Word Mingas: Oralitegraphies and Mirrored Visions on Oralitures and Indigenous Contemporary Literatures

by Miguel Rocha Vivas, Paul M. Worley (Translator), Melissa Birkhofer (Translator)

Overview

Word Mingas is an English-language translation by Paul M. Worley and Melissa Birkhofer of the award-winning book Mingas de la palabra written by Miguel Rocha Vivas (Casa de las Americas, 2016). It is an encompassing study of oralitures—multilayered cultural knowledge shared through the power of orality—and written literatures by authors from Colombia and other regions in the hemisphere who self-identify as Indigenous. In consequential dialogue with the most recent theories of decoloniality and interculturality, the book weaves and compares two threads of literary critique Rocha Vivas names as oralitegraphies and mirrored visions. The study focuses on texts produced from the early 1990s to the present, and offers productive avenues to discuss, understand, and foster dialogue with the wide array of symbolic-literary systems of the original peoples. Rocha Vivas offers a valuable contribution to the much-needed dialogue on the basic rights of self-representation, self-determination, and the coexistence of multiple systems of representation and identity.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781469667348
Publisher:	UNC Department of Romance Studies
Publication date:	08/15/2021
Series:	North Carolina Studies in the Romance Languages and Literatures , #320
Pages:	344
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.77(d)

About the Author

Miguel Rocha Vivas is an essayist, intercultural educator, and author of travel literature. He is currently a professor in the Department of Literature at the Universidad Javeriana in Bogota, Colombia.

Melissa Birkhofer is an Instructor in English and the Director of the U.S. Latinx Studies Program at Western Carolina University.