Queer Genealogies in Dominican Literature and Culture

Tracing cultural representations of queerness in the
Dominican Republic from the 1950s to the present

In this book, Maja
Horn examines the evolution of queer Dominican literary and cultural production
from the 1950s to the present, challenging simplistic developmental narratives
of LGBTIQ+ progress. Through an analysis of literature, theater, and activism, Horn
traces how same-sex desire and gender nonconformity have been negotiated both
tacitly and overtly across the years.

Beginning with
early forerunners, Horn looks at literary representations in works by Hilma
Contreras and Pedro René Contín Aybar during the 1930-1961 dictatorship of
Rafael Trujillo. Horn goes on to explore the emergence of queer nightlife
spaces during the Balaguer years through novels by Rita Indiana Hernández and
Rey Emmanuel Andújar. Horn discusses how the work of playwright Waddys Jáquez challenges
reductive mainstream representations of trans subjects and HIV/AIDS in the new
democratic era. The book concludes with a discussion of groundbreaking recent
texts that have expanded portrayals beyond Santo Domingo and introduced new
perspectives.

Throughout Queer
Genealogies in Dominican Literature and Culture, Horn shows how class,
race, and gender have shaped access to public space and strategies for
negotiating sexuality. Horn also reveals the coexistence of different ways of
expressing queer identities. Recognizing the influence of coloniality and
narratives of identity in the global North, Horn celebrates the shifting
geographies and multiplicities of a uniquely creole Dominican queerness.