{"title":"Seeing the unseen: abjection, social death, and neoliberal implication in Héctor Tobar’s The Tattooed Soldier","authors":"Isabel Quintana Wulf","doi":"10.1057/s41276-024-00479-x","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p>This article analyzes Héctor Tobar’s <i>The Tattooed Soldier</i> as a hemispheric critique of racialization and social dispossession bridging the gap between Central America and the United States. Examining the homeless and the refugee subjects in the novel as structurally equivalent, the article explores the ramifications of internal and external displacements in relation to the protections of citizenship and political asylum. It explores how neoliberal ideologies and practices allow for the creation and naturalization of urban spaces of abjection, effectively condoning the social death of subjects not deemed worthy of respect or social value. In doing so, the article demonstrates how social and spatial dispossession is subsumed into everyday life, becoming naturalized and invisible. It demonstrates how social and political disenfranchisement are constructed discursively and spatially, considering the novel’s stories of immigration and asylum-seeking not only as Latina/o/x stories but also as intrinsic parts of the stories that constitute the United States.</p>","PeriodicalId":45728,"journal":{"name":"Latino Studies","volume":"10 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7000,"publicationDate":"2024-09-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Latino Studies","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1057/s41276-024-00479-x","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"SOCIOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
This article analyzes Héctor Tobar’s The Tattooed Soldier as a hemispheric critique of racialization and social dispossession bridging the gap between Central America and the United States. Examining the homeless and the refugee subjects in the novel as structurally equivalent, the article explores the ramifications of internal and external displacements in relation to the protections of citizenship and political asylum. It explores how neoliberal ideologies and practices allow for the creation and naturalization of urban spaces of abjection, effectively condoning the social death of subjects not deemed worthy of respect or social value. In doing so, the article demonstrates how social and spatial dispossession is subsumed into everyday life, becoming naturalized and invisible. It demonstrates how social and political disenfranchisement are constructed discursively and spatially, considering the novel’s stories of immigration and asylum-seeking not only as Latina/o/x stories but also as intrinsic parts of the stories that constitute the United States.
期刊介绍：
Latino Studies has established itself as the leading, international peer-reviewed journal for advancing interdisciplinary scholarship about the lived experience and struggles of Latinas and Latinos for equality, representation, and social justice. Sustaining the tradition of activist scholarship of the founders of Chicana and Chicano Studies and Puerto Rican Studies, the journal critically engages the study of the local, national, transnational, and hemispheric realities that continue to influence the Latina and Latino presence in the United States. It is committed to developing a new transnational research agenda that bridges the academic and non-academic worlds and fosters mutual learning and collaboration among all the Latino national groups.
Latino Studies provides an intellectual forum for innovative explorations and theorization. We welcome submissions of original research articles of up to 8,000 words, from scholars and practitioners in the national and international research communities.
In addition to scholarly articles, we also invite other type of submissions. Vivencias or ''reports from the field'' are short personal essays between 2000-3000 words that describe and analyze significant local issues, struggles and debates affecting the lives of Latinas/os in different regions of the country. We also welcome interviews with Latinas/os who are contributing in their local communities or nationwide (e.g. authors, artists, community activists, union leaders, etc.). Our aim in publishing the ''reports'' is to inform readers about events that are sometimes over-looked by the national and regional media.The Reflexiones Pedagógicas section includes short essays between 2000-3000 words that address issues of pedagogy and curriculum. This section contributes toward the development and institutionalization of our field in the academy. Páginas Recuperadas are short essays between 2000-3000 words that seek to recover archival documents. These essays make visible, historically significant achievements by individuals, and pivotal events in the experience of Latinas/os in the United States. El Foro is an occasional section that provides a space for essays of approximately 6000 words, addressing current events, in an effort to further engage our readers in a dialogue on the pressing issues affecting Latina/o communities today.Book and media reviews are devoted to scholarship/media on the experience of Latinas/os in the United States. Reviews are no more than 1000 words.
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