Frank Obenland, Florian Freitag, Nadja Gernalzick, Jerry Varsava, Verena Keck, Kornelia Freitag, Martin Brückner, Christoph Lanzen, Waldemar Zacharasiewicz, Tim Lanzendörfer, Erik Redling, Carmen Birkle, Michael Basseler

Amerikastudien/American Studies, Volume 61 (2016), Issue 1, Page 105 - 105

Frank Obenland

Amerikastudien/American Studies, Volume 57 (2013), Issue 2, Page 271 - 290

This essay discusses the interventions of Cherríe Moraga’s dramatic and essayistic work in Chicano/a discourse on collectivity. In her dramatic and essayistic writings, Moraga moves beyond a feminist and queer critique of the patriarchal and heterosexual premises inherent in traditional Chicano cultural nationalism. In Heroes and Saints and Watsonville, Moraga questions a narrow, individualistic definition of cultural identity and emphasizes the importance of collective action for social change. Read from the viewpoint of a Lacanian notion of the tragic, Heroes and Saints argues in favor of both the need for violent resistance to economic exploitation and for a more inclusive definition of Chicano/a collectivity. Exploring the social and economic conflicts between a local Hispanic community and white factory owners, Moraga’s Watsonville employs Mexican folk religion and indigenous spirituality in order to introduce a revisionist mythology of communal belonging. Against the background of Jean-Luc Nancy’s philosophy of community, Moraga’s dramatic vision can be seen to articulate an idiosyncratic communitarian vision that questions and complicates existing accounts of Mexican American collectivity.