| The rise of Latino/a literature in the US has been fraught with difficulties that stem from matters of publication and audience. These difficulties, such as the often limited expectations publishers have for the forms Latino/a literature may take, have resulted in significant constraints on the development of this literary tradition. Despite these constraints, Latino/a authors have steadily worked to expand audience expectations by attending to narrative design and creating challenging reading situations—moments in which audiences are not only presented with a cognitively-challenging reading experience, but are also challenged to broaden its understanding of the forms Latino/a literature may take. Rather than compose their narratives with an actual audience in mind, many Latino/a authors sought to write for an ideal audience capable of engaging with even the most complex storyworlds. In essence, Latino/a authors, through their writings, invited actual audiences to break from their narrow expectations. My selected Latino/a texts reveal the narrative strategies used to challenge audiences, and also demonstrate how these challenges were received by actual audiences.;Hospitable Imaginations: Contemporary Latino/a Literature and the Pursuit of a Readership" explores how challenging reading situations have shaped Latino/a literature over the course of its development. I contend that early in the publication history of Latino fiction, publishers insisted on Latino/a writers foregrounding what were thought to be narrative modes and thematics endemic to Latinos themselves, while in more recent years publishers have placed more of a premium on immersive storytelling—on the telling of stories that have the power to capture, and retain, the imaginations of the broadest possible readership. Focusing on Latino/a texts written from the late 1960s to the present, I show how authors such as Oscar “Zeta” Acosta, Gloria Anzaldúa, Piri Thomas, Giannina Braschi, Sandra Cisneros, Junot Díaz, and Gilbert Hernandez have worked to create a sophisticated readership through narrative features such as consciousness representation, bilingualism, code-switching, serialization, and intertextual/paratextual play. |
