Papers by Małgorzata Martynuska
Polish Journal for American Studies, 2024
"Culinary mystery" describes the subgenre of crime mystery fiction that brings together food and ... more "Culinary mystery" describes the subgenre of crime mystery fiction that brings together food and crime. This article explores the connection between knowledge about Caribbean food and crime detection skills in Raquel V. Reyes' culinary mystery Mango, Mambo, and Murder: A Caribbean Kitchen Mystery (2022). The novel accentuates the pan-ethnic Caribbean heritage by combining the cuisines from Haiti, Puerto Rico, Cuba, and the Dominican Republic. The main Latina character is a food anthropologist who becomes an amateur sleuth and uses her culinary skills as prime detection tools. Her cooking style corresponds with the traditions of Floribbean Cuisine, pioneered by a group of South Florida chefs known as the Mango Gang. Finding ingredients, adapting the proper instructions, and preparing meals are metaphors for the investigation leading to the culprit's identification. The amateur/academic sleuth employs the analytic skills she has developed through her scholarly pursuits.
HETEROGLOSSIA Studia kulturoznawczo-filologiczne, 2024
This article examines the literary mode of magic realism in Lilliam Rivera's novel Never Look Bac... more This article examines the literary mode of magic realism in Lilliam Rivera's novel Never Look Back (2021). The paper argues that the novel provides a graspable representation of a traumatic event by combining the ancient myth with magic realism. It demonstrates how the traumatic experience of surviving Hurricane María disrupts the individual's framework of reality. Hence, the protagonist accepts magic realism in her perception of 'the normal'. Never Look Back was published by Bloomsbury Publications Inc., with art created by Kristal Quiles. The book is divided into two parts, the first depicting how the two main characters fall in love and the second illustrating their spiritual trials. The novel is written in the alternating firstperson perspective of its two main protagonists, who, in their voices, retell the Greek myth of Orpheus and Euridice. The book incorporates the ancient myth by transferring its setting to the Bronx and making the main characters Afro-Latinx. Rivera blends magic realism within the novel's story when the spirits become vital to the character development and plot. The essay analyzes the elements borrowed from the Greek myth, their interaction with magic realism, and issues relating to mental health to debate themes of collective importance, such as love, loss, death, and immortality.
Acta Universitatis Sapientiae. Film and Media Studies, 2024
The Latinx audience is an increasingly important demographic
for all television networks because... more The Latinx audience is an increasingly important demographic
for all television networks because they represent the fastest-growing U.S.
minority. Therefore, producers attempt to target Latinx viewers who are
more likely to watch the programs with their on-screen representation. This
article examines how Hispanic women are portrayed in the comedy-drama
series Devious Maids (Marc Cherry, 2013–2016). The first section presents
the historical perspective of the ethnic typecasting for the roles of domestic
workers in American motion pictures, accentuating the switch when
Hispanic characters replaced African-American females as maids. This
section has two additional functions: offering a selection of films and series
featuring Hispanic protagonists cast as domestic workers, and providing
background information about Latinx stereotyping in the U.S. media. The
second part of the article combines analyses of the series Devious Maids,
grouped into three subsections that consecutively examine class relations,
reinforcing or destabilizing Latinx stereotypes. The series depicts Latina
domestic workers who experience intersectional marginalization by being
positioned as underclass ethnic females. The dramatic strain explores issues
of family belonging, border crossing, split-family formation and pursuit of
upward mobility. The comedy relies heavily on articulating ethnic traits
such as exotic Otherness, which intrinsically intertwines with social class
status. Hispanics in lead roles are evidence of a greater visibility of Latinx
in American popular culture. However, by putting only Latinas in the roles
of maids, the series contradicts the idea of “colourblind” casting; it offers
empowerment to Hispanic actresses and diminishes the chances of women
of colour who do not happen to be Latinas. Anglo-American protagonists are
only a supporting cast, portrayed with a strong emphasis on their negative
features. The noble images of Hispanic females are juxtaposed with the
caricatured portrayal of the Whites.
LUBLIN STUDIES IN MODERN LANGUAGES AND LITERATURE, 2024
The article explores the relationship between people and the places they live in, depicted in Nai... more The article explores the relationship between people and the places they live in, depicted in Naima Coster's Halsey Street (2017). The novel chronicles the wave of gentrification in Brooklyn's Bed-Stuy and its effect on African and Latinx residents. The new Brooklyn aesthetic undermines the rich African cultural vibe and privileges Whiteness. The changing cityscape causes a crisis of community belonging among the marginalized long-time residents of the neighborhood. Coster's novel is also a family saga capturing the weight of familial obligation when a person with creative interests does not develop as an artist but instead has to focus on the family, evolving under the pressure of gentrification.
TEMATY I KONTEKSTY, 2023
The forensic thriller has emerged as a significant subgenre of crime fiction that depicts the wor... more The forensic thriller has emerged as a significant subgenre of crime fiction that depicts the work of medical examiners, coroners, forensic pathologists, and anthropologists who analyze scientific evidence. Forensic investigators do not engage directly in pursuing the criminal; instead, they interpret the physical evidence collected from the victim's body and the crime scene. The popularity of forensic fiction, film, and TV series has created the general assumption that criminalistics has become a routine police procedure. This article presents Karin Slaughter's novel Blindsighted as an example of a Southern forensic thriller. The American writer Karin Slaughter is the author of crime stories and thrillers set in the American South. Her Grant County series consists of six crime novels, beginning with Blindsighted (2002) and followed by Kisscut, A Faint Cold Fear, Indelible, Faithless, and Beyond Reach. The essay introduces the main qualities of a forensic thriller and highlights the novel's generic characteristics. Then, Blindsighted is analyzed within the paradigm of Southern regional literature, with its distinctive qualities and religious imagery.
International Review of Social Research, 2017
The article concerns the hybrid phenomenon of Tex-Mex cuisine which evolved in the U.S.-Mexico bo... more The article concerns the hybrid phenomenon of Tex-Mex cuisine which evolved in the U.S.-Mexico borderland. The history of the U.S.-Mexican border area makes it one of the world’s great culinary regions where different migrations have created an area of rich cultural exchange between Native Americans and Spanish, and then Mexicans and Anglos. The term ‘Tex-Mex’ was previously used to describe anything that was half-Texan and half-Mexican and implied a long-term family presence within the current boundaries of Texas. Nowadays, the term designates the Texan variety of something Mexican; it can apply to music, fashion, language or cuisine. Tex-Mex foods are Americanised versions of Mexican cuisine describing a spicy combination of Spanish, Mexican and Native American cuisines that are mixed together and adapted to American tastes. Tex-Mex cuisine is an example of Mexicanidad that has entered American culture and is continually evolving.
Interlitteraria, 2022
This article explores emerging identities in the memoir Learning to Die in Miami: Confessions of ... more This article explores emerging identities in the memoir Learning to Die in Miami: Confessions of a Refugee Boy by Carlos Eire. The narrator experiences multiple exiles during his voyage into the diverse cultural landscapes of the USA and treats those transitions as symbolic deaths leading to cultural renewal. The character interprets everything through his selective recollections from Cuba, and the constant critique of his antiquated roots diminishes the value of past experiences. The process of Eire's Americanisation is inevitably linked with his antinostalgia. The essay emphasises the moments when the narrator reproduces himself through transformation, and his reminiscences of Cuba tend to be more positive. Although this journey takes place within the American environment, Eire experiences the "nearness" of Cubanness, which lessens his attachment to Americanness. Ethnic foodways and ties of kinship are the primary elements bridging Carlos with Cubanidad. Negotiating the narrator's identity is a fluid process of cultural renewal when he struggles with "inbetweenness" and attempts rejection of his Cuban self. However, life experiences change his approach, giving him a greater appreciation for his ethnic roots.
Polish Journal for American Studies Vol. 16, 2022
Intertextuality has frequently featured in postmodern literature and film. By mixing various genr... more Intertextuality has frequently featured in postmodern literature and film. By mixing various genres, intertextuality enables a more flexible crossing of the film's boundaries and allows filmmakers to experiment with artistic form. The film's style or scenes resonate through other movies creating intertextual references. Hence, intertextuality is an approach that analyzes how one text is related to already available texts and discourses. Nonetheless, the successful perception of intertextual references requires a certain degree of comprehension ability from the film's audience. This essay examines the intertextuality of Quentin Tarantino's film Jackie Brown. The article has the threefold aims: first, to analyze the movie as an adaptation of Elmore Leonard's crime novel Rum Punch; second, to highlight Jackie Brown's tribute to the blaxploitation cinema of the 1970s; third, to focus on the film's intertextual crossings with other movies and film genres.
Racial and Ethnic Identities in the Media, 2016
“Ethnic Conflicts in Urban Landscape. Irish-American Representations in the Gangster Film Genre... more “Ethnic Conflicts in Urban Landscape. Irish-American Representations in the Gangster Film Genre of 1990-2010” (2016) [in:] Racial and Ethnic Identities in the Media: The Politics of Representation (eds.) Eleftheria Arapoglou, Yiorgos Kalogeras, and Jopi Nyman, New York: Palgrave Macmillan's. Film, Culture, and Media Studies Series. pp. 181-198.
Journal of Language and Cultural Education, 2016
U.S. Latina/o identity is a complex and panethnic construction. One of the most enduring tropes s... more U.S. Latina/o identity is a complex and panethnic construction. One of the most enduring tropes surrounding Latina women in US culture is that of tropicalism, which by erasing ethnic specificity helps construct homogenous stereotypes such as bright colours, rhythmic music, and brown skin that are represented in visual texts. Tropicalization helps position the Latina body as oversexed as well as sexually available; all that is identified with seductive clothing, curvaceous hips and breasts, long brunette hair or extravagant jewellery. The article concerns Latina images in US media and popular culture and focuses on such stars as Jennifer Lopez and Salma Hayek in order to explore the gendered signifiers surrounding Latinidad and Latina iconicity. The female ethnicity is depicted as other through its categorization and marginalization in relation to dominant constructions of Whiteness and femininity. The article bridges the approaches of gender studies and Latina/o studies with recent ...
Zlin Proceedings in Humanities , 2015
This article examines the portrayal of Latino/as in the American TV series Ugly Betty, which is b... more This article examines the portrayal of Latino/as in the American TV series Ugly Betty, which is based on the Colombian telenovela format. The show features the Mexican-American character of Betty Suarez as the main protagonist. Although she does not represent the mainstream American beauty standards, the qualities Betty embodies empower Latino viewers. New York City, where the show is set, represents a geographical and cultural context for choosing a Mexican-American family as the archetype of all Latino/as in the United States. Although Mexicans are not the largest Latino group in New York City, they are the fastest growing minority there. The series depicts a diverse world through a multi-racial cast of characters belonging either to the white majority or Latino, Asian and African minorities. The show is an immigrant story giving new perspectives to sensitive issues of illegal immigration and affirmative action. Ugly Betty both complements and counters cultural stereotypes concerning Latino/as in the United States.
Sensus Historiae, 2019
The article is devoted to the commonwealth status of Puerto Rico which through its territorial an... more The article is devoted to the commonwealth status of Puerto Rico which through its territorial annexation by the United States has become an “independent territory” controlled by the USA. It presents the treatment of Puerto Rico residents by President Trump’s administration in the context of Hurricane Maria. The paper is based on press articles published by The New York Times, USA Today, Huffington Post, El Nuevo Dia, and other newspapers that discuss the response of American government to the disaster caused by Hurricane Maria and compares it with the activities performed by President Trump in the cases of Texas after Hurricane Harvey and Florida after Hurricane Irma. Finally, the article links the inferior treatment of Hurricane Maria survivors with the ambiguous political status of Puerto Rico and raises the issue of American statehood as an option for consideration to solve the colonial status of the island.
Crossroads. A Journal of English Studies , 2019
The article examines the nostalgic landscape of Miami depicted in Susanna Daniel's debut novel St... more The article examines the nostalgic landscape of Miami depicted in Susanna Daniel's debut novel Stiltsville (2010). The setting of the novel is the actual community named in the title of the book and it refers to a group of houses built on pilings about a mile offshore in Biscayne Bay. The analysis proceeds according to methodology presented by the literary theorist Hana Wirth-Nesher in her article titled "Impartial Maps: Reading and Writing Cities", published in Handbook of Urban Studies (2001), in which she identifies four aspects of cityscape in the representation of the city in narrative: the built, the 'natural', the human, and the verbal. The paper discusses the nostalgic construction of the past in the novel. Nostalgic notions of preserving the past have been linked with the concepts of cultural heritage and the preservation movement.
This paper presents the experience of border crossing by Hispanic Americans depicted by Gregory N... more This paper presents the experience of border crossing by Hispanic Americans depicted by Gregory Nava in his two films: El Norte (1983) and Mi Familia (1995). The former deals with the journey across the Mexican-American border in a literal sense; the latter describes the metaphorical borderlands separating Latina/os from Anglo-Americans in the USA. Nava's depictions emphasize family to counter the popular media stereotypes of Chicana/o as gang members. "El Norte" expresses immigrants' displacement and disillusionment with the American Dream, while "Mi Familia" places Mexicans within the history of LA (Los Angeles) and translates Latina/o culture into a narrative familiar to the mainstream audience.
This article analyzes the ethnic portrayal of Italian-Americans in the gangster film genre. The g... more This article analyzes the ethnic portrayal of Italian-Americans in the gangster film genre. The gangster characters in the American cinema are always presented with their ethnic identification. Those ethnic men use crime to pursue wealth and power, their version of the American Dream. The cinematic portrayal of Italian-Americans has been criticized by several Italian-American organizations for perpetuating the stereotypical image of Italian gangsters. This article contrasts the ethnic depictions in The Godfather Trilogy and the contemporary TV series The Sopranos. The latter combines domestic melodrama with the traditional gangster genre. The films illustrate the process of shaping the Italian-American identity by both the American influences and the ethnic environment.
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Papers by Małgorzata Martynuska
for all television networks because they represent the fastest-growing U.S.
minority. Therefore, producers attempt to target Latinx viewers who are
more likely to watch the programs with their on-screen representation. This
article examines how Hispanic women are portrayed in the comedy-drama
series Devious Maids (Marc Cherry, 2013–2016). The first section presents
the historical perspective of the ethnic typecasting for the roles of domestic
workers in American motion pictures, accentuating the switch when
Hispanic characters replaced African-American females as maids. This
section has two additional functions: offering a selection of films and series
featuring Hispanic protagonists cast as domestic workers, and providing
background information about Latinx stereotyping in the U.S. media. The
second part of the article combines analyses of the series Devious Maids,
grouped into three subsections that consecutively examine class relations,
reinforcing or destabilizing Latinx stereotypes. The series depicts Latina
domestic workers who experience intersectional marginalization by being
positioned as underclass ethnic females. The dramatic strain explores issues
of family belonging, border crossing, split-family formation and pursuit of
upward mobility. The comedy relies heavily on articulating ethnic traits
such as exotic Otherness, which intrinsically intertwines with social class
status. Hispanics in lead roles are evidence of a greater visibility of Latinx
in American popular culture. However, by putting only Latinas in the roles
of maids, the series contradicts the idea of “colourblind” casting; it offers
empowerment to Hispanic actresses and diminishes the chances of women
of colour who do not happen to be Latinas. Anglo-American protagonists are
only a supporting cast, portrayed with a strong emphasis on their negative
features. The noble images of Hispanic females are juxtaposed with the
caricatured portrayal of the Whites.
for all television networks because they represent the fastest-growing U.S.
minority. Therefore, producers attempt to target Latinx viewers who are
more likely to watch the programs with their on-screen representation. This
article examines how Hispanic women are portrayed in the comedy-drama
series Devious Maids (Marc Cherry, 2013–2016). The first section presents
the historical perspective of the ethnic typecasting for the roles of domestic
workers in American motion pictures, accentuating the switch when
Hispanic characters replaced African-American females as maids. This
section has two additional functions: offering a selection of films and series
featuring Hispanic protagonists cast as domestic workers, and providing
background information about Latinx stereotyping in the U.S. media. The
second part of the article combines analyses of the series Devious Maids,
grouped into three subsections that consecutively examine class relations,
reinforcing or destabilizing Latinx stereotypes. The series depicts Latina
domestic workers who experience intersectional marginalization by being
positioned as underclass ethnic females. The dramatic strain explores issues
of family belonging, border crossing, split-family formation and pursuit of
upward mobility. The comedy relies heavily on articulating ethnic traits
such as exotic Otherness, which intrinsically intertwines with social class
status. Hispanics in lead roles are evidence of a greater visibility of Latinx
in American popular culture. However, by putting only Latinas in the roles
of maids, the series contradicts the idea of “colourblind” casting; it offers
empowerment to Hispanic actresses and diminishes the chances of women
of colour who do not happen to be Latinas. Anglo-American protagonists are
only a supporting cast, portrayed with a strong emphasis on their negative
features. The noble images of Hispanic females are juxtaposed with the
caricatured portrayal of the Whites.