| Abstrakt: |
This essay addresses the academic politics and commercial possibilities of publishing Puerto Rican plays in New York. It explores neither the real politics of government funding nor the academic politics of multiculturalism--the debate about the canon between the cultural left and the cultural right. The essay also excludes a discussion about publishing in vanity presses, desktop operations, or hundreds of other excellent small presses. The author's remarks are confined to the large trade publishers and the university presses, including those medium-size presses (sometimes associated with a university) that publish for special discourses. The author uses the word politics in the essay in the very broad sense of difficulties in getting publishers to elect Latina/o texts for publication. These random remarks with sundry examples focus on three political difficulties in getting Latina/o texts published: the trade publishers' prejudice that people in general do not read plays, the publishers' prejudice that Latinas/os do not read anything, and the publishers' pressure on Latina/o writers to adapt their art for an Anglo audience. These remarks are purely descriptive and neither argue a point nor make any startling revelations. |
