“‘Like Refugees in their Own Country’: Racial Formation in post-Katrina U.S.”

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Abstract: The controversy that followed hurricane Katrina and its representation by the media revealed unresolved racial issues in contemporary United States. Present-day New Orleans has become an ideal site for the application of Michael Omi and Howard Winant’s ‘racial formation’ theory, which challenges essentialist visions of race pointing to its sociohistorical construction. The present article makes use of this theoretical perspective to examine two pieces of fi ction set in post-Katrina U.S.: HBO’s TV series Treme, and Richard Ford’s short-story “Leaving for Kenosha”. Such an analysis unveils key connections between race and class, ideology, politics or the role of the media. Resumen: El huracán Katrina y su representación en los medios pone de manifi esto cuestiones raciales sin resolver en Estados Unidos. Nueva Orleans se ha convertido en un lugar idóneo para aplicar la teoría de la “formación racial” de Michael Omi y Howard Winant, un ataque a la visión esencialista del concep

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