Literary Representations from the Border: The American Dream, Immigration and Identity

Abstract This article aims to compare and contrast the concepts of subjectivity represented in literature and constructed in borders: physical and imaginary geopolitical sites that have positioned identities in the margins throughout history. The comparative analysis examines the representation of marginal identities in literary texts, specifically those written by authors belonging to hyphenated cultures such as the Cuban-American Gustavo Pérez-Firmat (1994), “Bilingual Blues,” and Mexican-American Gloria Anzaldúa’s “La encrucijada,” among others, mentioned in the bibliography. The study shows that the portrayal of subjectivity and subalternity in literary texts contends with diverse discourses of power and hefty political structures that tend to repress and to delimit character’s development and conditions as human beings living in the United States.