The Untimely Present

Postdictatorial Latin American Fiction and the Task of Mourning

Bibliographic Data

ID9865336
AuthorsRaymond Leslie Williams, Raymond Williams
Year2002
Volume85
Issue2
Pages269
Publication date2002-05-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeREVIEW
Review ofThe Untimely Present: Postdictatorial Latin American Fiction and the Task of Mourning, Idelber Avelar, 1999
VenueHispania (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0018-2133 • E-ISSN: 2153-6414
PublisherJSTOR (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/4141068
OpenAlexW1983144546
LanguageEN

The Untimely Present examines the fiction produced in the aftermath of the recent Latin American dictatorships, particularly those in Argentina, Brazil, and Chile. Idelber Avelar argues that through their legacy of social trauma and obliteration of history, these military regimes gave rise to unique and revealing practices of mourning that pervade the literature of this region. The theory of postdictatorial writing developed here is informed by a rereading of the links between mourning and mimesis in Plato, Nietzsche’s notion of the untimely, Benjamin’s theory of allegory, and psychoanalytic / deconstructive conceptions of mourning. Avelar starts by offering new readings of works produced before the dictatorship era, in what is often considered the boom of Latin American fiction. Distancing himself from previous celebratory interpretations, he understands the boom as a manifestation of mourning for literature’s declining aura. Against this background, Avelar offers a reassessment of testimonial forms, social scientific theories of authoritarianism, current transformations undergone by the university, and an analysis of a number of novels by some of today’s foremost Latin American writers—such as Ricardo Piglia, Silviano Santiago, Diamela Eltit, Joao Gilberto Noll, and Tununa Mercado. Avelar shows how the ‘untimely’ quality of these narratives is related to the position of literature itself, a mode of expression threatened with obsolescence. This book will appeal to scholars and students of Latin American literature and politics, cultural studies, and comparative literature, as well as to all those interested in the role of literature in postmodernity

Art · Literature · Task (project management) · Cultural and Social Studies in Latin America · Engineering · History · Latin American Literature Analysis · Latin American Literature Studies · Psychology

Tools

Open DOISci-Hub