Description
Book SynopsisCan reading make us better citizens? In
Crossing borders and queering citizenship, Feghali
crafts a sophisticated theoretical framework to theorise how the act of reading can contribute to the queering of contemporary citizenship in North America. Providing sensitive and convincing readings of work by both popular and niche authors, including Gloria Anzaldúa, Dorothy Allison, Gregory Scofield, Guillermo Gómez-Peña, Erín Moure, Junot Díaz, and Yann Martel, this book is the first to not only read these authors together, but also to discuss how each powerfully resists the exclusionary work of state-sanctioned citizenship in the U.S. and Canada. This book convincingly draws connections between queer theory, citizenship studies, and border studies and sheds light on how these connections can reframe our understanding of American Studies.
Table of ContentsIntroduction: why queer(y) citizenship?
1. Reading: an act of queering citizenship
2. Autobiographical acts of reading and the work of Gloria Anzaldúa and Dorothy Allison
3. Métis and two-spirit vernaculars and the writing of Gregory Scofield
4. Performing the border and queer rasquachismo in Guillermo Gómez-Peña’s performance art
5. The antianaesthetic and ‘a community of readers’ in Erín Moure’s O Cidadán
6. Reading for hemispheric citizenship in Junot Díaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
Conclusion: Yann Martel’s lonely book club
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