Kelli D. Zaytoun draws on Gloria Anzaldúa's thought to present a radically inclusive and expansive approach to selfhood, creativity, scholarship, healing, coalition-building, and activism. Zaytoun focuses on Anzaldúa's naguala/ shapeshifter, a concept of nagualismo. This groundbreaking theory of subjectivity details a dynamic relationship between “inner work” and "public acts" that strengthens individuals' roles in social and transformative justice work. Zaytoun's detailed emphasis on la naguala, and Nahua metaphysics specifically, brings much needed attention to Anzaldúa's long-overlooked contribution to the study of subjectivity. The result is a women and queer of color, feminist-focused work aimed at scholars in many disciplines and intended to overcome barriers separating the academy from everyday life and community.

An original and moving analysis, Shapeshifting Subjects draws on unpublished archival material to apply Anzaldúa's ideas to new areas of thought and action.

Kelli D. Zaytoun is a professor and the director of graduate studies in the Department of English Language and Literatures at Wright State University.

Series Editor’s Foreword ix
Preface xiii
Acknowledgments xvii
INTRODUCTION: Toward a Radically Relational Consciousness 1
CHAPTER ONE. La Naguala in Theory and Practice 9
CHAPTER TWO. “An Artist in the Sense of a Shaman”: Border Arte as Decolonial Practice 41
CHAPTER THREE. Connections with Arab American Feminism 65
CHAPTER FOUR. “Reaching Through the Wound to Connect”: Trauma and Healing as Shapeshifting 95
CONCLUSION: Toward New Potentials of Imagination 121
Notes 131
Works Cited 151
Subject Index 165
Gloria Anzaldúa Works Index 171