Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 1996. [Vol. 3.] Eger Journal of American Studies. (Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 23)

STUDIES - András Tarnóc: Ethnic Consciousness in Chicano Literature: The Voice of "La Raza".

search for artistic beauty is foregrounded in political and cultural activism. The notion of therapeutic self-justification is present in Anaya's invocation of Aztlán as a remedy for a cultural, economic, and social crisis. Furthermore a "versus pattern" can also be discerned in the movement's placement of Chicano artistic production against Anglo literary criticism and raising the issue whether Anglo views can be relevant concerning Chicano literature. In 1976 Lomeli and Urioste argued that "the uniqueness of Chicano reality is such that nonChicanos rarely capture it like it is" (Shirley and Shirley 174). Consequently, writers looking at the Chicano experience from the outside were categorized under the label "literatura chicanesca" (Shirley and Shirley 174). While Black Aesthetics operates in the conative mode hoping that it would will a better, more just world into existence through artistic activity, Chicano aesthetics has been more realistic being aware of the fact that the "invocation of a mythic memory" would not do away with social and cultural deterritorialization. The traditional view of Chicano literature, or any minority literature, however, has to be revised. Whereas one would assign labels of centrifugality or centripetality at face value, a closer examination of American culture would reveal that these terms are context specific. Chicano literature displays both centrifugality and centripetality. If one identifies the Anglo world as core America, then Martinez's "bronze skinned avenger," or Acosta's "brown buffalo" suggest centrifugality, shifting Mexican-American consciousness further from the center. However, as Virágos argues a sound and healthy democratic society displays a primary core surrounded by several secondary cores (Diagnosing... 29). Consequently, Martinez and Acosta's views are centrifugal only in relation to the primary core, and centripetal vis a vis the secondary core, Hispanic America. Similarly the notion of Aztlán, a declaration of cultural independence, and Rendon's reclamation of territory appear to be in a centrifugal relationship with Anglo-America, and perform a centripetal function within the Chicano community. 82