Cognitive Approaches to Culture

In his groundbreaking new study,  Permissible Narratives: The Promise of Latino/a Literature, Christopher Gonz¡lez examines the difficulties Latina/o writers face in writing beyond the narrow expectations of U.S. readership in the stories they tell. Gonz¡lez argues that a constrained conception of the possibilities of storytelling by and about Latinos diminishes the development and progression of narrative form. Through an examination of Latina/o writers against the  a priori mode of engaging with nonethnic literature in the United States, Gonz¡lez explores the limitations and challenges Latina/o authors have confronted via the shaping power of their narratives to reach a sustainable audience.
  
Bringing together cultural critique, memory, narratology, cognition, and comprehension, Gonz¡lez examines Latina/o authors-such as Oscar "Zeta" Acosta, Gloria Anzaldºa, Piri Thomas, Giannina Braschi, Gilbert Hernandez, Sandra Cisneros, and Junot D­az-investigating how they successfully, and sometimes unsuccessfully, use the expansive canvas of narrative form to capture the imaginations of an open-minded readership.  Permissible Narratives highlights both the inequitable accessibility of narrative devices and, crucially, the daring of Latina/o authors to nurture a readership to afford the same literary deference to them that is so often afforded to white, male, straight authors.