Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
Date of Degree
6-2020
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Program
English
Advisor
Kandice Chuh
Committee Members
Wayne Koestenbaum
Eric Lott
Subject Categories
Arts and Humanities
Abstract
This dissertation research examines, how can the act of describing, as a mode of writing, documenting, and representing minoritized bodies, be geared towards an anti-racist, multi-species, and decolonial aesthetic praxis? Paying close attention to modes of writing categorized under the rubric of description, such as ekphrasis, reportage in documentary film, travel writing, and ethnographic description, as this dissertation contends, are integral to understanding how we perceive and apprehend racialized people living out the legacies of coloniality. Through an analysis of 20th century Anglophone literature on the Americas and contemporary queer Latina/o literature, film, and art, this research looks closely at oft-overlooked styles and modes of writing like description, bound as description has been to an objective and empirical social scientific mode, and seeks to animate description with imaginative political potential to contribute to our understanding of literary studies, writing practice, and decolonial thinking.
Recommended Citation
Gonsalez, Marcos, "Descriptive Inhumanism: Description and Decolonial Aesthetics" (2020). CUNY Academic Works.
https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/3837