Loops, Loops, Loops
Torsion, Freedom, and Form in Tomás Rivera’s . . . y no se lo tragó la tierra
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 11272510 |
|---|---|
| Authors | R Andrés Guzmán (0000-0001-6433-7313, Indiana University), Ramona Guzmán (0009-0001-8182-8592, Indiana University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 49 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 42-63 |
| Publication date | 2024-12-30 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | MELUS Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0163-755X • E-ISSN: 1946-3170 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1093/melus/mlae056 |
| OpenAlex | W4404447402 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 15 |
Given the historical function of the novel in producing subjectivities and social, political, and cultural imaginaries that help suture people to the institutions of liberal democracy and capitalist accumulation, what can a novel do when the political and economic premises undergirding the epochal project of modern liberal democracy seem to be on the verge of becoming obsolete? Can a novel model, prefigure, or contribute to a liberatory transformation of our present in a time of crisis? I approach these questions by analyzing Tomás Rivera’s ... y no se lo tragó la tierra (1971). Although the novel repeats some of the literary conventions behind claims for liberal and economic inclusion, it undermines them in their repetition, thus opening onto a mode of politics beyond liberal democracy. Through the form of a torsion inscribed within repetition, Tierra both thematically and formally signals a praxis tied to our capacity to transform reality by taking aim at the material conditions that reproduce cycles of exploitation and premature death. The novel ultimately links this transformative praxis to labor and literary production. Tierra is a novel to which we can return today to aid us in the paradoxical task of beginning again, of producing newness out of repetition, and in building a path toward a mode of existence where to purposefully (re)produce and (re)create our social world is inseparable from our own creative, and even artistic, self-production
Humanities · Physics · Tierra · Torsion (gastropod) · Anatomy · Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science · Latin American Literature Studies · Literature, Magical Realism, García Márquez · Medicine · Philosophy · Spanish Culture and Identity
| Highly cited | No |
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