Description
Characterized by the fragmentation of civil society and the decomposition of the myths that accompanied the consolidation of the modern nation, Mexican visual and literary arts have been exploring a myriad of representational avenues to approach the phenomena of violence, institutional decay, and political instability. We the Barbarians analyzes the ways in which the transformations of national culture intersect with global developments, discussing the insertion of literary works at transnational levels. In the works of the authors studied here, the uses of language reveal the experimental integration of regional idiolects, colloquialisms, slang, and neologisms derived from multiple and diverse cultural registers, including the terminologies of social media. Urban and rural subcultures interplay with traditional currents and with the languages of film, performance, and popular music. Thematically, innovations introduced through the genre of chronicles, science fiction, journalism, and autobiographical writing produce powerful combinations in which "canonical" authors are re-interpreted and re-vitalized for a changing and diversified cultural market.
The critical and theoretical approaches used here explore a variety of alternative symbolic representations of topics such as nationalism, community, and affect in times impacted by systemic violence, precariousness, and radical inequality. Moraña's goal is to perceive the negotiations between regional/local imaginaries and global scenarios characterized by the devaluation and re-signification of life, both at individual and at collective levels. Though it uses three authors as its focus, the book seeks to more broadly theorize the question of the relationship between literature and the social in the twenty-first century.
Book Information
ISBN 9780826506696
Author Mabel Moraña
Format Paperback
Page Count 408
Imprint Vanderbilt University Press
Publisher Vanderbilt University Press