Strangers in the City: Cosmopolitan Strangers and Transnational Urbanism in the Literary Imagination of Valeria Luiselli

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapter

Abstract

Cities and metropolises have always permitted a certain degree of mobility to strangers. It is within their urban landscape that strangers can move from one national setting to another, between the multicultural interstices and thresholds that allow them to survive the forces of assimilation and segregation. By providing a reflection on the complex vision of strangers and cosmopolitanism north of the US–Mexico border, this chapter reevaluates the cultural pluralism of and the claim for visibility from Mexican communities inhabiting urban spaces in the United States, such as Upper Manhattan in New York. By analyzing Valeria Luiselli’s creative production, Papeles Falsos (Sidewalks, 2010), Los Ingrávidos (Faces in the Crowd, 2011), and “Zapata Boulevard” (2015), this chapter demonstrates how transnational spaces in global megacities like New York provide a space for the visibility and acceptance of cosmopolitan strangers, thus enabling a re-understanding of subaltern and hegemonic structures in our present times.
Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationCosmopolitan Strangers in US Latinx Literature and Culture
Subtitle of host publicationBuilding Bridges, Not Walls
EditorsEsther Álvarez-López, Andrea Fernández-García
PublisherRoutledge
Pages115-133
ISBN (Electronic)9781003276043
ISBN (Print)9781032231600
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 30 2023
Externally publishedYes

Publication series

NameNarrative Theory and Culture

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