Transvestism, Masculinity, and Latin American Literature

This book is about transvestism and the performance of gender in Latin American literature and culture. Ben. Sifuentes-Juregui explores the figure of the transvestite and his/her relation to the body through a series of canonical Latin American texts. By analyzing works by Alejo Carpentier, Jos Donoso, Severo Sarduy and Manuel Puig (author of Kiss of the Spiderwoma n), alongside critical works in gender studies and queer theory, Sifuentes-Juregui shows how transvestism operates not only to destabilize, but often to affirm sexual, gender, national and political identities.