Resumen de Writing excess in "Light in the dark"/ "Luz en lo oscuro": Anzaldúa’s phenomenology of writing as a decolonizing tool
While Gloria E. Anzaldúa’s extensive and groundbreaking work has received much attention as that of a queer feminist and decolonial theorist, her philosophy of consciousness, as it relates to writing and theory-making remains understudied. This article proposes a generative turn towards phenomenology to bring us closer to a fuller understanding of her ever-evolving thought system. It examines how her compositional and rhetorical choices seek to subvert imposed models for doing theory; analyzes the thematic axis where recurrent explorations on bodily experience and meaning-making processes converge; and reads her work in conversation with that of classic phenomenologists. While centralizing Anzaldúa’s posthumously published book/dissertation Light in the Dark: luz en lo oscuro: rewriting identity, spirituality, reality (2015), I note her consistent inclusion of elements deemed “excessive” in academia, such as bodily, traumatic and spiritual references, and how they are intimately connected to her commitment to decolonizing theory writing and to shifting readers’ intentionality in emancipatory ways.
