Books in the Cultural Studies of the Americas series

A redrawing of the lineage of Brazilian and Spanish-American literatures, this book advocates an understanding of the relationships between cultures as a process of "transculturation" rather than "acculturation"-a process that emphasizes the often- ignored impact of the peripheral culture on the one that assumes.

It studies the representation of American space during the initial confrontation between Europeans and Amerindians and during the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries.

There is more to identity than identifying with one's culture or standing solidly against it. José Esteban Muñoz looks at how those outside the racial and sexual mainstream negotiate majority culture-not by aligning themselves with or against exclusionary works but rather by transforming these works for their own cultural purposes. Muñoz calls this process "disidentification," and through a study of its workings, he develops a new perspective on minority performance, survival, and activism.Disidentifications is also something of a performance in its own right, an attempt to fashion a queer world by working on, with, and against dominant ideology. By examining the process of identification in the work of filmmakers, performance artists, ethnographers, Cuban choteo, forms of gay male mass culture (such as pornography), museums, art photography, camp and drag, and television, Muñoz persistently points to the intersecting and short-circuiting of identities and desires that result from misalignments with the cultural and ideological mainstream in contemporary urban America.Muñoz calls attention to the world-making properties found in performances by queers of color-in Carmelita Tropicana's "Camp/Choteo" style politics, Marga Gomez's performances of queer childhood, Vaginal Creme Davis's "Terrorist Drag," Isaac Julien's critical melancholia, Jean-Michel Basquiat's disidentification with Andy Warhol and pop art, Felix Gonzalez-Torres's performances of "disidentity," and the political performance of Pedro Zamora, a person with AIDS, within the otherwise artificial environment of the MTV serialThe Real World.

Offers a study that asks how the art produced about the US-Mexico border - from picture postcards to films and performances - reflects political and economic transformations occurring worldwide. Starting with a discussion of photography and film about the Mexican Revolution, this book traces how this border has been represented in art.

Traces how Cuba's revolutionary past and uncertain future collide with post - Cold War realities. Four decades ago, the Cuban revolution captured the world's attention. The author explores the sites, both physical and imaginative, where memory bears upon Cuba's collective history in ways that illuminate the extended moment of uncertainty.