Browsing by Author "Fanger, Claire L"
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Item Nepantlería of Self: The Supernatural and the Soul in an Anzaldúan World of Motion(2020-04-15) Sanchez, Stefan Ray; Fanger, Claire LThe writings of Gloria Evangelina Anzaldúa are greatly influential in Chicanx and Southwest Studies, with her work being recognized for its value in feminist and queer theory; art, culture, and literary criticism; and the portrayal of a uniquely and unapologetically Mexican-American historical narrative that seeks to highlight hybridity and porousness in response to narratives of cultural purity. The latter portion of her short life and career saw her developing these ideas further, drawing from a comprehensive understanding of Western philosophy and occultism, as well as her understanding of both traditional and modern forms of Mexican shamanism to form a distinct philosophy of self. This Anzaldúan self is not immutable, but instead composed of a community of smaller spirits, which at once resemble Jungian archetypes or Freudian complexes, as well as animistic spirits which interact with and in many cases come from the wider environment outside of the individual or even outside of humanity altogether. This thesis seeks to explore the working and implications of both the Anzaldúan self, and the ecosystem in which this self exists, hence my employ of the term, “nepantlería,” used by Anzaldúa to refer to the art of navigating colliding worlds, after the Nahuatl “nepantla,” or space in between worlds. This thesis is, in Anzaldúan fashion, a work of nepantlería, as it attempts to take seriously, and make sense of this complex, dynamic, animistic ecosystem of selves which Anzaldúa herself observed.