Phenomenology of Chicana Experience and Identity
Subtitle
Communication and Transformation in Praxis
Using narrative descriptions of the author's own lived experience of her ethnic heritage, Martinez offers a systematic interrogation of the social and cultural norms by which certain aspects of her Mexican American cultural heritage are both retained and lost over generations of assimilation. Combining semiotic and existential phenomenology with Chicana feminism, the author charts new terrain where anti-racism, anti-sexist and anti-homophobic work my be pursued.
Bio
Jacqueline Martinez is an associate professor and the faculty head of the languages and cultures faculty in the College of Integrative Sciences and Arts. She studies communication as it mediates the relationships among personal experience, social practices and cultural histories.
Praise for this book
This is a great work of political phenomenology, offering a phenomenology of racial embodiment, of assimilated identity and the attempt to 'de-assimilate,' and of mestizo consciousness. The main contribution of the work is to provide a phenomenological account both in theory and in practice: the theory of embodied consciousness, of perception, and of phenomenology of racism both internalized and external; but this is fleshed out through intensely readable narratives about Martinez's own particular experiences as Chicana.
Linda Martín Alcoff Professor of philosophy, Hunter College
This is a superb book ... Careful in detail, comprehensive in scope and often daringly honest and forthright, Martinez's work has that rare gift of constant surprise from chapter to chapter ... Clearly a major contribution, this book is a must-read for anyone searching for a sophisticated theoretical treatment, experientially grounded, of the multiple complexities of sex, sexuality, race and class.
Lewis Gordon Professor of philosophy, University of Connecticut
