Additional information
by Trevor Boffone (Editor), Cristina Herrera (Editor), Guadalupe García McCall (Foreword by)
Winner of the Children's Literature Association's 2022 Edited Book Award
Contributions by Carolina Alonso, Elena Avilés, Trevor Boffone, Christi Cook, Ella Diaz, Amanda Ellis, Cristina Herrera, Guadalupe García McCall, Domino Pérez, Adrianna M. Santos, Roxanne Schroeder-Arce, Lettycia Terrones, and Tim Wadham In Nerds, Goths, Geeks, and Freaks: Outsiders in Chicanx and Latinx Young Adult Literature, the outsider intersects with discussions of race, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality. The essays in this volume address questions of outsider identities and how these identities are shaped by mainstream myths around Chicanx and Latinx young people, particularly with the common stereotype of the struggling, underachieving inner-city teens. Contributors also grapple with how young adults reclaim what it means to be an outsider, weirdo, nerd, or goth, and how the reclamation of these marginalized identities expand conversations around authenticity and narrow understandings of what constitutes cultural identity. Included are analysis of such texts as I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter, Shadowshaper, Swimming While Drowning, and others. Addressed in the essays are themes of outsiders in Chicanx/Latinx children's and young adult literature, and the contributors insist that to understand Latinx youth identities it is necessary to shed light on outsiders within an already marginalized ethnic group: nerds, goths, geeks, freaks, and others who might not fit within such Latinx popular cultural paradigms as the chola and cholo, identities that are ever-present in films, television, and the internet.Author Biography
Trevor Boffone is lecturer in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program at the University of Houston and the founder of the 50 Playwrights Project. He is the coeditor of Encuentro: Latinx Performance for the New American Theater. Cristina Herrera is professor and director of Chicano/Latino studies at Portland State University. She is author of Contemporary Chicana Literature: (Re)Writing the Maternal Script.
Number of Pages: 214
Dimensions: 0.49 x 9 x 6 IN
Illustrated: Yes
Publication Date: March 18, 2020
