The Avowal of Difference

The Avowal of Difference explores the potentialities and limitations that queer theory offers in the context of Latino American texts and subjects. Ben. Sifuentes-J uregui contrasts Latino American sexual genealogies with the Anglo-European "coming out" narrative--and interrogates the centrality of the "coming out" story as the regulating metaphor for gay, lesbian, or queer identities. In its place, the book looks at other strategies--from silence to circumlocution, from disavowal to indifference--to theorize queer subject formation in a Latino American cultural context. The analysis of texts by Jos Lezama Lima, Luis Zapata, Manuel Puig, Severo Sarduy, Junot D az, and others offers a comparative approach to understanding how queer sexualities are shaped and written in other cultural contexts.