Disrupting the colonial gaze: A critical analysis of the discourses on Puerto Ricans in the United States.
Item
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Title
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Disrupting the colonial gaze: A critical analysis of the discourses on Puerto Ricans in the United States.
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Identifier
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AAI9820568
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identifier
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9820568
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Creator
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Ortiz, Laura L.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Juan Flores
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Date
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1998
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Sociology, Social Structure and Development | History, United States | Sociology, Ethnic and Racial Studies
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Abstract
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This dissertation work is a critical analysis of the discourses and significations on Puerto Ricans as the Other in the United States. This tradition is identified as the "anthropologization" of Puerto Ricans. The continuous intervention of Puerto Ricans as object of study, and its respective manufacturing of pathologies, excesses and deficits through different discourses are explored. It is argued that North American hegemonic ideologies of the modern self and science are technologies deployed in cultural, political,and epistemological practices in which Puerto Ricans are discursively registered. An application of discourse analysis and postcolonial thought, and the addressing of the sociohistorical contexts of discourses provide a number of theoretical tools for this critical task.;The main analytical task is a critical discussion of the economies of the various discursive formations of the Puerto Rican subject-object. This represents an effort to expose their order, formation, operation and stabilization, as well as an effort to map their ruptures and renovations. A second aim is to reveal the configurations required for the production of discursive strategies and significations on Puerto Ricans in the United States.;Each discursive formation produces its particular arrangement of rules by which Puerto Rican "strangeness," "pathologies," and "deficits" emerge and transmute. Hence, the differentiation of four main discourses on Puerto Ricans. The economy of the discourses and significations of Puerto Ricans as the Other is the analytical focus. An introduction to those events that make possible the inaugural anthropologization of Puerto Ricans by Americans is discussed through the predicate of "The Anthropological War." The author discusses the main discourses on the Puerto Rican-Other: "The Puerto Rican Problem," "The Assimilation Problem," and "The Culture of Poverty.".
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
