Structures of Power

Essays on Twentieth-Century Spanish-American Fiction

Edited by Terry J. Peavler & Peter Standish

Subjects: Comparative Literature
Series: SUNY series in Latin American and Iberian Thought and Culture
Paperback : 9780791428405, 208 pages, February 1996
Hardcover : 9780791428399, 208 pages, February 1996

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Table of contents

Notes on Contributors

Introduction

See(k)ing Power/ Framing Power in Selected Works of Jose Donoso
Sharon Magnarelli

Monuments and Scribes: El hablador Addresses Ethnography
Sara Castro-Klaren

The Delegitimizing Carnival of El otono del Patriarca
Rosalia Cornejo-Parriego

Magus, Masque, and the Machinations of Authority: Cortazar at Play
Peter Standish

Politicizing Myth and Absence: From Macedonio Fernandez to Augusto Roa Bastos
Todd S. Garth

The Underlying Currents of "Caciqusmo" in the Narratives of Juan Rulfo
Jose Carlos Gonzalez Boixo

Cabrera Infante's Undertow
Terry J. Peavler

Of Power and Virgins: Alejandra Pizarnik's La condesa sangrienta
David William Foster

The Politics of "Wargasm": Sexuality, Domination and Female Subversion in Luisa Valenzuela's Cambio De Armas
Rosemary Geisdorfer Feal

Index

Explores the many faces of power as revealed in twentieth-century Spanish-American fiction.

Description

The many faces of power--political, personal, authorial--as revealed in literature are explored in these essays by specialists on modern Spanish-American narrative. Contributors include Jose Carlos Gonzalez Boixo, Sara Castro-Klaren, Rosalia Cornejo-Parriego, Rosemary Geisdorfer Feal, David William Foster, Todd Garth, Sharon Magnarelli, Terry J. Peavler and Peter Standish. They discuss works by Guillermo Cabrera Infante, Julio Cortazar, Jose Donoso, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Alejandra Pizarnik, Juan Rulfo, Macedonio Fernandez, Augusto Roa Bastos, Luisa Valenzuela, and Mario Vargas Llosa.

By thoroughly analyzing the literature chosen, the authors go beyond questions of politically committed writing to include such issues as the dominance of one sex, one belief system, and one individual over another. Because they reveal just how complex and diverse issues of power in literature can be, they significantly broaden an already lively debate. What brings them together here is their shared passion for the subject, their keenness of thought, and their possession of what may be the greatest power of all, that of persuasion.

Terry J. Peavler is Professor of Spanish and Assistant Dean of Liberal Arts at The Pennsylvania State University. His books include Individuations: The Novel as Dissent, Ex texto en llamas: el arte narrativo de Juan Rulfo, and Julio Cortazar. Peter Standish is Professor and Chair in the Department of Foreign Languages at East Carolina University, Greenville. His books include Variedades del español actual and Mario Vargas Llosa: La ciudad y los perros.

Reviews

"Structures of Power is accessible to a wide range of readers, including generalists with little or no background in Latin American literature or political systems. The editors are clearly aware of the diversity of Latin American cultures and have made an effort to represent that diversity in this volume. " — Debra A. Castillo, Cornell University