Through a comparative analysis of the novels of Roberto Bolano and the fictional work of Cesar Aira, Mario Bellatin, Diamela Eltit, Chico Buarque, Alberto Fuguet, and Fernando Vallejo, among other leading authors, Hector Hoyos defines and explores new trends in how we read and write in a globalized era. Calling attention to fresh innovations in form, voice, perspective, and representation, he also affirms the lead role of Latin American authors in reshaping world literature. Focusing on post-1989 Latin American novels and their representation of globalization, Hoyos considers the narrative techniques and aesthetic choices Latin American authors make to assimilate the conflicting forces at work in our increasingly interconnected world. Challenging the assumption that globalization leads to cultural homogenization, he identifies the rich textual strategies that estrange and re-mediate power relations both within literary canons and across global cultural hegemonies.
Hoyos shines a light on the unique, avant-garde phenomena that animate these works, such as modeling literary circuits after the dynamics of the art world, imagining counterfactual "Nazi" histories, exposing the limits of escapist narratives, and formulating textual forms that resist worldwide literary consumerism. These experiments help reconfigure received ideas about global culture and advance new, creative articulations of world consciousness.
Beyond Bolaño : The Global Latin American Novel
Description
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments Introduction: Globalization as Form 1. Nazi Tales from the Americas at the Turn of the Twenty-first Century 2. The Cosmopolitics of South-South Escapism 3. All the World's a Supermarket (and All the Men and Women Merely Shoppers) 4. Iconocracy and Political Theology of Narconovelas 5. On Duchamp and Beuys as Latin American Writers Conclusion: The Promise of Multipolarism Notes Bibliography Index
Author Description
Hector Hoyos is an associate professor of Latin American literature and culture at Stanford University, where he teaches contemporary fiction and literary theory. He holds a Ph.D. in Romance studies from Cornell University and degrees in philosophy and literature from the Universidad de los Andes in Bogota, Colombia.