Spanish/Portuguese / Cultural Studies and Media Studies

Ruth Z. Yuste-Alonso (Stetson University)

Felipe Pruneda Sentíes (Hendrix College)

In recent years, renewed demands for more diverse voices in Hispanic cultural production have contributed to the gradual emergence of literary and media narratives embracing subjects that defy dominant cultural norms. Of particular significance are growing representations of disabled and older characters whose existence and life realities seek to problematize and expand on hegemonic understandings of human experience. However, while these problem bodies (Chivers & Markotić 2010) ostensibly shed light on other(ed) ways of being, their difference is often co-opted by narrative traditions and ultimately functions as a symbolic site to propel what Robert McRuer (2006) terms an “epiphanic moment,” an instance of profound subjective realization that allows normative subjects in crisis to find resolution at the expense of problem subjects and, in turn, sideline the latter’s stories restoring the status quo. In other words, the subversion and restoration of ableist and ageist hegemonies end up happening within the same text, as if the articulation of one undoes the other in a seemingly inescapable vicious cycle.

Following previous generative NeMLA roundtable discussions and given the 2025 theme of (r)evolution, this roundtable invites proposals that examine figurations of age and disability in Hispanic cultural production. We encourage submissions that discuss cultural artifacts that effectively engage in creative practices that disrupt ableist and ageist dominant representations and revolutionize cultural imaginaries, as well as submissions that interrogate the possibility of such revolutions within and across Hispanic cultures.

Please submit an abstract of 200-250 words through the NeMLA submission portal by 30 September 2024. We welcome submissions in Spanish and English. If you have any questions regarding the roundtable, please contact the organizers directly: Ruth Z. Yuste-Alonso (yuste-alonso@hendrix.edu) and Felipe Pruneda Sentíes (pruneda@hendrix.edu)

This roundtable invites proposals that examine figurations of age and disability in Hispanic cultural production. We encourage submissions that discuss cultural artifacts that effectively engage in creative practices that disrupt ableist and ageist dominant representations and revolutionize cultural imaginaries, as well as submissions that interrogate the possibility of such revolutions within and across Hispanic cultures.