English Language and Literature ETDs
Publication Date
Summer 7-15-2024
Abstract
This dissertation develops a clearer vision of Chicanx Speculative Fiction (SF) as its own genre anchored to the experiences and histories of the Chicanx community, with a particular interest in the avenues through which race and gender shape the experience of embodiment. SF resists hegemonic narratives that justify racial hierarchies and reveals both the cultural and concrete pressures exerted on Chicanx bodies in the United States as a minoritized and often exploited community. Furthermore, my analysis illustrates that Chicanx writers utilize elements of SF to defamiliarize traditional notions of race, class, and nationality. Through the use of defamiliarization, Chicanx SF texts dramatize or “play out” Chicana feminism’s multifaceted interrogation of embodiment, identity, and culture. By reframing racial and cultural conflicts as other- or alter-worldly, these texts resist the normalization of exploitation, racism, and societal antipathy. Ultimately, Chicanx SF uses elements of fantasy, horror, and science fiction to disrupt colonial perceptions of the Chicanx body as a permanent “Other.”
Degree Name
English
Level of Degree
Doctoral
Department Name
English
First Committee Member (Chair)
Dr. Jesse Alemán
Second Committee Member
Dr. Melina Vizcaíno-Alemán
Third Committee Member
Dr. Bernadine Hernández
Fourth Committee Member
Dr. Sara Spurgeon
Language
English
Keywords
science fiction, Chicanafuturism, defamiliarization, Chicano, Chicana, borderlands fiction
Document Type
Dissertation
Recommended Citation
Carson Wilson, Chrysta. "The Borders of Embodiment: Transgression, Transformation, and Corporeality in Chicanx Speculative Fiction." (2024). https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/engl_etds/381
