Artic le Reconquista : I lan Stavans and multicultural ist Latino / a discourse
Ilan Stavans constructs a multiculturalist framework for understanding the US Latino/a experience. By reading The Hispanic Condition (1995) alongside Stavans’ discussions of the Latino/a literary canon in the introductions to his anthologies, New World (1997) and Lengua Fresca (Augenbraum and Stavans, 2006), and his articles in the Chronicle of Higher Education, I argue that this multiculturalist approach is based on an equation of culture with language. Through this linguistic formulation of Latinidad with the Spanish language as its defining facet, Stavans privileges a colonialist rendering of Latino/a history, tracing the ancestral lineage of Latino/as in terms of solely Western European culture. By valorizing Spanish colonization, Stavans glosses over sites of violence in order to highlight a linguistic inheritance and formulates US Latino/a identity in opposition to American indigenous cultures. Uncovering the way in which Ilan Stavans positions the indigenous as Other in his multiculturalist approach to Latinidad is essential to understanding the colonialist and conservative underpinnings of how Stavans structures the Latino/a literary canon. I will consequently address how Latino/a Studies critics have wrestled with Stavans’ influence on the field and the ways in which Stavans’ vision of US Latino/a Studies resembles or reflects its institutional orientation and disciplinary locations. Latino Studies (2009) 7, 410–434. doi:10.1057/lst.2009.42
Postnationalism, Globalism, and the New American Studies
Curricula and scholarship in American Studies have changed significantly over the past decade, reflecting the important influences of women's studies, ethnic studies, postmodern and postcolonial theories. Earlier approaches, such as the Puritan Origins and Myth-and-Symbol schools, attempted to elaborate those features of American identity and social organization that are unique national characteristics. Often implicit in this nationalist approach to the study of U.S. culture was the assumption that the United States constitutes a model for democratic nationality that might be imitated or otherwise adapted by other nations in varying stages of their "development." The criticism of such "American Exceptionalism" has focused on both its contributions to U.S. cultural imperialism and its exclusions of the different cultures historically crucial to U.S. social, political, and economic development. In response to concepts of American identity shaped by Western patriarchy and Eurocentric models for social organization, more recent critical approaches have focused on the many cultures that have been marginalized by
Electrophysiological Studies of Penticainide (CM 7857), a New Antiarrhythmic Agent, in Mammalian Myocardium
The intracellular electrophysiologic properties of a new antiarrhythmic substance, penticainide, were studied in isolated rabbit, dog, and guinea pig myocardial preparations superfused or perfused with oxygenated Tyrode's solution. “Therapeutic” concentrations of penticainide (1.5 to 3 x 10-5 M) had little effect on sinus node automaticity; sinoatrial conduction was slightly delayed. In atrial, Purkinje and ventricular fibers, amplitude, and maximal rate of rise of phase 0 (dV/dtmax) were decreased by penticainide; Purkinje-ventricle conduction velocity was depressed. Penticainide did not significantly modify action potential duration (APD) of rabbit atria and dog ventricle and reduced APD and effective refractory period (ERP) of dog Purkinje and guinea pig ventricular fibers. Penticainide reduced APD heterogeneity of Purkinje-ventricle junction with a preferential effect at the gate and decreased tension amplitude of perfused papillary muscle in dog heart. The effect of penticainide on dV/dtmax was voltage and rate dependent; the resting block was weak. Thus, penticainide is a class 1 antiarrhythmic agent with properties of class 1B agents such as APD reduction and properties of class 1C agents such as slow recovery kinetic of rate-dependent block.