Ana Clavel is a remarkable contemporary Mexican writer whose literary and multimedia oeuvre is marked by its transgressive thrust and its queerness. That which steps beyond conventionally determined boundaries or the queer is evinced in the manner in which the author disturbs conceptions of the normal not only by representing ‘outlaw’ sexualities and ‘dark’ desires but also by incorporating into her fictive and multimedia worlds that which is at odds with normalcy as evinced in the presence of the fantastical, the shadow, ghosts, dolls, golems and even urinals.
Clavel’s literary trajectory follows a queer path in the sense that she has moved from singular modes of creative expression in the form of literary writing, a traditional print medium, towards other non-literary forms. Some of Clavel’s works have formed the basis of wider multimedia projects involving collaboration with various artists, photographers, performers and IT experts. Her works embrace an array of hybrid forms including the audiovisual, internet-enabled technology, art installation, (video) performance and photography. By foregrounding the outlaw heterogeneous narrative themes, techniques and multimedia dimension of Clavel’s oeuvre, the aim of this monograph is to attest to her particular contribution to Hispanic letters, which arguably is as significant as that of more established Spanish American boom femenino women writers.
Jane Elizabeth Lavery is a lecturer in Latin American Studies at the University of Southampton.
