Memory, Temporality, and Communal Realization

Abstract

This study explores how Tomás Rivera’s . . . And the Earth Did Not Devour Him theorizes subjectivity as a space in which congruity and differentiation between self and other intersect and are in flux, outside of the restrictions of humanism and logocentrism, in order to propose that such a theory of the subject balances both the aesthetic and ethical demands of contemporary Chicana/o criticism. To articulate this theory of the subject as it is presented in Rivera’s novel, this essay employs the notion of nomadic subjectivity conceived by philosopher and feminist theorist Rosi Braidotti. The study also incorporates relevant contemporary Chicana/o criticism in order to contextualize the proposed theory of subjectivity within a broader conversation concerning alternative conceptions of how the self both operates and is constructed. It is through this framework that the central questions motivating this essay will be examined. Such questions relate to how figurations within And the Earth Did Not Devour Him encompass one’s substance and attributes laterally, via the intersections of individual and communal influence.