Colonial Phantoms: Belonging and Refusal in the Dominican Americas, from the 19th Century to the Present

Nation of Nations: Immigrant History as American History

by Dixa Ramirez

Winner, 2019 Isis Duarte Book Prize, given by the Haiti/Dominican Republic Section of the Latin American Studies Association

Winner, 2019 Barbara Christian Literary Award, given by the Caribbean Studies Association

Highlights the histories and cultural expressions of the Dominican people

Using a blend of historical and literary analysis, Colonial Phantoms reveals how Western discourses have ghosted--miscategorized or erased--the Dominican Republic since the nineteenth century despite its central place in the architecture of the Americas. Through a variety of Dominican cultural texts, from literature to public monuments to musical performance, it illuminates the Dominican quest for legibility and resistance.

Dixa Ram�rez places the Dominican people and Dominican expressive culture and history at the forefront of an insightful investigation of colonial modernity across the Americas and the African diaspora. In the process, she untangles the forms of free black subjectivity that developed on the island. From the nineteenth century national Dominican poet Salom� Ure�a to the diasporic writings of Julia Alvarez, Chiqui Vicioso, and Junot D�az, Ram�rez considers the roles that migration, knowledge production, and international divisions of labor have played in the changing cultural expression of Dominican identity. In doing so, Colonial Phantoms demonstrates how the centrality of gender, race, and class in the nationalisms and imperialisms of the West have profoundly impacted the lives of Dominicans. Ultimately, Ram�rez considers how the Dominican people negotiate being left out of Western imaginaries and the new modes of resistance they have carefully crafted in response.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

336 pages, Paperback

Published April 24, 2018

Reviews

[Matthew Molinaro · Rating 5 out of 5]

can't get over the beauty of Ramirez-D'Oleo's close readings and the force of her critique: "We must remain cognizant of the variants of being seen, legible, heard, and recorded. Being recognized as a full human and as a citizen- subject with full rights is not the same as, but is on a continuum with, being surveilled and quantified"

[Theo]

.....i didn't actually finish it. but! im done with the section of the class i needed it for! so it counts to me