Simpson, Sarah
(2025)
“Black, Puerto Rican, lesbian literature”?: representations of
Yolanda Arroyo Pizarro.
PhD thesis, University of Nottingham.
Abstract
This thesis analyses representations of author Yolanda Arroyo Pizarro (Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, 1970) and her literary work as Black, Puerto Rican, and lesbian. It questions why and how the identity categories of race, sexuality, gender, and nationality are foregrounded in representations of this author and her body of work, while considering the implications of this categorisation process for literature more broadly.
Where previous scholarship on Arroyo Pizarro has centred textual analysis, this thesis offers a new approach by focusing on extratextual representations. The thesis takes much inspiration from the relatively small body of reader reception studies of live reader participants, as well as research on paratexts.
Stuart Hall’s work on representational systems provides a framework for this study of literary categories. Analysis incorporates paratextual and metatextual sources such as reviews, criticism, and social media posts, which give an initial picture of the ways in which Arroyo Pizarro and her texts are represented. Following this, the focus moves to analysis of interviews conducted with fourteen participants including the author, book industry professionals, academics, and other readers. This interview methodology produced new representations of Arroyo Pizarro and her work from a variety of perspectives. While the sample is small and cannot be considered representative, it offers rich, qualitative data on participants’ personal relationships with this author, her writing, and the phenomenon of identity-based literary categories.
Analysis of interview data centres on participants’ representations of the author, her texts, and her readers. Participants foregrounded race, sexuality, gender, and nationality in their representations of Arroyo Pizarro and her work, representing both as Black, Puerto Rican, and lesbian. Terms like “Black literature” and “literatura lésbica” are ultimately found to resist strict definitions. Prompted to take positions on the political implications of categorising literature by identities, participants acknowledged the potential for such categories to be reductive but generally argued that their use is necessary for the visibility and empowerment of marginalised groups. On the question of readers, interview participants constructed age, politics, and religion as more important factors than race, gender, or sexuality in determining whether an individual would read and enjoy Arroyo Pizarro’s work.
The thesis contributes an innovative approach and methodology within the field of literary studies. The focus on extratextual representations demonstrates that literary texts are not autonomous, discrete objects, but are produced by discourses of power and identity.
| Item Type: |
Thesis (University of Nottingham only)
(PhD)
|
| Supervisors: |
Kumaraswami, Parvathi
Hellewell, Olivia |
| Keywords: |
Yolanda Arroyo Pizarro, Black literature, Puerto Rican literature, lesbian literature, literatura afro, literatura lésbica, literatura puertorriqueña |
| Subjects: |
P Language and literature > PN Literature (General) > PN 80 Criticism
P Language and literature > PQ Romance literatures > PQ6001 Spanish literature |
| Faculties/Schools: |
UK Campuses > Faculty of Arts > School of Cultures, Languages and Area Studies |
| Item ID: |
82860 |
| Depositing User: |
Simpson, Sarah
|
| Date Deposited: |
09 Dec 2025 04:40 |
| Last Modified: |
09 Dec 2025 04:40 |
| URI: |
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/id/eprint/82860 |
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