Latin American Cultural Studies Reader / Edition 1

by Ana Del Sarto

Overview

The Latin American Cultural Studies Reader brings together thirty-six field-defining essays by the most prominent theorists of Latin American cultural studies. Written over the past several decades, these essays provide an assessment of Latin American cultural studies, an account of the field's historical formation, and an outline of its significant ideological and methodological trends and theoretical controversies. With many essays appearing in English for the first time, the collection offers a comprehensive view of the specific problems, topics, and methodologies that characterize Latin American cultural studies vis-a-vis British and U.S. cultural studies. Divided into sections preceded by brief introductory essays, this volume traces the complex development of Latin American cultural studies from its roots in literary criticism and the economic, social, political, and cultural transformations wrought by neoliberal policies in the 1970s. It tracks the impassioned debates within the field during the early 1990s; explores different theoretical trends, including studies of postcolonialism, the subaltern, and globalization; and reflects on the significance of Latin American cultural studies for cultural studies projects outside Latin America. Considering literature, nationalism, soccer, cinema, postcolonialism, the Zapatistas, community radio, and much more, The Latin American Cultural Studies Reader is an invaluable resource for all those who want to understand the past, present, and future of Latin American cultural studies.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	2900822333400
Publisher:	Duke University Press Books
Publication date:	07/26/2004
Pages:	830
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 1.25(h) x 9.00(d)

About the Author

Ana Del Sarto is Assistant Professor of Latin American Cultures and Literatures at Bowling Green State University.

Alicia Ríos is Associate Professor of Latin American Literature at Universidad Simón Bolívar in Caracas, Venezuela.

Abril Trigo is Associate Professor of Latin American Cultures at The Ohio State University.

Table of Contents

	Acknowledgments	ix
	General Introduction	1
I.	Forerunners
	Introduction: Traditions and Fractures in Latin American Cultural Studies	15
	Literature and Underdevelopment	35
	Excerpts from The Americas and Civilization: "Evolutionary Acceleration and Historical Incorporation," "The Genuine and the Spurious," and "National Ethnic Typology,"	58
	Caliban: Notes Toward a Discussion of Culture in Our America	83
	Indigenismo and Heterogeneous Literatures: Their Double Sociocultural Statute	100
	Mestizaje, Transculturation, Heterogeneity	116
	Literature and Culture	120
II.	Foundations
	Introduction: The 1980s: Foundations of Latin American Cultural Studies	153
	Plotting Women: Popular Narratives for Women in the United States and in Latin America	183
	Would So Many Millions of People Not End Up Speaking English? The North American Culture and Mexico	203
	Brazilian Culture: Nationalism by Elimination	233
	Intellectuals: Scission or Mimesis?	250
	The Movable Center: Geographical Discourses and Territoriality During the Expansion of the Spanish Empire	262
	Notes on Modernity and Postmodernity in Latin American Culture	291
	A Nocturnal Map to Explore a New Field	310
	Cultural Studies from the 1980s to the 1990s: Anthropological and Sociological Perspectives in Latin America	329
III.	Practices
	Introduction: The 1990s: Practices and Polemics within Latin American Cultural Studies	347
	Political Disfranchisement	375
	On Citizenship: The Grammatology of the Body-Politic	384
	Male Hybrids in the World of Soccer	406
	The Past as the Future: A Reactive Utopia in Buenos Aires	427
	Tears and Desire: Women and Melodrama in the "Old" Mexican Cinema	441
	The Unbearable Lightness of History: Bestseller Scripts for Our Times	459
	Legitimacy and Lifestyles	474
	The Transnational Making of Representations of Gender, Ethnicity, and Culture: Indigenous Peoples' Organizations at the Smithsonian Institution's Festival	498
	The Production of Local Public Spheres: Community Radio Stations	513
	Mimicry and the Uncanny in Caribbean Discourse	535
	Of Zapatismo: Reflections on the Folkloric and the Impossible in a Subaltern Insurrection	561
	Tentative Exchanges: Tijuana Prostitutes and Their Clients	584
	The Latino Imaginary: Meanings of Community and Identity	606
IV.	Positions and Polemics
	Writing in Reverse: On the Project of the Latin American Subaltern Studies Group	623
	The Boom of the Subaltern	643
	Latin American Intellectuals in a Post-Hegemonic Era	655
	Local/Global Latin Americanisms: "Theoretical Babbling," apropos Roberto Fernandez Retamar	669
	Intersecting Latin America with Latin Americanism: Academic Knowledge, Theoretical Practice, and Cultural Criticism	686
	Irruption and Conservation: Some Conditions of Latin Americanist Critique	706
	The Cultural Studies Movement and Latin America: An Overview	728
	Hybridity in a Transnational Frame: Latin Americanist and Postcolonial Perspectives on Cultural Studies	736
	Mestizaje and Hybridity: The Risks of Metaphors--Notes	760
	Works Cited	765
	Acknowledgment of Copyrights	805
	Index	811

Editorial Reviews

"[An] important book. . . . This will be a useful tool for Latin Americanists and others in cognate fields of the humanities."
--Forum for Modern Language Studies

"[A] most competent text. . . . [B]ears witness to the complexities and intricacies of Latin American cultural studies. . . . I wish this volume had been available in my graduate years."
--Hector Fernandez L'Hoeste," The Americas"

"[A]n indispensable reference and teaching tool for Latin Americanists in the humanities. . . . Highly recommended."
--David R. Thompson," Choice"

"[I]mpressive. . . . The Latin American Studies Reader . . . contains . . . a rich variety of texts and bibliography. . . . [T]his volume, with its three informative and intelligent introductory essays, represents a landmark in the history of critical thought about Latin America."
--Sara Castro-Klaren, Modern Language Notes

"That ["The Latin American Cultural Studies Reader"] brilliantly delivers on [its] ambitious goal testifies to the breadth, vision, and rigor of its editors. . . . "The Latin American Cultural Studies Reader" will serve as an insightful, balanced, indispensable guide to a hard-to-define, much contested, interdisciplinary field. . . . [S]cholars across . . . academic disciplines will be referencing this book and assigning it to graduate seminars for some years to come. More important still, coming at a crisis point in cultural studies in general, it should help reinvigorate a field worn down by more than a decade of academic culture wars and internal squabbles."
--Robert Buffington," Journal of Latin American Anthropology"

From the Publisher