Lexington Books
Pages: 198
•
Trim: 6 x 9
978-0-7391-7776-1 • Hardback • December 2013 • $114.00 • (£88.00)
978-1-4985-5725-2 • Paperback • March 2017 • $52.99 • (£41.00)
978-0-7391-7777-8 • eBook • December 2013 • $50.00 • (£38.00)
John is associate professor of Spanish, global studies and Latin American and Caribbean studies at the University of Vermont. He has published articles on the literature of Puerto Rico, Mexico, Cuba and their diasporas.
Table of Contents:
Introduction
Chapter 1: Globalization, the Neobaroque and the Gaze
Chapter 2: El reino de este mundo and the Ghost of Haiti
Chapter 3: The National Symptom in Three Puerto Rican Authors: René Marqués, Ana Lydia Vega and Judith Ortiz Cofer
Chapter 4: An Interlude: Magical Realism and Failed Incorporation
Chapter 5: The Vanishing Real: Magical Realism’s Political Swerve in García Márquez’s “La increíble y triste historia de la cándida Eréndira y su abuela desalmada”
Chapter 6: Engaging the Darkness in Mayra Montero’s Tú, la oscuridad
In The Fantasy of Globalism John Waldron brings together texts that are often read in terms of the Neo-baroque and combines these with some unexpected choices to demonstrate how these writers engage with imperial, colonial representations of Latin American and the Caribbean throughout the 20th-21st centuries. Waldron’s dynamic and insightful readings of authors such as Alejo Carpentier, Gabriel García Márquez, Ana Lydia Vega, Judith Ortiz Cofer, and Mayra Montero, in conjunction with contemporary theoretical ideas about globalization which he roots in the baroque, create a dialogue among old and new voices and a much-needed revision of concepts such as magical realism. The scope of Waldron’s project is impressive, and he tackles it with intelligence, acumen, and compassion. His book adds another intriguing perspective to the on-going conversation about Latinamericanism today.
— Jill S. Kuhnheim, University of Kansas
John Waldron's book brings together disparate critical perspectives in current Latin Americanist practice. Ranging from Alejo Carpentier to Mayra Montero, from Severo Sarduy to Antonio Viego, Waldron picks up the pieces of twentieth-century practice and weaves them into a reading strategy for the twenty-first. His choices in both fiction and criticism span a generational gap in Latin Americanism by reading 'classic' texts and criticism in the context of globalization, which allows Waldron to revive Magical Realism from its commodified tomb. Waldron's erudite, insightful readings and articulate prose then redeploy Magical Realism and contemporary Latin Americanism to destabilize the crippling hegemony of the present.
— Marcus Embry, University of Northern Colorado