Bandit narratives in Latin America : from Villa to Chávez / Juan Pablo Dabove.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Dabove, Juan Pablo, author.

Series:

Illuminations (Pittsburgh, Pa.)

Illuminations

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Outlaws--Latin America--History.

Outlaws.

Outlaws in popular culture--Latin America.

Outlaws in popular culture.

History.

Latin America.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

xxv, 397 pages ; 23 cm.

Place of Publication:

Pittsburgh, Pa. : University of Pittsburgh Press, [2017]

Summary:

Bandits Seem Ubiquttous in Latin American culture. Even contemporary actors of violence are framed by narratives that harken back to old images of the rural bandit, either to legitimize or delegitimize violence or to intervene in larger conflicts within or between nation-states. However, the bandit escapes a straightforward definition, since the same label can apply to the leader of thousands of soldiers (as in the case of Villa) or to the humble highwayman eking out a meager living by waylaying travelers at machete point. Dabove presents the reader not with a definition of the bandit but with a series of case studies showing how writers and political leaders, from the Mexican Revolution to the present, used the bandit trope in fictional and nonfictional narratives. By examining cases from Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Peru, and Venezuela, from Pancho Villa's autobiography to Hugo Chavez's appropriation of his "outlaw" grandfather, Dabove reveals how bandits function as a symbol to expose the dilemmas or aspirations of cultural and political practices, including literature as a social practice and as an ethical experience. Book jacket.

Contents:

Part I Banditry, self-fashioning, and the Quest for Legitimacy

1 Speculum Latronis: On Villa's Retrato autobiográfico 19

2 Hugo Chávez, Maisanta, and the Construction of an Insurgent Lineage 42

Part II Banditry and the Epic of the Nation

3 The Burning Plains: On Las lanzas coloradas 65

4 "Bodies for the Gallows": On ¡Vámonos con Pancho Villa! 86

5 The Andean Western: On Cuentos andinos 104

6 Borges and the Melancholic Cultor del Coraje 122

Part III Banditry and the Latin American Left

7 Dangerous Illusions and Shining Utopias: On Seara Vermelha 143

8 The Heart of Darkness: On José Revueltas 170

Part IV Banditry and the Dilemmas of Literature

9 Borges and Moreira: Inglorious Bastards 191

10 Language, the Devil, and the (Out)law: On Grande Sertão: Veredas 211

11 An Abundance of Hats and a Scarcity of Heads: On La guerra del fin del mundo 227

12 Banditry, Neoliberalism, and the Dilemmas of Literature: On Plata quemada 245

13 What Is a Bandit? 261.

ISBN:

082296435X

9780822964353

OCLC:

951158324