The Contemporary Mexican Chronicle

Theoretical Perspectives on the Liminal Genre

Edited by Ignacio Corona & Beth E. Jörgensen

Subjects: Latin American Studies
Series: SUNY series in Latin American and Iberian Thought and Culture
Paperback : 9780791453544, 280 pages, July 2002
Hardcover : 9780791453537, 280 pages, August 2002

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Table of contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction
Ignacio Corona and Beth E. Jorgensen

Part I. Chronicle Writing: Reflections on Contemporary Practice

1. On the Chronicle in Mexico
Carlos Monsivais

2. How I Started Writing Chronicles and Why I Never Stopped
Elena Poniatowska

3. Patience and Urgency
Dante Medina

4. Border(line) Texts: The Chronicle, Writing in the Open
Rossana Reguillo

5. Questioning the Chronicle
Jose Joaquin Blanco, Vicente Lenero, and Juan Villoro

Part II. Theoretical Perspectives on the Liminal Genre

6. Matters of Fact: The Contemporary Mexican Chronicle and/as Nonfiction Narrative
Beth E. Jorgensen

7. Play on Words: Chronicling the Essay
Linda Egan

8. At the Intersection: Chronicle and Ethnography
Ignacio Corona

9. Modernismo, Journalism, and the Ethics of Writing: Manuel Gutierrz Najera's "La hija del aire"
Anibal Gonzalez

10. Writing the City: The Chronicles of Salvador Novo
Mary K. Long

11. Walking in the Modern City: Subjectivity and Cultural Contacts in the Urban Cronicas of Salvador Novo and Carlos Monsivais
Juan G. Gelpi

12. Christina Pacheco's Narratives: Multimedia Chronicles
Dawn Slack

Afterword

Introduction
Ignacio Coronoa and Beth E. Jorgensen

The Rainforest Chronicles of Subcomandante Marcos
Cynthia Steele

Contributors' Biographies
Index

Diverse perspectives on the “chronicle”as a literary genre and socio-cultural practice.

Description

The crónica, or chronicle, which crosses the boundaries between fiction and nonfiction, literature and journalism, is a highly polemical and widely read form of writing in Mexico and throughout Latin America, where it plays an influential cultural, social, and historical role. For the first time, this book addresses the theory and practice of the chronicle in twentieth-century Mexico. Contributions by Mexican writers such as Carlos Monsiváis and Elena Poniatowska and essays on a wide range of texts and authors provide diverse perspectives on the chronicle as a literary genre and as a cultural and social practice.

Ignacio Corona is Assistant Professor of Spanish at The Ohio State University and the author of Después de Tlatelolco: Las narrativas políticas en México (1976–1990). Beth E. Jörgensen is Associate Professor of Spanish at the University of Rochester and the author of The Writing of Elena Poniatowska: Engaging Dialogues.

Reviews

"It is amazing that there are almost no studies of the genre of the 'crónica.' The radical reformulation of the essay format and sharp analytic commentaries about contemporary Mexico have made crónica one of the most signal genres of the late twentieth century. This book provides a thorough introduction, tracing the crónica's historical roots, giving a very well conceived argument about the contributions of the contemporary crónica, along with close readings of specific texts. This volume fills an important gap and will become a standard reference." — Debra A. Castillo, author of Easy Women: Sex and Gender in Modern Mexican Fiction