THE DECOLONIAL PHENOMENOLOGY OF SHIFTING: Writing Encounters in the Gloria E. Anzaldúa Archive
Inmaculada Lara-Bonilla
Chicana/Latina Studies·2019
This article seeks to expand our understanding of the philosophical contributions of Gloria E. Anzaldúa (1942-2004) to decolonial feminism by analyzing the interconnections between her theory of writing and her broader phenomenology, and by focusing on her concepts of shifting, nepantla, and conocimiento. Analysis of archival and published texts written or revised in the last decade of her life suggests that, as she developed her ideas on the relationship between writing, consciousness and social change, Anzaldúa enacted and conceptualized a practice of shifting based on phenomenological exploration, which complicated her theory of writing as well as her overall feminist, decolonial thought. This article shows how several key texts provide blueprints for liberatory, relational meaning-making practices, for the exploration of diverse forms of consciousness, and for the production of new forms of transformative theories. I specifically analyze Anzaldúa’s suggested methodology of writing and place it in conversation with those texts in which she addresses phenomenological issues, such as consciousness, the habitation of the psychic space of nepantla, and her path of conocimiento. These theoretical explorations are discussed also in conversation with contemporary Latina, feminist, and decolonial thinkers, as well as with some traditional, early-20th century phenomenologists. Such transdisciplinary reading reveals that Anzaldúa’s deployment and elaboration of theories of consciousness, in synchronicity with a specific writing theory and practice characterized by shifting, were aimed at countering established philosophy, feminist theory, and other scholarly fields to develop an alternative phenomenology for effecting queer, feminist decolonial transformation. Methodologically, this article also offers “reflective reading” as a mode of engagement with hybrid theoretical texts, as we continue to work on decolonizing the academy and its disciplines –including philosophy and literary theory– from intersectional queer, feminist, and decolonizing standpoints.