Books by Ellen McCracken

Part of a new phase of post-1960s U.S. Latino literature, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz and Caramelo by Sandra Cisneros both engage in unique networks of paratexts that center on the performance of latinidad.

This analysis focuses on the strategies by which the commercial structure shapes the cultural content, the magazines' repetitive attempts to secure a consensus about the feminine that is grounded in consumerism, and the contradictory semiotic structures at work within and between purchased ads, covert ads, and editorial features.