Some reflections on contemporary writing in the indigenous languages of America

Abstract

This article surveys recent literatures in the indigenous languages of Latin America. The past decade has witnessed a continent-wide rise in indigenous-language publications – a rise calling for a reevaluation of the critical state of indigenous rights and language policies that was expressed in the context of protests around the quincentennial celebrations of Columbus' 'discovery' of the Americas. The new wave of indigenous literatures has arisen in the wake of dramatic acts of violence, such as military repression and neoliberal economic restructuring. However, the large-scale displacement of indigenous peoples that has resulted from these processes has also provoked a desire among indigenous writers to utilize print media in order to preserve knowledge and communal memory. Drawing on specific examples from contemporary indigenous poetry of Peru and Mexico, the article argues that indigenous literature challenges conceptions of indigenous expressive culture as inherently oral, traditional, rural, and communitarian.

Keywords:

• GLOBALIZATION
• INDIGENOUS LITERATURES
• LANGUAGE POLICIES
• LATIN AMERICA
• NEOLIBERALISM
• POETRY
• PRINT MEDIA

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jean Franco

Jean Franco is Professor Emerita of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University, New York. She received the PEN 1996 award for lifetime contribution to the dissemination of Latin American literature in English and has been recognized by the Chilean and Venezuelan governments for advanced scholarship on Latin American literature in the United States. Her books include Plotting Women: Gender and Representation in Mexico (Columbia University Press, 1989), Marcar diferencias, cruzar fronteras (Editorial Cuarto Propio, 1996), Critical Passions: Selected Essays, edited by Mary Louise Pratt and Kathleen Newman (Duke University Press, 1999), and The Rise and Fall of the Lettered City: Latin America in the Cold War (Harvard University Press, 2003). She is General Editor of the Oxford University Press Library of Latin America. [email: [email protected]]