The Burden of Modernity: The Rhetoric of Cultural Discourse in Spanish AmericaThis book offers a provocative interpretation of cultural discourse in Spanish America. Alonso argues that Spanish American cultural production constituted itself through commitment to what he calls the "narrative of futurity," that is, the uncompromising adoption of modernity. This commitment fueled a rhetorical crisis that followed the embracing of discourses regarded as "modern" in historical and economic circumstance that are themselves the negation of modernity. Through fresh readings of texts by Sarmiento, Mansilla, Quiroga, Vargos Llosa, Garcia Marquez, and others, Alonso tracks this textual dynamic in works from the nineteenth century to the present. |
Contents
| 3 | |
Once More with Passion | 50 |
The Discourse of the Cuban Antislavery Novel | 66 |
Lucio Mansillas Una excursión a los indios Ranqueles | 84 |
Horacio Quirogas Poetics of the Short Story | 108 |
Vargas Llosas La tía Julia y el escribidor | 128 |
The End of Modernity in Spanish America | 152 |
They Have Never Been Modern Either | 172 |
Notes | 179 |
| 211 | |
| 225 | |
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Common terms and phrases
American cultural discourse Angel Rama Argentine argue argument articulated attempt Aunt Julia authority beginning Bolívar's Buenos Aires chapter circumstance ciudad letrada claim colonial concept context Creole critical critique Cuba Cuban antislavery cuento death depicted dernity dimension discourse in Spanish earlier economic el escribidor escribidor European excursión existence fact Facundo fiction García Márquez había Hence historical hombre Horacio Quiroga identified ideological indios Ranqueles instance intellectual interpretation invoked José Juan Francisco Manzano Juan Manuel Klor laberinto Latin America literary literature Mansilla Mario Vargas Llosa memoria metropolitan muerto narrative narrator nineteenth century Nonetheless Obras oedipal paradigm Pedro Camacho perspective poetics political postcolonial postmodern proposed Rama Rama's reading reality Recuerdos regard relationship rhetorical Río Quinto Rosas Rozas Sarmiento short story slavery social Spanish Amer Spanish American cultural Spanish American discourse Spanish American writers specific strategy Sylvia Molloy textual tía Julia tion Vargas Llosa's vida writing