The Unkindest Cut of All;

Coloniality, Performance and Gender in the Courtroom and Beyond

Sponsored by: Department of Hispanic Languages and Literatures, Gender, Sexuality & Women’s Studies Program, Humanities Center, Center for Latin American Studies, Cultural Studies Program, John Beverley, Dietrich School Undergraduate Studies, Honors College

Chloé Georas University of Puerto Rico

Wednesday, October 25, 2017

3-5 PMThe Humanities Center602 Cathedral of LearningA reception will follow the lecturein the Croghan-Schenley Room, 156 Cathedral of Learning

The lecture will explore how different theoretical approaches to the narrative, performative and cultural aspects of trials, particularly show trials, can illuminate the sexual and racial politics that underpinned the public’s fascination with the Lorena Bobbitt case. Firstly, addressing the location of Latinos in the trans-American social imaginary, profoundly marked by the “coloniality of power.” Followed by inquiring how narrative and performative analyses can fruitfully recast the study of show trials to better appreciate their cultural and political implications. And finally analyzing the stories put forward by both the defense and the prosecution and how they reenacted highly problematic racial and sexual tropes characteristic of the coloniality of power.