In this innovative new study Laura Halperin examines literary representations of harm inflicted on Latinas minds and bodies and on the places Latinas inhabit but she also explores how hope can be found amid so much harm. Analyzing contemporary memoirs and novels by Irene Vilar Loida Maritza Prez Ana Castillo Cristina Garca and Julia Alvarez she argues that the individual harm experienced by Latinas needs to be understood in relation to the collective histories of aggression against their communities.ampampnbsp ampampnbsp Intersections of Harm is more than just a nuanced examination of the intersections among race ethnicity class gender and sexuality. It also explores the intersections of deviance and defiance individual and collective and mind body and place. Halperin proposes that ironically the harmful ascriptions of Latina deviance are tied to the hopeful expressions of Latina defiance. While the Latina protagonists defiance feeds into the labels of deviance imposed on them it also fuels the protagonists ability to resist such harmful treatment.ampampnbsp In this analysis Halperin broadens the parameters of literary studies of female madness as she compels us to shift our understanding of where madness lies. She insists that the madness readily attributed to individual Latinas is entwined with the madness of institutional structures of oppression and she maintains that psychological harm is bound together with physical and geopolitical harm. ampampnbsp In her panLatina study Halperin shows how each writers work emerges from a unique set of locales and histories but she also traces a network of connections among them. Bringing together concepts from feminism postcolonialism illness studies and ecocriticism Intersections of Harm opens up exciting new avenues for Latinao studies.ampampnbsp ampampnbsp ampampnbsp ampampnbsp