(HUNTER COLLEGE-CUNY, CENTER PUERTO RICAN STUDIES, 1/03/2012) Bortolotto MC
This analysis focuses on the novel's protagonist, la Loca, and his narcissistic attempts to negotiate selfhood in narratives where he finds himself repeatedly inscribed in shame. Psychoanalytical theories of shame inform the study of la Loca and the close relationship between shame and narcissism. Ultimately, though, the work uses this character as an entry point to unveil Lozada's acute satire of rigid conceptions of identity, attractiveness, desire, and success as defined by the prevailing narratives of capitalist consumerism, identity politics, and homophobic nationalism in the contemporary United States and the island of Puerto Rico.
