TRACING DOMINICAN IDENTITY IN KARACHI

Hardcover: 238 pages Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan; 1 edition (January 15, 2011) Language: English ISBN-10: 0230109373 ISBN-13: 978-0230109377 Release date: January 15, 2011 How did all things African disappear from Santo Domingo? How did a white Hispanic identity instead come to dominate the country’s collective consciousness? Why did Dominican intellectuals, in trying to create a free and modern society and shield their country from North American imperialism, reengage Spanish neocolonialism? In an effort to explore these questions, the author analyzes and discusses the socio-historical meanings and implications of Pedro Henríquez Ureña’s (1884-1946) writings on language. This important twentieth century Latin American intellectual is an unavoidable reference in Hispanic Linguistics and Cultural Studies and his texts make us confront the ideological underpinnings of language, race, and identity in the context of Latin America and the pan-Hispanic community. Review “This book by Juan R. Valdez is a valuable contribution to the search for a better understanding of Dominican identity. The young scholar conducts a balanced and penetrating study of the thought of the celebrated Dominican humanist Pedro Henríquez Ureña, situating it carefully in its proper context while highlighting aspects that have hitherto gone unnoticed. Particularly worthy of mention is the analysis presented in chapter five, where Valdez defends the hypothesis that, in his extensive writing on language, the author of El español en Santo Domingo seeks to achieve a ‘whitening of Dominican Identity.’”--Orlando Alba, Professor of Hispanic Linguistics, Brigham Young University About the Author: Juan R. Valdez is Assistant Professor of Spanish at University of Wyoming. His research focuses on the interplay of notions of identity and language use and how this dynamic is reflected in the political history of Spanish. He has published several articles on this subject and is currently conducting research on normalization processes which lead to the recognition or misrecognition of sociolinguistic phenomena. Formerly a New York City public school teacher, he has taught at several institutions across the United States, including New York University, City College of The City University of New York, and Stanford University.. Views: 113