My research conceptualizes the female body as a borderland that is grotesque after being wounded and divided. I synthesize works by Anzaldua and Bakhtin to project an image of a female body that bleeds when grated against transnational forces and subjected to processes of dynamic change. This representation allows the grotesque female body to be in continual engagement with “acts of becoming”, and places it in a profoundly ambivalent position between the processes of renewal and decay. In my thesis, I invoke Hall’s diasporic identities to further argue that the never completed quality of the female body points to a profound discontinuity stemming from trauma induced by slavery, transportation, colonization, and migration. I critically analyze the experiences of fictional female characters in order to trace a mobile trajectory that begins with the female body’s forced transportation; continues with its wounding from displacements; and ends with its transformation. I want to uncover how the constant movements of the female body come to mold not only a body that is grotesque but also a mind characterized by a diasporic identity. I hypothesize that the female body’s porous quality and ability to overcome boundaries is what allows it to “live sin fronteras” and “be a crossroads."
More information about Mimi's research experiences can be found in the July 2013 issue of Perspectives.