Vinodh Venkatesh | Virginia Tech (original) (raw)

Books by Vinodh Venkatesh

Con la recepción del Premio Iberoamericano de Narrativa Manuel Rojas (2014), el hondureñosalvador... more Con la recepción del Premio Iberoamericano de Narrativa Manuel Rojas (2014), el hondureñosalvadoreño Horacio Castellanos Moya es testigo del reconocimiento de la crítica internacional a su carrera como escritor. Poeta, ensayista, cuentista y novelista, Castellanos Moya se ha erigido en las últimas décadas no solo como una figura axial en la literatura centroamericana de posguerra sino, también, como nódulo central en cualquier estudio crítico sobre estética, política y ética en la ficción latinoamericana reciente. El reconocimiento literario recibido por el autor y el creciente interés de las academias latinoamericana, europea y norteamericana por su obra no se ha traducido, sin embargo, en la publicación de una antología crítica dedicada de lleno a su producción literaria. El diablo en el espejo rinde homenaje a la brillante carrera literaria del escritor al tiempo que propone abordar el vacío monográfico que existe en torno a su obra. Este volumen sondea nuevos puntos de entrada críticos y teóricos con respecto a novelas archiconocidas, tales como El asco e Insensatez al tiempo que abre una conversación en torno a aquellas obras que, ya sea por la falta de interés crítico o por su reciente publicación no han sido, todavía, objeto de una sostenida indagación académica. Además de la participación de reconocidos críticos, El diablo en el espejo cuenta con la colaboración de los escritores centroamericanos Daniel Quirós y Méndez Vides. A modo de epílogo, El diablo en el espejo concluye con el texto inédito del discurso proferido por Horacio Castellanos Moya con ocasión de la recepción del Premio Manuel Rojas, texto que esperamos sea de gran utilidad para el lector de esta antología.

Through economic liberalization and the untethering of labor and production markets, masculinity ... more Through economic liberalization and the untethering of labor and production markets, masculinity as hegemon has entered a crisis stage. Renegotiated labor and familial orders have triggered a widespread cultural renegotiation of how masculinity operates and is represented. This holds especially true in Latin America.

Addressing this, Vinodh Venkatesh uses contemporary Latin American literature to examine how masculinity is constructed and conceived. The Body as Capital centers socioeconomic and political concerns, anxieties, and paradigms on the male anatomy and on the matrices of masculinities presented in fiction. Developing concepts such as the “market of masculinities” and the “transnational theater of masculinities,” the author explains how contemporary fiction centers the male body and masculine
expressions as key components in the relationship between culture, space, and global tensile forces.

Venkatesh includes novels by canonical and newer writers from Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, Peru, and Chile. He focuses on texts produced after 1990, coinciding with what has popularly been termed the neoliberal experiment. In addition to probing well-known novels such as La fiesta del
Chivo and La mujer habitada and their accompanying body of criticism, The Body as Capital defines and examines several masculine tropes that will be of interest to scholars of contemporary Latin American literature and gender studies. Ultimately, Venkatesh argues for a more holistic approximation of discursive gender that will feed into other angles of criticism, forging a new path in the critical debates
over gender and sexuality in Latin American writing.

Papers by Vinodh Venkatesh

The Oxford Handbook of Queer Cinema, 2021

This chapter discusses the representation of lesbian bodies, desires, and identities in Latin Ame... more This chapter discusses the representation of lesbian bodies, desires, and identities in Latin American cinema. It contextualizes the production of LGBTQ cinema in Latin America, and its accompanying body of criticism. In doing so, the chapter identifies a critical lacuna that it then proceeds to address by first providing a historical tracing of several important films dealing with lesbian and gynosexual desires—including movies by such directors as Jaime Humberto Hermosillo, Abel Salazar, Diego Lerman, Lucía Puenzo, María Luisa Bemberg, Julia Solomonoff, and Raúl Fuentes. The chapter then proceeds to explore why these films are understudied within the field. The chapter broadens the scope of the current studies on queer Latin American cinema by adapting their theoretical and taxonomical structures to lesbian-themed films, to thus provide a point of reference for future filmic production and critique.

New Review of Film and Television Studies, 2021

hen dealing with Spanish film from the last fifteen years, much has been done on the study of aut... more hen dealing with Spanish film from the last fifteen years, much has been done on the study of auteurs. The countless anthologies and critical books on Pedro Almodóvar are testament to this. Following another trajectory, which is more in tune with global cinema trends of identifying a national cinema, critics such as Marsha Kinder have worked on establishing a genealogy of Spanish film that is both national in its excavation yet global in its attempt to unearth, create, and establish linkages to other directors and movements. This interest in writing and researching Spanish cinema, however, has not paid particular attention to the concept and practice of adaptation. Boasting a literary canon and production that is global and iconic, Spanish literary tropes and novels have been at the root of many films in both Spain and elsewhere. A popular case is Cervantes‟s El ingenioso hidalgo don Quixote de la Mancha (1605) which has been adapted both in Spain (Rafael Gil, Don Quijote de la Manc...

Current debates on the urban condition underline how the postmodern city undergoes what Fredric J... more Current debates on the urban condition underline how the postmodern city undergoes what Fredric Jameson calls a crisis of boundaries where the borders and categories of space are blurred. Where does it begin, or, better yet, what are the limits of the urban? The indeterminate physical space in turn contributes to an indeterminacy of the subject, as Fredric Jameson suggests that the postmodern space is inextricable from the phenomenology of the subject. Jameson’s question, however, incites a challenging of the ontology of the subject that is blurred in this process of late capitalism. Addressing this disjunct, Kathleen Kirby argues that Jameson’s subject is categorically masculine in nature, as the consciousness of indeterminate corporeality experienced by the postmodern subject is an extravagance that women have never been able to identify with. Women, Kirby argues, have consciously and wearingly been aware of their embodiment. Gender then is not only a factor in how the city is for...

The study of masculinity in Latin America in the past fifteen years has largely centered gender i... more The study of masculinity in Latin America in the past fifteen years has largely centered gender in contraposition to the community, focusing on issues of essentialism, representation and the nation-state, and the roles of violence and power in the subjugation of feminine and/or Queer gender representations. While some critics have paid attention to national masculinities (both contemporary and historical) and others have moved into analyzing regional masculinities, there is a resounding need to examine what happens to the construct of masculinity in the global age. That is, how can we discuss localized gender expressions just as the boundaries or definitions of the local seemingly dissipate in light of a global(izing) culture? Is there then a global order of gender, as theorists such as Raewyn Connell would like us to believe? These questions, amongst others that materialize in the confluence of globalization and masculinity, are the principal interrogations undertaken by the authors of this special dossier of Letras Hispanas.

Contemporary Latin American Fiction (Under the direction of Oswaldo Estrada) A casual look at con... more Contemporary Latin American Fiction (Under the direction of Oswaldo Estrada) A casual look at contemporary Latin American fiction, and its accompanying body of criticism, evidences several themes and fields that are unifying in their need to unearth a continental phenomenology of identity. These processes, in turn, hinge on several points of construction or identification, with the most notable being gender in its plural expressions. Throughout the 20 th century issues of race, class, and language have come to be discussed, as authors and critics have demonstrated a consciousness of the past and its impact on the present and the future, yet it is clear that gender holds a particularly poignant position in this debate of identity, reflective of its autonomy from the age of conquest. The following pages problematize the writing of the male body and the social constructs of gender in the face of globalization and neoliberal policies in contemporary Latin American fiction. Working from theoretical platforms established by Raewyn Connell, Ilan Stavans, and others, my analysis embarks on a reading of masculinities in narrative texts that mingle questions of nation, identity and the gendered body. The first chapter examines nationalism and the writing of masculinity in the context of the new historical novel, keeping in mind economic paradigms of laissez-faire, marketing, vii and references, and the close editing and reading that helped me polish these pages. From being a professor to adviser to friend, I write my heartfelt thanks to Oswaldo. These pages would not be complete without mention of Shifra Armon, Gillian Lord, Pablo Gil Casado, José Manuel Polo de Bernabé, and Alicia Rivero for being excellent mentors and teachers. I am forever thankful for them instilling in me a passion for language and literature. To Montse, Alfonso, Giada, Maria and Stephanie, I thank you for the bursts of laughter and cups of coffee that got me through the MA. To Katie, Jon, Rosario, Holly, Michael, Inma, Sam, Hamilton and Suzie, I thank you for being an amazing set of friends. Potlucks, dinners, and afternoons basking in the sun with burgers and beers are the memories that I will forever cherish. Last but not least, I want to thank Mari Carmen for always being there for me and making my life easier. I also thank her for being my accomplice and partner in crime… viii TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter I. INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………………...1 II. MARKET(ING) MASCULINITIES / MATERIALIZING BODIES IN LATIN AMERICA"S NEW HISTORICAL NOVEL………………………..45 Commoditizing Resources: The Male Body in Margarita, está linda la mar…...49 Trafficking in Masculinities in Nadie me verá llorar……………………………59 Undercover Marketing: Politics and Masculinities in La fiesta del Chivo………73 Bodies that Matter: Queer(ing) Masculinities and the Fall of the Dictator…...…82 Materialized Bodies / Marketable Bodies………………………………………..95 III. LYRICAL TEXTUALITIES: MUSIC AND MUSICALITY IN THE (DE)CONSTRUCTION OF MASCULINITIES……………………………...…99 Defining the Literary OST: Pedro Lemebel"s Tengo miedo torero………….…104 Towards a Lyrical Epistemology of Masculine Desire…………………………115 Soundtrack, Seduction, and Homosocial Dynamics in El huerto de mi amada.

JCMS: Journal of Cinema and Media Studies

Galactica Media: Journal of Media Studies

While the study of superheroes has become a comprehensive field in itself, a focus on global supe... more While the study of superheroes has become a comprehensive field in itself, a focus on global superheroes has only recently begun to take shape. Vinodh Venkatesh’s Capitán Latinoamérica: Superheroes in Cinema, Television, and Web Series (2020) furthers a comprehensive examination of the superhero in Latin American moving images from the late 1950s to the present day, covering contexts from Mexico to Chile. Missing from this study, however, is an examination of Argentine superheroes. The present essay fills this gap by addressing two films, Zenitram (2010) and Kryptonita (2015), that portray and critique Argentina and its relationship with neoliberalism in the 20th and 21st centuries. Both films move beyond the parameters of genre cinema by engaging salient issues extant in the cultural horizon of the country.

Revista de Estudios Hispánicos

Revista Canadiense de Estudios Hispánicos

Revista de Estudios Hispánicos, 2017

como metaficción, surrealismo, experimentación interartística y más, Asturias, Cardoza y Aragón, ... more como metaficción, surrealismo, experimentación interartística y más, Asturias, Cardoza y Aragón, Herrera, Jiménez, y Sinán exitosamente enlazan y posicionan a Centro América en el debate de la modernidad latinoamericana. Los aciertos de Kane son múltiples, aun cuando se eche en falta un punto de vista más actualizado con respecto a la relación de las vanguardias latinoamericanas y las europeas, que supere el esquema del simple reflejo especular; o la ampliación de los límites temporales, adecuándolos más a la modernidad latinoamericana, sobre todo después de que Marco Thomas Bosshard (2008), extendiera el periodo de acción de la Vanguardia en América Latina de la década de los veinte hasta finales de la de los cincuenta, y observara en esa relación con Europa más que ejercicios de espejeo o mímesis desde la periferia, auténticos procesos de reterritorialización, que él observa a partir de los teoremas de Deleuze y Guattari. El autor lleva razón cuando explica, al principio, que pese a que el Movimiento de Vanguardia nicaragüense fue el único que se consolidó en Centro América, no logró desarrollar una narrativa tan prolífica como sí lo hizo en poesía. En su opinión, la escasa ficción de los vanguardistas nicaragüenses no alcanza el nivel de experimentación estética característica de la vanguardia latinoamericana. Hubiera sido preferible dejar que el lector infiriera ese juicio después de la lectura de un análisis que incluyera las “noveletas” de José Coronel Urtecho, especialmente Narciso y La muerte del hombre símbolo, ambas de1938; o de una aproximación a la obra de Manolo Cuadra, autor de Itinerario de Little Corn Island (1937), del libro de cuentos Contra Sandino en la montaña (1942) y la novela Almidón (1945). En esos textos, ambos autores no sólo se apartan de la narrativa impulsada por el positivismo decimonónico mediante las experimentaciones propias de la vanguardia sino que inauguran la producción de nuevos géneros narrativos, como la novela corta y el testimonio, respectivamente; su inclusión hubiera justificado la intención abarcadora de Kane expresada en el título del libro, cuyo principal mérito es que rompe con el desdén y la ignorancia sobre el aporte de Centro América a la narrativa de la Vanguardia Latinoamericana.

Con la recepción del Premio Iberoamericano de Narrativa Manuel Rojas (2014), el hondureñosalvador... more Con la recepción del Premio Iberoamericano de Narrativa Manuel Rojas (2014), el hondureñosalvadoreño Horacio Castellanos Moya es testigo del reconocimiento de la crítica internacional a su carrera como escritor. Poeta, ensayista, cuentista y novelista, Castellanos Moya se ha erigido en las últimas décadas no solo como una figura axial en la literatura centroamericana de posguerra sino, también, como nódulo central en cualquier estudio crítico sobre estética, política y ética en la ficción latinoamericana reciente. El reconocimiento literario recibido por el autor y el creciente interés de las academias latinoamericana, europea y norteamericana por su obra no se ha traducido, sin embargo, en la publicación de una antología crítica dedicada de lleno a su producción literaria. El diablo en el espejo rinde homenaje a la brillante carrera literaria del escritor al tiempo que propone abordar el vacío monográfico que existe en torno a su obra. Este volumen sondea nuevos puntos de entrada críticos y teóricos con respecto a novelas archiconocidas, tales como El asco e Insensatez al tiempo que abre una conversación en torno a aquellas obras que, ya sea por la falta de interés crítico o por su reciente publicación no han sido, todavía, objeto de una sostenida indagación académica. Además de la participación de reconocidos críticos, El diablo en el espejo cuenta con la colaboración de los escritores centroamericanos Daniel Quirós y Méndez Vides. A modo de epílogo, El diablo en el espejo concluye con el texto inédito del discurso proferido por Horacio Castellanos Moya con ocasión de la recepción del Premio Manuel Rojas, texto que esperamos sea de gran utilidad para el lector de esta antología.

Through economic liberalization and the untethering of labor and production markets, masculinity ... more Through economic liberalization and the untethering of labor and production markets, masculinity as hegemon has entered a crisis stage. Renegotiated labor and familial orders have triggered a widespread cultural renegotiation of how masculinity operates and is represented. This holds especially true in Latin America.

Addressing this, Vinodh Venkatesh uses contemporary Latin American literature to examine how masculinity is constructed and conceived. The Body as Capital centers socioeconomic and political concerns, anxieties, and paradigms on the male anatomy and on the matrices of masculinities presented in fiction. Developing concepts such as the “market of masculinities” and the “transnational theater of masculinities,” the author explains how contemporary fiction centers the male body and masculine
expressions as key components in the relationship between culture, space, and global tensile forces.

Venkatesh includes novels by canonical and newer writers from Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, Peru, and Chile. He focuses on texts produced after 1990, coinciding with what has popularly been termed the neoliberal experiment. In addition to probing well-known novels such as La fiesta del
Chivo and La mujer habitada and their accompanying body of criticism, The Body as Capital defines and examines several masculine tropes that will be of interest to scholars of contemporary Latin American literature and gender studies. Ultimately, Venkatesh argues for a more holistic approximation of discursive gender that will feed into other angles of criticism, forging a new path in the critical debates
over gender and sexuality in Latin American writing.

The Oxford Handbook of Queer Cinema, 2021

This chapter discusses the representation of lesbian bodies, desires, and identities in Latin Ame... more This chapter discusses the representation of lesbian bodies, desires, and identities in Latin American cinema. It contextualizes the production of LGBTQ cinema in Latin America, and its accompanying body of criticism. In doing so, the chapter identifies a critical lacuna that it then proceeds to address by first providing a historical tracing of several important films dealing with lesbian and gynosexual desires—including movies by such directors as Jaime Humberto Hermosillo, Abel Salazar, Diego Lerman, Lucía Puenzo, María Luisa Bemberg, Julia Solomonoff, and Raúl Fuentes. The chapter then proceeds to explore why these films are understudied within the field. The chapter broadens the scope of the current studies on queer Latin American cinema by adapting their theoretical and taxonomical structures to lesbian-themed films, to thus provide a point of reference for future filmic production and critique.

New Review of Film and Television Studies, 2021

hen dealing with Spanish film from the last fifteen years, much has been done on the study of aut... more hen dealing with Spanish film from the last fifteen years, much has been done on the study of auteurs. The countless anthologies and critical books on Pedro Almodóvar are testament to this. Following another trajectory, which is more in tune with global cinema trends of identifying a national cinema, critics such as Marsha Kinder have worked on establishing a genealogy of Spanish film that is both national in its excavation yet global in its attempt to unearth, create, and establish linkages to other directors and movements. This interest in writing and researching Spanish cinema, however, has not paid particular attention to the concept and practice of adaptation. Boasting a literary canon and production that is global and iconic, Spanish literary tropes and novels have been at the root of many films in both Spain and elsewhere. A popular case is Cervantes‟s El ingenioso hidalgo don Quixote de la Mancha (1605) which has been adapted both in Spain (Rafael Gil, Don Quijote de la Manc...

Current debates on the urban condition underline how the postmodern city undergoes what Fredric J... more Current debates on the urban condition underline how the postmodern city undergoes what Fredric Jameson calls a crisis of boundaries where the borders and categories of space are blurred. Where does it begin, or, better yet, what are the limits of the urban? The indeterminate physical space in turn contributes to an indeterminacy of the subject, as Fredric Jameson suggests that the postmodern space is inextricable from the phenomenology of the subject. Jameson’s question, however, incites a challenging of the ontology of the subject that is blurred in this process of late capitalism. Addressing this disjunct, Kathleen Kirby argues that Jameson’s subject is categorically masculine in nature, as the consciousness of indeterminate corporeality experienced by the postmodern subject is an extravagance that women have never been able to identify with. Women, Kirby argues, have consciously and wearingly been aware of their embodiment. Gender then is not only a factor in how the city is for...

The study of masculinity in Latin America in the past fifteen years has largely centered gender i... more The study of masculinity in Latin America in the past fifteen years has largely centered gender in contraposition to the community, focusing on issues of essentialism, representation and the nation-state, and the roles of violence and power in the subjugation of feminine and/or Queer gender representations. While some critics have paid attention to national masculinities (both contemporary and historical) and others have moved into analyzing regional masculinities, there is a resounding need to examine what happens to the construct of masculinity in the global age. That is, how can we discuss localized gender expressions just as the boundaries or definitions of the local seemingly dissipate in light of a global(izing) culture? Is there then a global order of gender, as theorists such as Raewyn Connell would like us to believe? These questions, amongst others that materialize in the confluence of globalization and masculinity, are the principal interrogations undertaken by the authors of this special dossier of Letras Hispanas.

Contemporary Latin American Fiction (Under the direction of Oswaldo Estrada) A casual look at con... more Contemporary Latin American Fiction (Under the direction of Oswaldo Estrada) A casual look at contemporary Latin American fiction, and its accompanying body of criticism, evidences several themes and fields that are unifying in their need to unearth a continental phenomenology of identity. These processes, in turn, hinge on several points of construction or identification, with the most notable being gender in its plural expressions. Throughout the 20 th century issues of race, class, and language have come to be discussed, as authors and critics have demonstrated a consciousness of the past and its impact on the present and the future, yet it is clear that gender holds a particularly poignant position in this debate of identity, reflective of its autonomy from the age of conquest. The following pages problematize the writing of the male body and the social constructs of gender in the face of globalization and neoliberal policies in contemporary Latin American fiction. Working from theoretical platforms established by Raewyn Connell, Ilan Stavans, and others, my analysis embarks on a reading of masculinities in narrative texts that mingle questions of nation, identity and the gendered body. The first chapter examines nationalism and the writing of masculinity in the context of the new historical novel, keeping in mind economic paradigms of laissez-faire, marketing, vii and references, and the close editing and reading that helped me polish these pages. From being a professor to adviser to friend, I write my heartfelt thanks to Oswaldo. These pages would not be complete without mention of Shifra Armon, Gillian Lord, Pablo Gil Casado, José Manuel Polo de Bernabé, and Alicia Rivero for being excellent mentors and teachers. I am forever thankful for them instilling in me a passion for language and literature. To Montse, Alfonso, Giada, Maria and Stephanie, I thank you for the bursts of laughter and cups of coffee that got me through the MA. To Katie, Jon, Rosario, Holly, Michael, Inma, Sam, Hamilton and Suzie, I thank you for being an amazing set of friends. Potlucks, dinners, and afternoons basking in the sun with burgers and beers are the memories that I will forever cherish. Last but not least, I want to thank Mari Carmen for always being there for me and making my life easier. I also thank her for being my accomplice and partner in crime… viii TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter I. INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………………...1 II. MARKET(ING) MASCULINITIES / MATERIALIZING BODIES IN LATIN AMERICA"S NEW HISTORICAL NOVEL………………………..45 Commoditizing Resources: The Male Body in Margarita, está linda la mar…...49 Trafficking in Masculinities in Nadie me verá llorar……………………………59 Undercover Marketing: Politics and Masculinities in La fiesta del Chivo………73 Bodies that Matter: Queer(ing) Masculinities and the Fall of the Dictator…...…82 Materialized Bodies / Marketable Bodies………………………………………..95 III. LYRICAL TEXTUALITIES: MUSIC AND MUSICALITY IN THE (DE)CONSTRUCTION OF MASCULINITIES……………………………...…99 Defining the Literary OST: Pedro Lemebel"s Tengo miedo torero………….…104 Towards a Lyrical Epistemology of Masculine Desire…………………………115 Soundtrack, Seduction, and Homosocial Dynamics in El huerto de mi amada.

JCMS: Journal of Cinema and Media Studies

Galactica Media: Journal of Media Studies

While the study of superheroes has become a comprehensive field in itself, a focus on global supe... more While the study of superheroes has become a comprehensive field in itself, a focus on global superheroes has only recently begun to take shape. Vinodh Venkatesh’s Capitán Latinoamérica: Superheroes in Cinema, Television, and Web Series (2020) furthers a comprehensive examination of the superhero in Latin American moving images from the late 1950s to the present day, covering contexts from Mexico to Chile. Missing from this study, however, is an examination of Argentine superheroes. The present essay fills this gap by addressing two films, Zenitram (2010) and Kryptonita (2015), that portray and critique Argentina and its relationship with neoliberalism in the 20th and 21st centuries. Both films move beyond the parameters of genre cinema by engaging salient issues extant in the cultural horizon of the country.

Revista de Estudios Hispánicos

Revista Canadiense de Estudios Hispánicos

Revista de Estudios Hispánicos, 2017

como metaficción, surrealismo, experimentación interartística y más, Asturias, Cardoza y Aragón, ... more como metaficción, surrealismo, experimentación interartística y más, Asturias, Cardoza y Aragón, Herrera, Jiménez, y Sinán exitosamente enlazan y posicionan a Centro América en el debate de la modernidad latinoamericana. Los aciertos de Kane son múltiples, aun cuando se eche en falta un punto de vista más actualizado con respecto a la relación de las vanguardias latinoamericanas y las europeas, que supere el esquema del simple reflejo especular; o la ampliación de los límites temporales, adecuándolos más a la modernidad latinoamericana, sobre todo después de que Marco Thomas Bosshard (2008), extendiera el periodo de acción de la Vanguardia en América Latina de la década de los veinte hasta finales de la de los cincuenta, y observara en esa relación con Europa más que ejercicios de espejeo o mímesis desde la periferia, auténticos procesos de reterritorialización, que él observa a partir de los teoremas de Deleuze y Guattari. El autor lleva razón cuando explica, al principio, que pese a que el Movimiento de Vanguardia nicaragüense fue el único que se consolidó en Centro América, no logró desarrollar una narrativa tan prolífica como sí lo hizo en poesía. En su opinión, la escasa ficción de los vanguardistas nicaragüenses no alcanza el nivel de experimentación estética característica de la vanguardia latinoamericana. Hubiera sido preferible dejar que el lector infiriera ese juicio después de la lectura de un análisis que incluyera las “noveletas” de José Coronel Urtecho, especialmente Narciso y La muerte del hombre símbolo, ambas de1938; o de una aproximación a la obra de Manolo Cuadra, autor de Itinerario de Little Corn Island (1937), del libro de cuentos Contra Sandino en la montaña (1942) y la novela Almidón (1945). En esos textos, ambos autores no sólo se apartan de la narrativa impulsada por el positivismo decimonónico mediante las experimentaciones propias de la vanguardia sino que inauguran la producción de nuevos géneros narrativos, como la novela corta y el testimonio, respectivamente; su inclusión hubiera justificado la intención abarcadora de Kane expresada en el título del libro, cuyo principal mérito es que rompe con el desdén y la ignorancia sobre el aporte de Centro América a la narrativa de la Vanguardia Latinoamericana.

Journal of Urban Cultural Studies, 2016

Revista de Estudios Hispánicos, 2016

relevance and value of the writer’s oeuvre, but more specifically in (de)linking Bolaño to the ot... more relevance and value of the writer’s oeuvre, but more specifically in (de)linking Bolaño to the other great Chilean author—José Donoso. Gutiérrez-Mouat focuses on the tensions between the former and the latter’s work and stature as a Latin American author, suggesting that Bolaño strategically situated himself in relation to Borges and Cortázar (as part of a broader canon) from a position of passion “but devoid of anxiety” (43). Tomás Regalado López’s essay on the Crack, like Gutiérrez-Mouat’s before him, will be required reading for any scholar on the topic. Regalado López’s essay is nuanced, well-researched, and critically exhaustive, providing thorough arguments for and against any position on the Crack and its proponents. Emilse Hidalgo’s inquiry into the genealogy of Rodrigo Fresán is particularly useful for Latin Americanists, as prior to discussing the author’s work, she deftly juxtaposes postulates on post-Boom fiction by Donald Shaw, Gerald Martin, and Philip Swanson with the periodization posed by García Canclini, which she argues—and I quite agree—is more useful in tracing productive genealogies to the present day, especially when dealing with “nation-specific narratives” as is the case with Fresán (107). The remaining essays of New Trends are, indeed, nation-specific and thus benefit from their placement after Hidalgo’s essay. Alberto Fonseca and Lotte Buiting study recent Colombian narrative that falls outside the popular sicaresca genre: the former working through Darío Jaramillo Agudelo’s Cartas cruzadas, and the latter examining Evelio Rosero’s Los ejércitos. Janet Hendrickson and Eduard Arriaga-Arango examine the work of Diego Trelles Paz, whereas José Eduardo González provides a nuanced and self-reflexive analysis of Ena Lucía Portela’s “Huracán.” Each essay reads well on its own, though gains layers and textures when set against its peers in New Trends, providing thus an organicity to Robbins and González’s project that is always welcome in anthologies. Several issues such as the very sovereignty of the Crack, for example, are developed in several essays but can be better understood through a back-to-front reading of New Trends. I see this tome being both a useful reference work, or guide, for educators of Latin American narrative, and a critical tool for researchers working on specific authors studied within its pages or others (from all over Latin America) that may easily be plotted on the map that the editors expertly lay out in the introduction.