Humoring Resistance: Laughter and the Excessive Body in Latin American Women's Fiction

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments / In the process of writing this book I benefited greatly from the advise, expertise, and editorial help of many colleagues and friends as well as institutions and organizations. It is with great pleasure that I acknowledge their generosity now that the project is completed. In the summer of 1998, Earlham College awarded me a Professional Development grant that allowed me to spend six months reading about the history of humor. A generous grant from NEH and the Social Science Research Council for 1998–1999 made it possible for me to take a teaching leave during the fall of 1998 and to have the amazing luxury of being able to spend a whole semester reading and taking notes. For initial encouragement and ideas generously offered I am indebted to Ksenija Bilbija, Evelyn Fishburn, Debra Castillo, Julio Ortega, Paul Lacey, John Newman, Walter Mignolo, Chris Swafford, Kari Kalve, Sonia Mattalia, and Paola Boschetta. René de Costa, who heard a first draft of my chapter on Laura Esquivel’s Como agua para chocolate, advised me to keep my sense of humor when writing on the topic. Although the book no doubt contains many ponderous passages, I am convinced that his advice made a difference. Other colleagues and friends provided invaluable help with individual chapters . Gail Finney read an early version of my chapter on humor theory and had many helpful suggestions. Elia Geoffrey Kantaris not only answered my first timid questions about Armonía Somers’s daunting novel Sólo los elefantes encuentran mandrágora but immediately sent me his publications on the late Uruguayan author. María Rosa Olivera-Williams provided key details about Uruguayan political and cultural history. Also during the early stages of the manuscript, authors Luisa Valenzuela, Alicia Borinsky and Ana Lydia Vega were kind enough to give me hours of their time to answer my questions on the general topic of humor. I decided not to ask them questions about the narratives I planned to analyze for fear their answers would have too great an influence over my final interpretation of their texts. Laura Esquivel generously agreed to answer my questions on humor in writing and to send a series of lighthearted replies to what must have seemed to her overly serious questions on the subject. ix x ACKNOWLEDGMENTS In the fall of 1999, Dana Nelson and Dale Bauer, my colleagues in the Social Theory Program at the University of Kentucky, carefully read what was then a ninety-page introduction and offered me their friendship along with some much needed advice for editorial cuts. Susan Bordo took time out of a sabbatical leave to read a version of my chapter on humor theory and women’s bodies; her excitement over the material encouraged me to give the project a much-needed push at a time when the promise of an ending seemed to recede further and further into the horizon. Francie Chassen-López shared fascinating details on Mexican history and movies. Enrico Santí suggested a much more concise approach to a not-yet-final version of my introduction. Susan Carvalho read an unfinished version of the manuscript and offered helpful questions for dealing with remaining gaps. Rebecca Whitehead and Inela Selimovic, PhD candidates at the University of Kentucky, made many trips to the library to double-check bibliographic data. Conversations with graduate students at the University of Chicago and the University of Kentucky led me to clarify many aspects of my analysis. A Faculty Development grant from the University of Kentucky made it much easier for me to update my bibliography, and my library, until the very end of the project. In the final stages of the project, David Wise provided much technical support, and Susan Larson took time out of a very busy semester to read my final draft. Virginia Blum was kind enough to make the first contact with James Perltz, Editor-in-Chief, at the State University of New York Press, who wrote back immediately, asking me to send along the manuscript. Rosemary Geisdorfer Feal, the Latin American Series Editor, had enough confidence in the manuscript to recommend it be sent to readers. Lisa Chesnel and Kelli Williams, acquisition and production editors, have shown remarkable patience and good humor in dealing with my technical difficulties. The final version of the manuscript has benefited greatly from the very enthusiastic responses, questions, and editorial suggestions of anonymous readers. To the extent to which I have followed their advice, the...