The Logic of Fetishism: Alejo Carpentier and the Cuban Tradition

In this critique of the writing of Cuban author Carpentier (1904- 80), Pancrazio (foreign languages, U. of Illinois, Urbana) focuses primarily on the "Jacqueline Texts" (1925-27). Written in the first person about trends in women's fashions in postwar France, they are read as using the transvestite's "stranger in the mirror" role to counter Cuba's revolutionary political image and to symbolize identity transcending rigid categories of gender, class, and ethnicity. Distributed by Associated University Presses. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR