Sirena Selena vestida de pena: A Novel for the New Millenium and for New Critical Practices in Puerto Rican Literary and Cultural Studies

Mayra Santos-Febres first novel Sirena Selena vestida de pena (2000) received immediate success and critical acclaim. This essay, which serves as an introduction to a dossier centering on the novel, situates the text in the Puerto Rican literary landscape and discursive formations. The main purpose of this essay is to summarize, contextualize, and examine the critical readings of the novel by the contributors in the dossier who for the most part engage on queer scholarship and Cultural Studies. It analyzes the multiplicity of critical practices, methodologies, and theoretical approaches that they employ which, at the same time, bear witness to a process of canonization