Latino Literature: Opposing Traditional Values Course Extractions

Latino Literature: Opposing Traditional Values

Course Extractions

There are several different facets of Latino literature that I am familiar with today that I was previously unaware of. Most of these are related to the variety of themes that recur in various manifestations throughout this genre of literature. The most fundamental aspect of learning that I have come away from this course with is that in this particular type of literature, themes and subject matter are not always what they appear as.

Even a cursory examination of the authors read in this course and some of the works of literature they produced confirm this thesis statement. There is a palpable subversion of traditional gender roles and conceptions in the works of Junot Diaz, who authored "Drown and "Aguantando," as well as in those of Sandra Cisneros, whose "Bien Pretty" exemplifies this characteristic. The works of Jorge Luis Borges, Julio Cortaza, and Horacio Quiroga all readily confirm the fact that perspectives, viewpoints, and even the entire subject matter of a story is mutable and prone to sudden, twisting transformations -- which underscores the fact that in literature from Latino authors, things are not always what they appear to be.

The first thing I learned in this course is that short stories and the characterizations depicted within them can attain a great deal of depth and vibrancy by opposing traditional values within them. The works of Cisneros and Diaz suitably demonstrate this fact largely by subverting traditional gender roles. The homosexual interaction of a street drug dealer added a fair amount of complexity and flair to Diaz's "Drown" (Diaz, p. 104, 1997), while Cisenros' "Bien Pretty" effectively objectifies its male character and assigns traditional male virtues of power and decision-making to the female protagonist (Cisneros, p. 153, 1992). Doing so provides a depth of dimension that is practically overlooked when tales merely follow gender stereotypes in terms of characterization.

The second thing of importance I learned from this course is primarily attributed to the works of Cortazar, who is a master of the transformative aspect of perspective that is presented within the work of literature throughout the pantheon of Latino authors. In both "Axolotl" and "The Night Face Up," Cortazar purposefully implores minimal characterization and elements of plot while focusing on shifts in the viewpoint of the narrator. In the former work, the narrator identifies what begins as reality as that of dreams, and that which initially appears as dreams as being reality. In the latter of these works, the narrator actually turns into a water creature. In both of these stories, as in many different pieces of Latino literature, conventional narrative elements are not as they appear.