City fictions : language, body, and Spanish American urban space / Amanda Holmes.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Holmes, Amanda, 1972-

Series:

Bucknell studies in Latin American literature and theory.

Bucknell studies in Latin American literature and theory

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Spanish American fiction--20th century--History and criticism.

Spanish American fiction.

Cities and towns in literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (212 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Lewisburg [Pa.] : Bucknell University Press, c2007.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Using concepts from urban and cultural studies, City Fictions examines the representation of the city in the works of five important late-twentieth-century Spanish American authors, Octavio Paz, Julio Cortazar, Christina Peri Rossi, Diamela Eltit, and Carlos Monsavais. While each of these authors is influenced at least partially by a specific Spanish American city, be it Mexico City, Buenos Aires, Montevideo, or Santiago, the element that brings them together is the way in which the city is fictionalized in their work: they all equate both language and the body with urban space. In these metaphors, language breaks down and the body disintegrates, creating a disturbing picture of violent decline. The poetry of Paz associates the urban surroundings with dissolving sentences and desensitized, fingertips; for Cortazar, characters walking through cities are seen as both creating and unraveling written texts;

Contents:

Introduction

By fire, water, or stone : the destruction of imagery in Octavio Paz's "Ciudad de México" series

Aesthetics, politics, and the urban in Julio Cortázar's short stories

Uncanny dispersions in Cristina Peri Rossi's La nave de los locos

Scripting the city : Diamela Eltit's Lumpérica and Vaca sagrada

The spectacle as metaphor : urban disorder in Carlos Monsiváis's Los rituales del caos

Conclusion.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0-8387-5865-7

OCLC:

607872431