Light in the Dark/Luz en lo Oscuro: Rewriting Identity, Spirituality, Reality (Latin America Otherwise)

Written during the last decade of her life, Light in the Dark represents the culmination of Gloria E. Anzaldúa's mature thought and the most comprehensive presentation of her philosophy. Throughout, Anzaldúa weaves personal narratives into deeply engaging theoretical readings to comment on numerous contemporary issues—including the September 11 attacks, neocolonial practices in the art world, and coalitional politics. She valorizes subaltern forms and methods of knowing, being, and creating that have been marginalized by Western thought, and theorizes her writing process as a fully embodied artistic and political practice. Resituating Anzaldúa's work within Continental philosophy and new materialism, Light in the Dark takes Anzaldúan scholarship in new directions. Gloria E. Anzaldúa (1942–2004) was a visionary writer whose work was recognized with many honors, including the Before Columbus Foundation American Book Award, a Lambda literary award, the National Endowment for the Arts Fiction Award, and the Bode-Pearson Prize for Outstanding Contributions to American Studies. Her book Borderlands / La frontera was selected as one of the 100 Best Books of the Century by the Hungry Mind Review and the Utne Reader. AnaLouise Keating, Professor of Women’s Studies at Texas Woman’s University, is the author of Women Reading, Women Writing: Self-Invention in Paula Gunn Allen, Gloria Anzaldúa, and Audre Lorde, Teaching Transformation, and Transformation Now! Toward a Post-Oppositional Politics of Change; editor of Anzaldúa’s Interviews/Entrevistas, The Gloria Anzaldúa Reader, and EntreMundos/AmongWorlds: New Perspectives on Gloria Anzaldúa; and co-editor, with Anzaldúa, of this bridge we call home: radical visions for transformation. Editor's Introduction. Re-envisioning Coyolxauhqui, Decolonizing Reality: Anzaldúa's Twenty-First-Century Imperative ix Preface. Gestures of the Body—Escribiendo para idear 1 1. Let us be the healing of the wound: The Coyolxauhqui imperative—la sombra y el sueño 9 2. Flights of the Imagination: Rereading/Rewriting Realities 23 3. Border Arte: Nepantla, el lugar de la frontera 47 4. Geographies of Selves—Reimagining Identity: Nos/Otras (Us/Other), las Nepantleras, and the New Tribalism 65 5. Putting Coyolxauhqui Together: A Creative Process 95 6. now let us shift . . . conocimiento . . . inner work, public acts 117 Agradecimientos | Acknowledgements 161 Appendix 1. Lloronas Dissertation Material (Proposal, Table of Contents, and Chapter Outline) 165 Appendix 2. Anzaldúa's Health 171 Appendix 3. Unfinished Sections and Additional Notes from Chapter 2 176 Appendix 4. Alternative Opening, Chapter 4 180 Appendix 5. Historical Notes on the Chapters' Development 190 Appendix 6. Invitation and Call for Papers, Testimonios Volume 200 Notes 205 Glossary 241 References 247 Index 257 "Written during the last decade of her life, Light in the Dark represents the culmination of Gloria E. Anzaldúa's mature thought and the most comprehensive presentation of her philosophy. Throughout, Anzaldúa weaves personal narratives into deeply engaging theoretical readings to comment on numerous contemporary issues-- including the September 11 attacks, neocolonial practices in the art world, and coalition politics ..."-- Quatrième de couverture Light in the Dark is the culmination of Gloria E. Anzaldúa's mature thought and the most comprehensive presentation of her philosophy. Focusing on aesthetics, ontology, epistemology, and ethics, it contains several developments in her many important theoretical contributions.