The Avowal of Difference

The Avowal of Difference explores the potentialities and limitations that queer theory offers in the context of Latino American texts and subjects. Ben. Sifuentes-Juregui contrasts Latino American sexual genealogies with the Anglo-European "coming out" narrativeand interrogates the centrality of the "coming out" story as the regulating metaphor for gay, lesbian, or queer identities. In its place, the book looks at other strategiesfrom silence to circumlocution, from disavowal to indifferenceto theorize queer subject formation in a Latino American cultural context. The analysis of texts by Jos Lezama Lima, Luis Zapata, Manuel Puig, Severo Sarduy, Junot Daz, and others offers a comparative approach to understanding how queer sexualities are shaped and written in other cultural contexts.