seen the movement of a significant presence of Latinos into the cultural mainstream. Dynamic changes in demographics throughout the United States have served as a catalyst for the creation and development of works by and about Latinos, who have steadily gained recognition for their diverse roles as authors, artists, and ardent consumers of American culture. This demographic growth brings with it the opportunity and the need to study the rich and evolving traditions of Latino narrative, and to situate those traditions in the broader context afforded by Latino cultural production, including Latino contributions to visual culture. Manifold Imaginaries explores intermedial storytelling in literary works, television programs, and graphic narratives by and about Latinos. My analysis uses a working definition of “intermediality” that includes the mention and use of other media within a single text, as well as the ways stories are told and interpreted across media to engage audiences in strategic and transgressive ways that suggest diverse storytelling impulses and representations of Latinos. Thus in the first chapter I posit that Ana Castillo's novel So Far From God can be read as a Latin American telenovela and that, as such, the novel attempts strategic empathetic engagement with audiences familiar with the genre. In a different example, from my second chapter, I examine the 2013 FX television series The Bridge and consider how the show's “e-boo (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Frederick Luis Aldama PhD (Advisor); David Herman PhD (Committee Member); Jared Gardner PhD (Committee Member); Robyn Warhol PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: American Literature; Comparative; Ethnic Studies; Gender Studies; Latin American Studies; Literature

Bachelor of Arts, Wittenberg University, 2019, English

This thesis explores how Sandra Cisneros's writing uses the reinterpretation of myths to more fully realize mestiza identity. It uses Gloria Anzaldua's model of "the Coatlicue State" to explain how Cisneros addresses women's ownership of their sexuality in her novel The House on Mango Street and in three short stories. The Coatlicue State reflects the subterranean aspects of one's identity that are repressed by the societal and cultural milieu and encourages movement towards a reconciliation the the repressed parts of the self and an embrace of all parts of a mestiza's mix of identities. Anzaldua sees this integration of the self in mythic terms, regarding the tropes of la Llorona, la Malinche, and the Virgin of Guadalupe as dismembered versions of Coatlicue. Cisneros's characters exist is cultural circumstances where these tropes influence their ways of being. In The House on Mango Street, Esperanza begins to escape the traps of cultural mythologies by writing her own story, defining herself as a way of leaving behind mythic scripts enforced on women in her community. In "Never Marry a Mexican," Clemencia demonstrates the danger of what happens when Anzaldua's Coatlicue State is perverted; in it, she claims sexual agency by asserting dominance, reversing but still recreating oppressive dynamics. In "One Holy Night," Cisneros highlights the shame that a woman is expected to feel about expressing her sexuality. Rather than feeling ashamed, as authority figures in her life expect, the narrator's sexual awakening prompts an intellectual awakening in which she is able to better understand the world around her. In "Woman Hollering Creek," Felice shows that not only must destructive mythologies be reinterpreted, the reinterpretations must be shared for the empowerment of others.

Committee: Kate Polak (Advisor); Scot Hinson (Committee Member); Sheree Henlon (Committee Member) Subjects: American Literature; Ethnic Studies; Gender Studies; Latin American Literature; Latin American Studies; Literature

Doctor of Philosophy, Miami University, 2020, 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 (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Andrew Hebard (Advisor); Katie Johnson (Committee Member); Tim Melley (Committee Member); Elena Albarrán (Committee Member) Subjects: Dance; Literature; Performing Arts

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2017, EDU Teaching and Learning

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the Latinx population has become the largest minority group in the United States, at seventeen percent of the population in 2014. While young adult literature featuring Latinx young adult has grown in the past couple of years, there is still a need for representation, especially young adult Latina protagonists. The representation of Latinas in young adult literature has begun to grow, portraying the multiple layers and challenges Latina young women face in their formation of identities encased by the ruptures created by their surrounding environments in their cultural identity, gender and sexual identity, and social identities. Furthermore, the exploration and formation of identity in young adults is not only influenced by their exposure to media and books, but also, their understanding of current discourses and stereotypes and the ways that these are problematic. This research seeks to open conversations about Latina representation in young adult literature, as well as analyze the way these representations can be explored through the lens of Gloria Anzaldua's borderlands. The lack of focus on young adult Latinas in both young adult publishing trends as well as scholarship calls attention as to why most of these discourses go unnoticed or unmoved. As the representation of Latina young adult literature grows, so should the scholarship aiding upcoming authors in the way that these representations can be improved and promoted to empower young adult Latinas in identifying themselves in these texts. With these representations comes the responsibility of ensuring that they are accurate and authentic in order to challenge and break through stereotypes in mainstream discourses.

Committee: Michelle A. Abate (Advisor); Ruth Lowery (Committee Member) Subjects: Latin American Studies; Literature; Minority and Ethnic Groups; Multicultural Education

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2012, English

The rise of Latino/a literature in the US has been fraught with difficulties that stem from matters of publication and audience. These difficulties, such as the often limited expectations publishers have for the forms Latino/a literature may take, have resulted in significant constraints on the development of this literary tradition. Despite these constraints, Latino/a authors have steadily worked to expand audience expectations by attending to narrative design and creating challenging reading situations—moments in which audiences are not only presented with a cognitively-challenging reading experience, but are also challenged to broaden its understanding of the forms Latino/a literature may take. Rather than compose their narratives with an actual audience in mind, many Latino/a authors sought to write for an ideal audience capable of engaging with even the most complex storyworlds. In essence, Latino/a authors, through their writings, invited actual audiences to break from their narrow expectations. My selected Latino/a texts reveal the narrative strategies used to challenge audiences, and also demonstrate how these challenges were received by actual audiences. "Hospitable Imaginations: Contemporary Latino/a Literature and the Pursuit of a Readership" explores how challenging reading situations have shaped Latino/a literature over the course of its development. I contend that early in the publication history of Latino fiction, publishers insisted on Latino/a writers foregrounding what were thought to be narrative modes and thematics endemic to Latinos themselves, while in more recent years publishers have placed more of a premium on immersive storytelling—on the telling of stories that have the power to capture, and retain, the imaginations of the broadest possible readership. Focusing on Latino/a texts written from the late 1960s to the present, I show how authors such as Oscar “Zeta” Acosta, Gloria Anzaldua, Piri Thomas, Giannina Braschi, Sandra Cisneros, Junot (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Frederick L. Aldama PhD (Committee Chair); David Herman PhD (Committee Member); Brian McHale PhD (Committee Member); Manuel L. Martinez PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Caribbean Literature; Comparative Literature; Ethnic Studies; Hispanic American Studies; Hispanic Americans; Literature; Minority and Ethnic Groups; Modern Literature