{"title":"“Th’oppressor’s wrong,” or, what’s Hamlet to the Borderlands?","authors":"Kathryn Vomero Santos","doi":"10.1057/s41276-024-00462-6","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p>This article offers a critical analysis of two poetic appropriations of Hamlet’s “To be or not to be” soliloquy: “El Hamlet Fronterizo” by Guillermo Gómez-Peña and “To be a Pocha or not to be” by Iris De Anda. Both poets use the languages, geographies, and ontological concerns of the US–Mexico Borderlands to reimagine the Danish prince’s famously introspective speech as a performance text that reflects their lived experiences and consciousnesses as border subjects. For Gómez-Peña and De Anda, the figure of Hamlet becomes a means through which to reject Western colonial worldviews, to refuse assimilation, and to center Borderlands ways of knowing, being, and doing. When Hamlet’s soliloquy is reimagined in these ways, the most urgent question is not whether or not to be but rather what it means to be someone whose existence is made vulnerable precisely because it exceeds the increasingly policed boundaries of nation, language, race, and gender.</p>","PeriodicalId":45728,"journal":{"name":"Latino Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7000,"publicationDate":"2024-09-17","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/s41276-024-00462-6","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 offers a critical analysis of two poetic appropriations of Hamlet’s “To be or not to be” soliloquy: “El Hamlet Fronterizo” by Guillermo Gómez-Peña and “To be a Pocha or not to be” by Iris De Anda. Both poets use the languages, geographies, and ontological concerns of the US–Mexico Borderlands to reimagine the Danish prince’s famously introspective speech as a performance text that reflects their lived experiences and consciousnesses as border subjects. For Gómez-Peña and De Anda, the figure of Hamlet becomes a means through which to reject Western colonial worldviews, to refuse assimilation, and to center Borderlands ways of knowing, being, and doing. When Hamlet’s soliloquy is reimagined in these ways, the most urgent question is not whether or not to be but rather what it means to be someone whose existence is made vulnerable precisely because it exceeds the increasingly policed boundaries of nation, language, race, and gender.
本文对哈姆雷特 "To be or not to be "独白的两首诗歌进行了批判性分析:"Guillermo Gómez-Peña 的《El Hamlet Fronterizo》和 Iris De Anda 的《To be a Pocha or not to be》。两位诗人都使用了美墨边境地区的语言、地理和本体论关注点,将丹麦王子著名的自省演说重新想象为一种表演文本,反映了他们作为边境主体的生活经验和意识。对于戈麦斯-培尼亚和德安达来说,哈姆雷特的形象成为一种手段,通过这种手段,他们拒绝西方殖民主义世界观,拒绝同化,并将边境地区的认知、存在和行为方式置于中心位置。当哈姆雷特的独白以这些方式被重新想象时,最紧迫的问题不是 "是否存在",而是 "存在 "意味着什么,而 "存在 "之所以变得脆弱,正是因为它超越了民族、语言、种族和性别等日益受到管制的界限。
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.