Zines in Third Space: Radical Cooperation and Borderlands Rhetoric

Develops third-space theory by engaging with zines produced by feminists and queers of color.

Zines in Third Space develops third-space theory with a practical engagement in the subcultural space of zines as alternative media produced specifically by feminists and queers of color. Adela C. Licona explores how borderlands rhetorics function in feminist and queer of-color zines to challenge dominant knowledges as well as normativitizing mis/representations. Licona characterizes these zines as third-space sites of borderlands rhetorics revealing dissident performances, disruptive rhetorical acts, and coalitions that effect new cultural, political, economic, and sexual configurations.

Zines in Third Space throws light upon an important and often neglected space of alternative culture by looking at the media generated by people of color, who both use the subcultural media to explore and articulate their ideas and lives in a way they feel cannot be done through more mainstream channels, yet also understand (and articulate) the ways in which the white, middle-class dominated subcultures create new sets of constraints and limitations. Within subcultural studies, and media studies in general, this is a critical area of study. The author knows the world of which she speaks. Stephen Duncombe, author of Notes from Underground: Zines and the Politics of Alternative Culture