The (Latin) American Scene, Present and Future (Im-)Perfect: Five Critical Conversations

by Fernando G Herrero

Overview

The volume includes a prologue and an epilogue. Each chapter constitutes an extensive interview with one of these colleagues. Chapter one (Mignolo): colonial and postcolonial dimensions since the Early Modern / colonial period (circa 1500) and the legacy of post-structuralism in American academia. Crucial notion of “the colonial difference” vis-à-vis the critical interrogation of the category of “West.” Chapter two (John Beverley): we are dealing with the insertion of postmodernism, cultural studies and subaltern studies, and also the insertion of the sign “Baroque,” inside American life. Chapter three (Adorno): we are dealing with avatars of colonial studies of Latin America in the “Home of the Brave” particularly in relation to the work that defines her on the historical figure of Guaman Poma de Ayala. Chapter four (Rabasa): we are dealing with the themes of (epistemic) violence apropos Precolombian legacies, the historical relations between Mexico and the United States and the implications of subaltern studies. Chapter five (González Echevarría): in marked contrast with what has preceded, we are dealing with the vindication of pleasure in literary and cultural criticism and repudiations of politics or ideology, within rich historical continuities between Spain and Latin America. There are at least five different nationalities (Argentina, American, Mexican, Cuban, Spaniard) and more than five institutional affiliations (Duke, Yale, Pittsburgh, etc.). Fernando Gomez Herrero has had a roving faculty experience in a few American and British universities (Duke, Stanford, Pittsburgh, Oberlin College, Birmingham, Manchester, etc.).

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781839991622
Publisher:	Anthem Press
Publication date:	04/01/2025
Series:	Anthem Studies in Latin American Literature and Culture , #1
Pages:	388
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Fernando G Herrero  (PhD Duke University) is currently Visiting Research Scholar at the Instituto de Iberoamérica, University of Salamanca, Spain. He has taught in the United States (Duke University, Stanford University, Pittsburgh University, Oberlin College, University of Massachusetts-Boston, Boston College, etc.) and the United Kingdom (University of Birmingham, University of Manchester) in the last three decades. He is the author of Good Places and Non-Places in Colonial Mexico: Vasco de Quiroga (1470-1565).

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments; Foreword; Introduction ; 1 Avatars of Colonial Studies of Latin America in the Home of the Brave: A Conversation with Rolena Adorno; 2 About the Postmodernist Convergence of the Baroque, the Subaltern, and Many Other Signs: A Conversation with John Beverley in the Cathedral of Learning; 3 The Pleasure of Literary Criticism without Attachments to Any Method or Ideology Whatsoever: A Conversation with Roberto González Echevarría; 4 About the Colonial Difference or the Emergence of Thinking That Was Not Considered to Be Thinking: A Conversation with Walter D. Mignolo; 5 Precolombian Legacies and Indigenous Presents in the History of Mexico; Or How to Find Other Possibilities within Constitutive (Post-)Colonial Violence: A Conversation with José Rabasa; Afterword; Bibliography; Index

Editorial Reviews

Course Title: After the Philanthropic Ogre: The (Latin-)American Scene in the US from 1980 to today

“These conversations with five of the region’s most outstanding scholars of the past fifty years reveal just how ‘Latin’ America went from being a subject of what was once called ‘area studies’ to become a central part of a dynamic new vision of the global order. It is a remarkably illuminating and challenging achievement.” — Anthony Pagden, Distinguished Professor, UCLA College, CA, USA

“A collection of interviews originally published in Spanish, this book sheds light on the origins of decolonial and postcolonial studies in US universities in Spanish Departments. It assembles a valuable set of primary sources on the intellectual history of the cultural studies turn in Latin American Studies in the early 2000s.” — Jorge Cañizares-Esguerra, The University of Texas at Austin, USA

“This thought-provoking and inspirational collection of interviews with some of the most field-defining exponents of Latin American literary and cultural criticism offers a uniquely dialogical perspective into some of the most significant issues and themes they have individually explored and theorized about. It also provides a necessary and timely assessment of how this academic field has changed for the past three decades in response to unprecedented critical, cultural and political scenarios.” — Ignacio Corona, co-editor of Gender Violence at the U.S.-Mexico Border

“This is a very innovative book, which includes five interviews with fundamental academic intellectuals, who share extremely relevant information about Latin American Studies in both American and International Academia. This volume aligns with other related essential interview books about Literature and Area Studies, but most of them are not so much focused on expanding on the opinion of key critics who openly share their approaches to both practical and intellectual critical information about academic departments and future trends in Latin American Studies discipline development. This book is a must for any Latin American Studies scholar interested in the recent intellectual development of the discipline.” —Vicente Pérez de León, Professor of Spanish and Comparative Literature, Modern Languages and Cultures/Sgoil nan Nua-Chànan is nan Cultar, Hetherington Building, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8RS, UK

From the Publisher