A mixed-methods approach to the analysis of chicano/a identitydiscourses on language, literature and the border

Resumen

This study examines how Chicano/a identity is discursively constructed by young readers of Chicano/a literature. In particular it is analysed to what extent discourses on language, literature, and the border impact on the discursive construction of identity. The reception of Chicano/a literature by its readers has seldom been investigated. However, recent studies have begun to address this consideration (Martín-Rodríguez, 2003; Vasquez, 2005), the current research joining this emerging perspective. The focus of the study was on Chicano/a ethnic identity and the sociocultural issues depicted in certain Chicano/a literary forms, looking at how Chicano/a identity was discursively constructed by readers of Chicano/a literature. Language is integral to this process, as it embodies how social actors interact with the world around them and thus how they negotiate their own identities. In addition, bilingualism is a salient feature of the Mexican American ethnic group in the U.S., and is also a theme which permeates a significant amount of Chicano/a literary works. Therefore, an additional aspect of the research was how Spanish-English bilingualism contributed to the discursive construction of Chicano/a identity by young university students. The metaphor of the border is semantically rich in this context, as how readers negotiate linguistic as well as cultural and social borders in the discursive construction of their identities is an example of an applied conceptualisation of border theory. Perceptions and attitudes of the topics examined in relation to the readers of Chicano/a literature were also examined throughout the wider student population so as to gain a perspective of the wider social context. The fieldwork was carried out at the University of California, Merced, employing a mixed methods approach which included focus group interviews and class observation with students of a Chicano/a literature course, together with questionnaires which were imparted to a sample of the general student population at the university. The data from each of these methodological components, qualitative and quantitative, respectively, was then analysed, and the results converged. Contextual referents, such as the topic of conversation in a given moment (e.g. ethnicity, discrimination, political action), or the experiences depicted in the literature, were found to determine the extent to which young readers aligned themselves with the term Chicano/a. By reading the literature, participants increased their knowledge of Chicanismo, and also acquired a sense of empowerment both through this knowledge and through their interaction with works that depicted experiences which were similar to their own, and particular to their ethnic group. The border was a meaningful metaphor in this context in the sense that it was grounded in the data; that is, that multiple and constantly shifting subjectivities impacted on the readers' responses to the literature, and thus how they discursively constructed Chicano/a identity at any given moment, demonstrating the manner in which borders are negotiated throughout the discursive process.