Forma, Lo Performativo, Acción Poética: Poetic Art's Critiques Of—And

Forma, lo performativo, acción poética: Poetic Art’s Critiques of—and Alternatives to—an Americas of Conquest By Matthew S Gonzales A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Comparative Literature and the Designated Emphasis in Critical Theory in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor Robert Kaufman, Co-Chair Professor Genaro Padilla, Co-Chair Professor Francine Masiello Professor Bryan Wagner Spring 2021 Forma, lo performativo, acción poética: Poetic Art’s Critiques of—and Alternatives to—an Americas of Conquest © 2021 By Matthew S Gonzales Abstract Forma, lo performativo, acción poética: Poetic Art’s Critiques of—and Alternatives to—an Americas of Conquest by Matthew Gonzales Doctor of Philosophy in Comparative Literature University of California, Berkeley Professor Robert Kaufman, Co-Chair Professor Genaro Padilla, Co-Chair This dissertation, “Forma, lo performativo, acción poética: Poetic Art’s Critiques of—and Alternatives to—an Americas of Conquest,” takes a comparative approach to the long history of poetic-artistic form in the Americas, together with an analysis rooted in traditions of Frankfurt- School critical aesthetics, in order to propose an alternative genealogy for the emergence of various modern experimentalisms. From the vantage point of the current fiftieth anniversary of the 1970 Chicano Moratorium Against the Vietnam War (though not limited to that moment alone), “Forma, lo performativo, acción poética” examines a broad range of texts from the seventeenth to the twentieth centuries to investigate the development of divergent yet still fundamentally related poetic experimentalisms across the Americas. Whereas existing models of trans-American comparative criticism often foreground essentialist notions of experience and identity to produce the historical “grounds” for comparison, my work builds upon Left-Kantian- and Frankfurt School-based notions of critical aesthetics to explore the performative and thus sociopolitical aspects of artistic form itself. Underscoring the primacy of form as critically reflective aesthetic illusion-experience, I unveil the ways that poets and artists have registered and sought to imaginatively contest the realities of colonial capitalism since the advent of European colonialism in the Western Hemisphere. I thereby begin to argue that there exists a still unrecognized history of poetic-artistic form itself operating as anti-colonial, anti-racist, and anti- heterosexist critique of oppressive systems of thought and action in what I deem an “Americas of Conquest.” “Forma, lo performativo, acción poética” sets forth the preliminary mapping of the story of poetic art’s formal and substantive contestations of power in the Americas. I look at genre, tropes, and formal conventions that bring poetry to the doorsteps of politics. It begins by examining how enslaved African-American poet Phillis Wheatley and Colonial Mexican poet Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz each made use of the dream-vision genre’s narrative framing device to register critiques of the racist and heterosexist ideologies shaping their worlds. From that Colonial-period prelude I move to examine the experiments of nineteenth- through twenty first- century poets and artists to initiate discussion of the politicized and nominally depoliticized modes of artistic rebellion their work employs. My aim, in doing so, is to underscore that the story this dissertation only begins to tell involves a nineteenth- through twenty-first century narrative, one that senses within it prior histories of poetic form as critique in ways that go as far 1 back as the colonial encounter itself. I thereby proceed to reconsider, for example, the art experiments of the Civil Rights-era Chicanx art collective Asco (Spanish for “disgust”) and the 1970s, Pinochet dictatorship-era Chilean art collective Colectivo Acciones de Arte (CADA). Thereafter, I look to the forms of acción poética that contemporary poet-artists experiment with, specifically in the work of figures like Emmy Pérez, Rafa Esparza, and Harry Gamboa Jr. While the historical framework of this dissertation might seem arbitrarily overextended, it nonetheless constitutes a necessary experiment that allows me to examine the ways in which poetic form, through its own historical unfolding in the Americas (starting with figures like Sor Juana and Wheatley), begins to register and critique the systems of thought and action that enable and sustain colonization, socioeconomic exploitation, and political oppression in the Americas. “Forma, lo performativo, acción poética” seeks to enhance debates on Chicanx/Latinx literature and culture as well as on global modernism. By foregrounding the work of Chicanx/Latinx poets and artists while situating their work within a global context, this dissertation underscores the contributions Latinxs have made to modern trans-American literary culture while at the same time embracing, contesting, or entering in dialogue with Eurocentric histories of modernism. Finally, this dissertation highlights the impact of literary and artistic cultures on social transformation processes, contending that avant-garde poets and artists from the geo-social peripheries have cultivated some of the most radical and egalitarian artistic visions of the future. 2 Table of Contents Acknowledgments ii Introduction: Towards a Theory of the Poem as Peformative/Poetic Thought- 1 Action Chapter 1: On Imagination and Bondage 10 Chapter 2: Performative/Poetic Art Actions: Asco, CADA, Varda, and the Crisis 39 of Consumer Culture Chapter 3: From the Border to the Sky: Poetic Inscription and Trans-Border 64 Crises Chapter 4: Epigrams, Aphorisms, and Alibis: Violence, Art, and the Law (of 86 Poetic Freedom) Conclusion: Telling the Time of History: Poetry’s Reactivation of the Light 111 Bibliography 115 i Acknowledgments I would first like to thank my partner, the incredible poet Mae Ramirez, for having experienced alongside me all of the trials of graduate school. Without her this dissertation would not have been possible. I share this accomplishment with her. This dissertation would likewise not have been possible without the help of so many people. I owe an incredible amount of thanks to my dissertation committee members. Robert Kaufman has done so much to support me that there is no way to put into words how grateful I am to have met and gotten to work with such an inspiring and generous human being. The only way to possibly allude to all that he has done for me is through understatement. Genaro Padilla, the other wonderful co-chair of my dissertation, has also been an incredible source of support. He singlehandedly helped change the entire direction of my studies, and for that I will forever be thankful. He also introduced me to the greatest and most supportive group of peers and colleagues that I could have hoped to find. Francine Masiello is an inspiration in the fullest sense of the term. Working with and learning from her has been, to put it exceedingly mildly, a blessing. Bryan Wagner has been an incredible and amazing supporter of mine since the moment I met him. I thank him for modeling for me the forms of generosity, professionalism, and support that I can only hope to return to the world. Others have done much to help me along the way. Tom McEnaney and Harsha Ram contributed a great deal to the direction of my research. I thank them both for advising and supporting me, and for always challenging me to produce better work. Chana Kronfeld, Judith Butler, and Catherine Flynn provided me with writing support, always engaging dialogue, and empowering forms of encouragement. I would like to thank Estelle Tarica for being an early supporter and Ivonne del Valle for welcoming and teaching me with her always kind and supportive patience. I am very grateful as well to Laura Pérez, Angela Marino, and the folks at the UC Berkeley Latinx Research Center for having provided me, in recent years, with a second home on campus. To Oliver Arnold and Beth Piatote I would also like to extend my thanks. To my dearest friends, the members of the Genaro Padilla Collective (GPC)—Frank Cruz, Carlos Macías Prieto, and Robert Lopez Reyes—I owe an incredible amount of thanks. They all taught me so much and helped me identify and think through, at the earliest and most important stages of writing, this dissertation’s central ideas and questions. Danny Luzon and Bristin Jones coached me through what I experienced as a breakthrough in the writing of this dissertation, and for that I will always be grateful. I would also like to thank the rest of my cohort—Simone Stirner, Amanda Siegel, Christopher Scott, Maya’an Sela, and (honorary member) Bat El Elon— for their friendship and emotional support. My friends Marlena Gittleman, Alex Brostoff, Tara Phillips, Maya Kronfeld, Paco Brito, Laura Wagner, Kevin Stone, and Esther Ramer I would also like to thank. A special shout-out goes to my “Latinx Baddies”: Gladys Rivas, Christían Gonzáles Reyes, and Miguel Samano. They have been some of the best friends I made throughout my time at Berkeley. Karina Palau has been my unofficial mentor and a dear friend for the past many years. I want to thank her for showing me that I could be a brave, intelligent, hardworking parent, teacher, and scholar. Alberto Ledesma did much to help me professionally develop. I want to thank him for always being available to listen to and help guide me. Rachel Hynson went out of her way, in ways that are hard to fathom, to generously support me. Much of the recent success I’ve had in my work and life is very much thanks to her. I would also like to thank my former mentors at Cal State University, Long Beach and Chaffey College: Nhora Serrano, Vlatka Velcic, Jordan Smith, ii Carl Fisher, Robert Nazar, and the staff of the former CSU Long Beach Ronald E. McNair Program. I thank them for gifting me a life with literature.

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