Language of the In-Between

Often, the process of modern state formation is founded on the marginalization of certain groups, and Latin America is no exception. In <i>The Language of the In-Between</i>, Erika Almenara contends that literary production replicates this same process. Looking at marginalized communities in Chile and Peru, particularly writers who are <i>travesti</i>, trans, cuir/queer, and Indigenous, the author shows how these writers stake a claim for the liminal space that is neither one thing nor the other. This allows a freedom to expose oppression and to critique a national identity based on erasure. By employing a language of nonnormative gender and sexuality to dispute the state projects of modernity and modernization, the voice of the poor and racialized <i>travesti</i> evolves from powerlessness to become an agent of social transformation.