TY - BOOK AU - Cruz,María Acosta TI - Dream Nation: Puerto Rican Culture and the Fictions of Independence T2 - Latinidad: Transnational Cultures in the SN - 9780813565477 AV - PQ7421 .A27 2014 U1 - 860.9/97295 23 PY - 2014///] CY - New Brunswick, NJ : PB - Rutgers University Press, KW - National characteristics, Puerto Rican KW - Puerto Rican literature KW - History and criticism KW - SOCIAL SCIENCE / General KW - bisacsh N1 - Frontmatter --; Contents --; Preface --; Acknowledgments --; Introduction --; 1. Literary Tradition and the Canon of Independence --; 2. Breaking Tradition --; 3. From the Lush Land to the Traffic Jam --; 4. Dream History, Dream Nation --; 5. Dreaming in Spanglish --; Conclusion --; Biographical Appendix --; Notes --; Works Cited --; Index --; About the Author; restricted access; Issued also in print N2 - Over the past fifty years, Puerto Rican voters have roundly rejected any calls for national independence. Yet the rhetoric and iconography of independence have been defining features of Puerto Rican literature and culture. In the provocative new book Dream Nation, María Acosta Cruz investigates the roots and effects of this profound disconnect between cultural fantasy and political reality. Bringing together texts from Puerto Rican literature, history, and popular culture, Dream Nation shows how imaginings of national independence have served many competing purposes. They have given authority to the island's literary and artistic establishment but have also been a badge of countercultural cool. These ideas have been fueled both by nostalgia for an imagined past and by yearning for a better future. They have fostered local communities on the island, and still helped define Puerto Rican identity within U.S. Latino culture. In clear, accessible prose, Acosta Cruz takes us on a journey from the 1898 annexation of Puerto Rico to the elections of 2012, stopping at many cultural touchstones along the way, from the canonical literature of the Generación del 30 to the rap music of Tego Calderón. Dream Nation thus serves both as a testament to how stories, symbols, and heroes of independence have inspired the Puerto Rican imagination and as an urgent warning about how this culture has become detached from the everyday concerns of the island's people. A volume in the American Literature Initiatives series UR - https://doi.org/10.36019/9780813565484 UR - https://www.degruyter.com/isbn/9780813565484 UR - https://www.degruyter.com/cover/covers/9780813565484.jpg ER -