'An Art of Speaking': A Study of Anzaldua’s Borderlands as a 'Tactical Discourse'

Abstract

The purpose of the present thesis has been to create a “de Certeauian” framework for studying resistance. The author situates Michel de Certeau’s work alongside other theorists, including Michel Foucault, Mikhail Bakhtin and Bruno Latour. Additionally, using the notion of “tactics” articulated by de Certeau, this thesis will argue that Gloria Anzaldua’s work is an example of a “tactical discourse,” a kind of rhetorical and linguistic “backtalk.” The author has placed Anzaldua and de Certeau in conversation with one another, in order to study how these two theorists inform and interanimate each other’s ideas.