This Is AuburnElectronic Theses and Dissertations

Diferentes manifestaciones de lo gay en Lorca, Arenas y Noel y la sed de un canon queer latino.

Date

2015-05-07

Author

Tolsa Potous, Javier

Type of Degree

Master's Thesis

Department

Foreign Language and Literature

Abstract

This study focuses presents a Queer-Latino reading of three epic lyrical collections: Poeta en Nueva York (1940) by Federico García Lorca, Autoepitafio (1992) by Reinaldo Arenas, and Kool Logic/Lógica Kool (2005) by Tomás Urayoán Noel. In spite of contextual differences of an historical or sociopolitical nature, these three authors share a common nexus: filtering a lived experience in New York City from a dual perspective of otherness as it relates to sexuality and ethnicity. Federico García Lorca relates to the city as a tourist, Reinaldo Arenas as an exile and Tomás Urayogán Noel as an assimilated bicultural. The fusion of the Queer and Latino identities vacillates on a continuum throughout these works; at times the Hispanic condition announces itself with more prominence, whereas in other moments the homosexuality captures the poets’ focus with more intensity. Examining that evolution mirrors the growing importance of Queer Latino Studies as well as the shifting nature of identity politics and both the challenges and the freedoms afforded each poet as he gazes into the metropolis as a mirror.