Interview: Severo Sarduy

Forms of A-Dress: Performances of the Foreign and S-Other-n Flows of Transnational Identity

“…The only thing immortal is the evil that is spared and the good that one can do. (Sarduy, 1997(Sarduy, [1967my translation) In this context of the 'death of the diva' (whether theatrical, literary or even academic), the study of South-South translation and transculturation Downloaded by [Newcastle University] at 06:23 20 December 2014 acquires, through its cultural and poetic turns, a blueprint for its own future interpersonal communications. Hopefully this blueprint is one in which the complexitie s of gender and sexuality are not lost in transit over oceans and other fluid 'bodies of water; but are in fact continually retrieved, identified and reincarnated, much as if they were an as-of-yet unheard of or unrecogni sable prediction, on e who se ren ewed performance is necessary in order for the future to continue unfolding.…”

Introduction

“…This was particularly the case in Spanish America: over twelve thousand images were produced for the natural history expeditions conducted by Spain in the eighteenth century. 8 Given the challenges involved in collecting, preserving, and transporting plants and animals across the Atlantic, illustrations were essential to the circulation of knowledge and the growth of natural history and the more modern disciplines to which it gave rise. Many of these illustrations were not published at the time, reaching only a few specialist eyes.…”

“…Plato's Cratylus adopts a position of extreme naturalism, claiming that "he who knows names knows also the things which are expressed by them," or in other words, that language faithfully names the essence of things and is not arbitrary. 8 This was the belief that led writers of bestiaries to preface their descriptions with an analysis of the linguistic origins of the animal's name, which encoded the essence of the animal's character and behaviour: to turn to etymology as a source of zoological knowledge.…”

The Representation of Guayaquil's Sexual Past: Historicizing the Enchaquirados

“…Since the 1970s, there has been a significant effort to assess alternative forms of sexualities and gendered constructions to that of the reigning normative heterosexual interpretation of Latin American (Murray 1980(Murray , 1987Lancaster 1992;Parker 1986Parker , 1991Arenas 1993Arenas , 1991Puig 1986;Leyland and Lacey 1983;Sarduy 1997) and U.S. Latino (Castillo 1996(Castillo , 1992Diaz 1996;Xavier 1999;Manrique and Dorris 1999;Cortez 1999;Guerra 1999;Santiago and Davidow 2000) societies. These studies have provided a much more problematic picture of Latin sexual desire and gender roles, both in the past and the present, also allowing a much more textured understanding of the reigning heteronormativity in the continent as one not devoid of contradiction and multiple underlying alternative sexualities (see Lancaster 1992;Guttman 1994;Prieur 1998;R.…”