Bandit Narratives in Latin America: From Villa to Chávez

by Juan Pablo Dabove

Overview

Bandits seem ubiquitous in Latin American culture. Even contemporary actors of violence are framed by narratives that harken back to old images of the rural bandit, either to legitimize or delegitimize violence, or to intervene in larger conflicts within or between nation-states.
            However, the bandit escapes a straightforward definition, since the same label can apply to the leader of thousands of soldiers (as in the case of Villa) or to the humble highwayman eking out a meager living by waylaying travelers at machete point. Dabove presents the reader not with a definition of the bandit, but with a series of case studies showing how the bandit trope was used in fictional and non-fictional narratives by writers and political leaders, from the Mexican Revolution to the present. By examining cases from Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Peru, and Venezuela, from Pancho Villa’s autobiography to Hugo Chávez’s appropriation of his “outlaw” grandfather, Dabove reveals how bandits function as a symbol to expose the dilemmas or aspirations of cultural and political practices, including literature as a social practice and as an ethical experience.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780822964353
Publisher:	University of Pittsburgh Press
Publication date:	04/24/2017
Series:	Pitt Illuminations
Edition description:	1
Pages:	368
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Juan Pablo Dabove is associate professor and associate chair of the department of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of Colorado at Boulder. He is the author of Nightmares of the Lettered City: Banditry and Literature in Latin America, 1816-1929.
 

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Preamble: Porfirio Díaz's Paradox xi

Introduction 1

Part I Banditry, self-fashioning, and the Quest for Legitimacy

1 Speculum Latronis: On Villa's Retrato autobiográfico 19

2 Hugo Chávez, Maisanta, and the Construction of an Insurgent Lineage 42

Part II Banditry and the Epic of the Nation

3 The Burning Plains: On Las lanzas coloradas 65

4 "Bodies for the Gallows": On ¡Vámonos con Pancho Villa! 86

5 The Andean Western: On Cuentos andinos 104

6 Borges and the Melancholic Cultor del Coraje 122

Part III Banditry and the Latin American Left

7 Dangerous Illusions and Shining Utopias: On Seara Vermelha 143

8 The Heart of Darkness: On José Revueltas 170

Part IV Banditry and the Dilemmas of Literature

9 Borges and Moreira: Inglorious Bastards 191

10 Language, the Devil, and the (Out)law: On Grande Sertão: Veredas 211

11 An Abundance of Hats and a Scarcity of Heads: On La guerra del fin del mundo 227

12 Banditry, Neoliberalism, and the Dilemmas of Literature: On Plata quemada 245

13 What Is a Bandit? 261

Notes 277

Works Cited 339

Index 379

Editorial Reviews

“A fascinating book that breaks new ground, even as it offers a revolutionary reading of the role of literature in twentieth-century Latin America. Dabove goes well beyond a study of the figure of the bandit as a mere artificial construct of otherness by the discourses of the nation-state and engages in a discussion of the nature of language, literature, and the role of the intellectual in Latin America.”
—Benigno Trigo, Vanderbilt University


"Dabove positions himself among the most significant commentators of Hispanic narrative."
—Revista Canadiense de Estudios Hispánicos


"Bandit Narratives in Latin America is a must read for all scholars of the region interested in the intersections of history, nation building, and literary and social tradition."
—The Latin Americanist 

From the Publisher