On Latinx Poetics: Black Feminist Interventions with the Latinx "X"

The term "Latinx" has proliferated in the last ten years for several reasons. Some view the term as a gender inclusive alternative to Latino and Latina; others see the term as an anti-essentialist tool that highlights the tenuousness of "latin" identity. This thesis examines the interaction of myriad definitions of "Latinx" in the context of black feminist debates on terms such as "intersectionality" and "assemblage theory." The thesis takes two literary texts and their use of poetic language as a basis for understanding the complexities and contradictions of queer and/or of color subjectivities in an exciting political and cultural moment marked by "Latinx."