Cannibal Democracy

Zita Nunes argues that the prevailing narratives of identity formation throughout the Americas share a dependence on metaphors of incorporation and, often, of cannibalism. From the position of the incorporating body, the construction of a national and racial identity through a process of assimilation presupposes a remainder, a residue.   Nunes addresses works by writers and artists who explore what is left behind in the formation of national identities and speak to the limits of the contemp