A Bad Attitude and A Bad Stomach: The Soma in Oscar “Zeta” Acosta’s The Autobiography of a Brown Buffalo
Abstract
What does constipation and bleeding ulcers have to do with racialization? How do such ailments mark the makings of a fine writer? In this article, Fetta takes a transdisciplinary approach utilizing literary analysis, social science, and biological studies, to investigate the effects of racialization on the soma--the intelligent, communicative body-- in the Chicano activist/writer Oscar ‘Zeta’ Acosta’s masterwork The Autobiography of a Brown Buffalo (1971). Fetta develops her theory for somatic analysis in her upcoming monograph: Shame Hurts: Pain in Racialization Through a Somatic Lens in Latino Literature, but in this article, Fetta specifically analyzes Oscar’s stomach as interlocutor, an intelligent entity informing Oscar’s perception of self and society. Fetta argues Oscar engages his digestive disorders in somatic protest against Oscar’s marginalization in US society. At the same time, his visceral disarray defines Oscar with the sensibility of a great Western writer