Description
Book SynopsisPolitical, social, and aesthetic change marked Latin American society in the years between 1960 and 1985. In this book, Martin Stabb explores how these changes made their way into the essayistic writings of twenty-six Spanish American intellectuals.
Stabb posits that dissent—against ideology, against simplistic notions of technological progress, against urban values, and even against the direct linear expository style of the essay itself—characterizes the work of these contemporary essayists. He draws his examples from major canonical figures, including Paz, Vargas Llosa, Fuentes, and Cortázar, and from lesser-known writers who merit a wider readership, such as Monterroso, Zaid, Edwards, and Ibargüengoitia. This exploration overturns many conventional assumptions about Latin American intellectuals and also highlights some of the other achievements of authors famous primarily for novels or short stories.
Table of Contents
- Acknowledgments
- A Note on Translations
- One. Introduction
- Two. Revolution or Rebellion?
- Three. The Cult of Pepsicoátl
- Four. The Twilight of Ideology
- The Faithful
- The Doubters
- Five. Toward a New Essay
- The Autonomous Text
- The Author’s Voice
- Genre Mixing
- The Essay as Poetry
- The Self-Conscious Essayist
- Six. Conclusions
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
