Between Camp and Cursi

<p><b>Examines how contemporary Mexican literature uses humor to contest heteronormativity.</b></p><p><i>Between Camp and Cursi</i> examines the role of humor in portrayals of homosexuality in contemporary Mexican literature. Brandon P. Bisbey argues that humor based on camp and <i>cursilería</i>-a form of bad taste that expresses a sense of social marginalization-is used to represent key social conflicts and contradictions of modernity in Mexico. Combining perspectives from queer theory humor theory and Latin American cultural studies Bisbey looks at a corpus of canonical and lesser-known texts that treat a range of topics relevant to contemporary discussions of gender sexuality race and human rights in Mexico-including sex work transvestitism bisexuality same-sex marriage racism classism and homophobic and transphobic violence. Emphasizing the subversive possibilities of the comic <i>Between Camp and Cursi</i> considers how this body of twentieth- and twenty-first-century literature has challenged heteronormativity in Mexico and wrestled more broadly with both the colonial underpinnings of modernity and hegemonic Western gender norms.</p>