Books by Frances Riddle

Plebeian Prose is a key work by the pioneering Argentine Brazilian anthropologist, sociologist and poet Nestor Perlongher. Perlongher, whose work has been highly influential in the development of Latin American cultural theory and literature, represents an original critical 'quee...r' voice in Latin American thought. This book is an exploration of the politics of desire, questions of identity, Latin American neo-baroque aesthetics, sexual dissidence, violence and jouissance. Prompted by his reading of Gilles Deleuze, the link between politics and desire remains central to all Perlongher's reflections and gives his writings a lasting topicality. A thinker of the streets with a keen interest in those on the margins of society, the ideas that are developed in this book offer a lucid critique of capitalism and institutional power. Perlongher's approach also reflects a particular Latin American neo-baroque style, a mode of critique whose value endures today. Providing insight into Latin American culture and politics of the late twentieth century, Plebeian Prose will be of particular interest to anyone working on critical theory, literary theory, anthropology, sociology and gender studies.
Read more

On June 3, 2015, massive women's street demonstrations took place in many cities across Argentina to protest against femicide. Under the sloganNi una menos, Not One (Woman) Less, thousands of women took to the streets to express their outrage at systematic violence against women,... giving a face and a voice to women who might otherwise have died in silence. Maria Pia Lopez, a founding member and active participant in the Not One Less protest, offers in this book a first-hand account of the distinctive aesthetics, characteristics and lineages of this popular feminist movement, while examining the broader issues of gender politics and violence, inequality and social justice, mourning, performance and protest that are relevant to all contemporary societies. A unique analysis of a social movement as well as a rich and original work of feminist theory and practice, this book will appeal to a wide readership concerned about gender based violence in the neoliberal contexts and what can be done to resist it.
Read more

Cockfight is the debut short story collection by Ecuadorian writer Maraia Fernanda Ampuero. Over thirteen stories, Cockfight explores the brutality and everyday violence contained in the structures of home, family, gender, and class in twenty-first-century Latin America --

The most popular narrative about transsexuality suggests that some people are born in the wrong body - that their bodies do not correspond to their inner experience and that their bodies should therefore be transformed. But in the view of the sociologist and trans activist Miguel... Misse, this narrative is a harmful myth. It is rooted in a medical paradigm that typically leads to medical intervention - to the use of hormones and surgical operations. By proposing a particular solution (modifying one's body), doctors and psychiatrists make it difficult for trans people to overcome malaise about their body in other ways and prevent them from recognizing the burden of social norms. Drawing on his own personal experience, Misse makes the case for a different way of thinking about trans embodiment which focuses on gender identity. The trajectory that leads people to become trans is shaped by the rigidity of gender norms, where the only two models available to individuals are the masculine man and the feminine woman. But these are not the only possible choices, and by critically interrogating the rigidity of gender norms, Misse opens up a different way of thinking about being trans, beyond the essentialism of the medical paradigm.
Read more

In a single day, a journey across Buenos Aires reveals a daughter to her mother, a mother to herself, and the oppressive weight of received ideas to women connected by a fleeting encounter, twenty years before.