The Decline and Fall of the Lettered City
Latin America in the Cold War
Published on 24. June 2002
Book
Paperback/Softback
352 pages
978-0-674-00842-7 (ISBN)
Description
The cultural Cold War in Latin America was waged as a war of values--artistic freedom versus communitarianism, Western values versus national cultures, the autonomy of art versus a commitment to liberation struggles--and at a time when the prestige of literature had never been higher. The projects of the historic avant-garde were revitalized by an anti-capitalist ethos and envisaged as the opposite of the republican state. The Decline and Fall of the Lettered City charts the conflicting universals of this period, the clash between avant-garde and political vanguard. This was also a twilight of literature at the threshold of the great cultural revolution of the seventies and eighties, a revolution to which the Cold War indirectly contributed. In the eighties, civil war and military rule, together with the rapid development of mass culture and communication empires, changed the political and cultural map.
A long-awaited work by an eminent Latin Americanist widely read throughout the world, this book will prove indispensable to anyone hoping to understand Latin American literature and society. Jean Franco guides the reader across minefields of cultural debate and histories of highly polarized struggle. Focusing on literary texts by Garcia Marquez, Vargas Llosa, Roa Bastos, and Juan Carlos Onetti, conducting us through this contested history with the authority of an eyewitness, Franco gives us an engaging overview as involving as it is moving.
A long-awaited work by an eminent Latin Americanist widely read throughout the world, this book will prove indispensable to anyone hoping to understand Latin American literature and society. Jean Franco guides the reader across minefields of cultural debate and histories of highly polarized struggle. Focusing on literary texts by Garcia Marquez, Vargas Llosa, Roa Bastos, and Juan Carlos Onetti, conducting us through this contested history with the authority of an eyewitness, Franco gives us an engaging overview as involving as it is moving.
Reviews / Votes
Books that are so well crafted and so original that they make a difference in the evolution of a discipline do not come out often. This book by Franco, longtime literary and cultural observer of Latin America and professor emerita of Columbia University, is one such work...This book provides a unique understanding of both the literature and the politics of this important period in Latin American history. -- Mark L. Grover * Library Journal * With seemingly effortless grace, Jean Franco teaches us to reread Latin America, showing the roots of 'global' cultural politics in the Cold War. The range is from hard politics to transvestite disidentifications; interspersed with lapidary textual reading and unfailingly innovative theoretical interventions. -- Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, author of A Critique of Postcolonial Reason With seemingly effortless grace, Jean Franco teaches us to reread Latin America, showing the roots of 'global' cultural politics in the Cold War. The range is from hard politics to transvestite disidentifications; interspersed with lapidary textual reading and unfailingly innovative theoretical interventions. -- Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, author of <i>A Critique of Postcolonial Reason</i> In this impressive study, Franco...tracks the collapse of the belief in utopia among Latin American writers from the Cold War to neoliberalism...Franco raises crucial questions in her fascinating exploration of the decline and vestiges of the lettered city. Essential reading for Latin Americanists and anyone interested in modern intellectual life. -- D. L. Heyck * Choice *More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge, Mass
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
US School Grade: College Graduate Student
Illustrations
None
Dimensions
Height: 235 mm
Width: 156 mm
Thickness: 25 mm
Weight
540 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-674-00842-7 (9780674008427)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
07/2009
Harvard University Press
€34.79
Available for download
Person
Jean Franco is Professor of English and Comparative Literature, Emeritus, at Columbia University.
Content
Introduction I. Conflicting Universals 1. Killing Them Softly: the Cold War and Culture 2. Communist Manifestoes 3. Liberated Territories II. Peripheral Fantasies 4. Anti-States 5. The Black Angel of Time 6. The Magic of Alterity III. A Cultural Revolution 7. Cultural Revolutions 8. The Seduction of Margins 9. Bodies in Distress: Narratives of Globalization 10. Obstinate Memory: Tainted History 11. Inside the Empire Notes Index