Publisher's Synopsis
"Representing the Other" completes a trilogy of critical works by Paul Julian Smith, whose common aim is to effect a major change in the interpretation of contemporary (mainly French) cultural theory. "Writing in the Margin" and "The Body Hispanic" (Clarendon Press, 1988, 1989) were concerned with post-structuralism and sexual difference respectively. "Representing the Other" extends this critique to include "race" and nationality - perhaps the quintessential problem in Hispanic Studies.;The book makes clear that the theme of race is not a self-contained issue but one aspect of a collection of problems associated with "representing the other". Paul Julian Smith examines this theme in a wide-ranging series of chapters on the representation of the Indian in Castellanos, the Afro-American in Puig, and the Arab in Goytisolo. He also explores the possibility of a Jewish discourse in the "Celestina" and a feminine discourse in St Teresa, alongside Gracian's "El criticon" which serves as a test case for the inextricability of the narratives of nationality and of allegory.
