ISBN: 978-80-244-6818-1 | ISBN online: 978-80-244-6819-8 | DOI: 10.5507/ff.26.24468181

Paisajes naufragados, pueblos rescatistas: poéticas de querencia en las obras de Marta Aponte Alsina y Josefina Báez

Martina Vávrová

This book examines the work of Puerto Rican writer Marta Aponte Alsina and Dominican performance artist and writer Josefina Báez. Bařinová explores the concept of bonds with one’s roots, community, and a space shaped by colonial politics and the history of the diaspora in selected texts of these two independent authors. In her analysis, Bařinová draws on Gloria Anzaldúa’s and Edward Soja’s theories of Borderlands or Thirdspace, respectively, ideas of the third wave feminist scholars, and on Édouard Glissant’s philosophy. The result of this comparative study is an understanding of the concept of “querencia” as an aesthetic, philosophical, and political standpoint through which Aponte Alsina and Báez define literature, art, and popular creativity as a path toward preserving creative subjectivity, inner freedom, and a sense of belonging. At the same time, querencia represents a form of resistance against the politics of exploitation in the Caribbean region. By focusing on intimate stories (micro-historias), both writers—albeit through different narrative and performative approaches—create a valuable counter-narrative based on the portrayal of strong women and communities whose coexistence is grounded in solidarity, openness, and adaptability.

1. edition, Published: 2026, online: 2026, publisher: Univerzita Palackého v Olomouci, Křížkovského 8, 771 47 Olomouc