William Nericcio

William Anthony Nericcio MCing a pacificREVIEW reading at Scripps Cottage, SDSU

William Anthony Nericcio, aka Memo, is a Chicano literary theorist, cultural critic, American Literature scholar, and Professor of English and Comparative Literature at San Diego State University. Nericcio served two years as the Chair of the Department of English and Comparative Literature from August 2007 through October 2009, where he worked successfully to diversify the professoriate and the curriculum; he stepped down in Fall of 2009 and is now Director of the Master of Arts in Liberal Arts and Sciences program. He also serves on the faculties of the Chicana/o Studies Department, the Master of Arts in Liberal Arts and Sciences (MALAS), and the Center for Latin American Studies. His work focuses on Chicano literature and film, Mexican-American cultural studies, continental philosophy, psychoanalysis, and global popular culture. He wrote a book on popular representation of Mexican and Mexican-American identity, Tex[t]-Mex: Seductive Hallucinations of the "Mexican" in America which was awarded the designation ‘Outstanding Academic Title’ 2007 by the American Library Association in the category of Film Studies. He has two other books published by San Diego State University Press—one, The Hurt Business: Oliver Mayer's Early Works Plus, and Homer From Salinas: John Steinbeck's Enduring Voice for the Californias, both from SDSU Press's Hyperbole Books imprint.

Nericcio is also a graphic designer, creating book covers, film posters, and websites, most notably for SDSU Press and Hyperbole Books, where he oversees the production of cultural studies tomes. His Text-Mex Galleryblog investigates the pathological interrogation of Mexican, Latina/o, Chicana/o, "Hispanic," Mexican-American, and Latin American stereotypes, political, and cultural issues. In late 2010, Nericcio began a text-image exhibition entitled “MEXtasy,” which has been displayed at numerous institutions, including University of Michigan and South Texas College. He is currently working on his follow-up book to Tex[t]-Mex, Eyegiene: Permutations of Subjectivity in the Televisual Age of Sex and Race.

Life and education

William Anthony Nericcio was born in Laredo, Texas, but with ancestry that hails from General Téran and Monterrey, Mexico, Partanna, Sicily, and England, and considers himself post-Movimiento Chicano. Nericcio received his BA in English from the University of Texas at Austin in 1984, then went on to complete his doctoral degree in Comparative Literature from Cornell University in 1989, with a dissertation entitled The Politics of Solitude: Alienation in the Literatures of the Americas. Nericcio's dissertation director was Enrico Mario Santí—other members of his committee included Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Kathleen Newman. While at Cornell, Nericcio served as a graduate research and teaching assistant to Carlos Fuentes at the A.D. White House Society for the Humanities.

MEXtasy

"MEXtasy: Seductive Hallucinations of Latina/o Mannequins Prowling the American Unconscious" is a traveling art show/exhibit based on the work of William "Memo" Nericcio and Guillermo Nericcio García. MEXtasy both reflects and expands upon Nericcio's 2007 book with UT Press, Tex[t]-Mex: Seductive Hallucinations of the Mexican in America. In addition to racist artifacts from American mass culture, the show also features works that "xicanosmotic," that is, works by Mexican-American artists where the delicious tattoo of the Mexican/US frontera is writ large as in the deliriously delicious semiotic tracings of Perry Vasquez, Izel Vargas, and Marisela Norte.The traveling show has previously toured in Ann Arbor, Michigan at the University of Michigan; San Ysidro, California (as Xicanoholic) at theFront, Casa Familiar; McAllen, Texas at South Texas College's Pecan campus Art Gallery[11]; Laredo, Texas at the the Laredo Center of the Arts[12]; at a April 8, 2011 opening at the Kamakakūokalani Center for Hawaiian Studies[13], University of Hawai'i at Manoa; at the Fullerton Public Library[14] with Gustavo Arellano hosting, at San Antonio College for a Tex[t]-Mex reading/signing and an exclusive South Texas MEXTASY exhibition (September 22, 2011), and at CMAS, the University of Texas at Austin. In late 2011, MEXtasy traveled to the University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, and to Western University, London, Ontario. It's latest exhibition will be at the University of Colorado, Boulder. MEXtasy was originally curated by South Texas College (STC) Art and Art History Professor Rachael Freyman Brown, with the assistance of Amanda Alejos (not to mention the meddling of the artist, Guillermo Nericcio García).[15]

Reviews of Tex[t]-Mex: Seductive Hallucinations of the Mexican in America

• Aztlan: A Journal of Chicano Studies. Spring 2008.
• "The Seductive Style of a Tex-Mex Cultural Critic." A Contra/Corriente. Fall 2007.
• CHOICE: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries. October 2007.
• The Americas. Volume 64, Number 4, April 2008, pp. 634-635

Selected works

• Tex[t]-Mex: Seductive Hallucinations of the "Mexican" in America. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2006 (ISBN 978-0-292-71457-1)
• Homer From Salinas: John Steinbeck's Enduring Voice for California. San Diego: The San Diego State University Press, 2009 (ISBN 978-1-879691-89-6)
• The Hurt Business: Oliver Mayer's Early Works {+}." San Diego, Hyperbole Books, 2008 (ISBN 978-1-879691-84-1)

See also

• American Literature
• Comparative Literature
• Cultural studies
• Literary theory

External links

• Bio, Dr. William A. Nericcio @ SDSU
• webINDEX, Memo @ SDSU
• memogr@phics, William Anthony Nericcio's graphic design portfolio
• Text-Mex Galleryblog, William Anthony Nericcio's online supplement to his book "Tex[t]-Mex: Seductive Hallucinations of the "Mexican" in America"