Race Class: Reading Mexican American Literature in the Era of Neoliberalism, 1981-1984

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José Antonio Arellano (United States Air Force Academy)

Race Class

Reading Mexican American Literature in the Era of Neoliberalism, 1981-1984

José Antonio Arellano (United States Air Force Academy)

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English

Cambridge University Press
08 January 2026

Literary theory; History; Social groups; Hispanic & Latino studies

Series: Elements in Race in American Literature and Culture

Race Class identifies two competing aesthetics, the 'recognitional' and the 'redistributive,' that developed in Mexican American literature during the 1980s. Recognitional literature seeks to express an ethnic identity via a circular narratological discourse of self-creation. This expressive view of literature fosters readerly sympathy via testimony and textual personification, the author argues, but ultimately forecloses interpretive judgement. Redistributive literature instead averts the readers' sympathy to produce the evaluative distance through which interpretative judgement and structural critique are enabled. By tracking these competing aesthetics, Race Class shows why the Chicano Movement should not be understood as a working-class enterprise, why higher education cannot be a mechanism of social justice, and why the left continues to misunderstand the nature of economic inequality today.

By: José Antonio Arellano (United States Air Force Academy)
Imprint: Cambridge University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Weight: 130g
ISBN: 9781009429542
ISBN 10: 100942954X
Series: Elements in Race in American Literature and Culture
Pages: 80
Publication Date: 08 January 2026
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

1. Introduction; 2. The Development of Chicano Literature and Culture; 3. The Limits of the Chicano Solution; 4. A Critique of Chicano Activism and Literature: Richard Rodriguez Hunger of Memory (1982); 5. Recognitional Witnessing versus Redistributive Representation: I, Rigoberta Menchú (1983); 6. Identifying the Enemy: Daniel James Famous All Over Town (1983); 7. Recognitional Novels: Arturo Islas The Rain God (1984); 8. The Culture of Poverty and the Program Era: Sandra Cisneros The House on Mango Street (1984); 9. Against Literature? The Redistributive within The House on Mango Street; 10. Conclusion.