THE LIFE AND WORK OF GLORIA ANZALDÚA: AN INTELLECTUAL BIOGRAPHY

• Main Author: Dahms, Elizabeth Anne
• Format: Others
• Published: UKnowledge 2012
• Subjects: Gloria Anzaldúa; Spiritual Activism; Queerness; Queer Theory; Epistemology; Latin American Languages and Societies; Women's Studies
• Online Access: http://uknowledge.uky.edu/hisp_etds/6; http://uknowledge.uky.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1005&context=hisp_etds

The writings and life of Gloria Evangelina Anzaldúa (1942-2004) have had an immense impact in a variety of disciplines. Her oft-cited text Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza (1987) is included in many university courses’ reading lists for its contributions to discourses of hybridity, linguistics, intersectionality and women of color feminism, among others. Unfortunately, most scholars content themselves with the intricacies of Borderlands to the neglect of her corpus of work, which includes essays, books, edited volumes, children’s literature and fiction/autohistorias. This analysis presented here wishes to expand our understandings of Anzaldúa’s work by engaging with her pre- and post-Borderlands writings in an attempt to highlight the unrecognized contributions Anzaldúa offers to feminist theory, spirituality, spiritual activism, queer theory, expansive ideas of queerness and an articulation of alternative, non-Western epistemology. This project offers close readings of published and archival Anzaldúan text and draws parallels between her life and her writing.