Description: Mexican Literature in Theory is the first book in any language to engage post-independence Mexican literature from the perspective of current debates in literary and cultural theory. It brings together scholars whose work is defined both by their innovations in the study of Mexican literature and by the theoretical sophistication of their scholarship. Mexican Literature in Theory provides the reader with two contributions. First, it is one of the most complete accounts of Mexican literature available, covering both canonical texts as well as the most important works in contemporary production. Second, each one of the essays is in itself an important contribution to the elucidation of specific texts. Scholars and students in fields such as Latin American studies, comparative literature and literary theory will find in this book compelling readings of literature from a theoretical perspective, methodological suggestions as to how to use current theory in the study of literature, and important debates and revisions of major theoretical works through the lens of Mexican literary works.
Brief description: Ignacio M. Sánchez Prado is Professor of Spanish and Latin American Studies at Washington University in Saint Louis, USA. He is the author of El canon y sus formas: La reinvención de Harold Bloom y sus lecturas hispanoamericanas (2002), Naciones intelectuales: Las fundaciones de la modernidad literaria mexicana 1917-1959 (2009, winner of the LASA Mexico 2010 Humanities Book Award) Intermitencias americanistas: Ensayos académico y literarios 2004-2009 (2012), and Screening Neoliiberalism. Transforming Mexican Cinema 1988-2012 (2014). He has edited and co-edited nine books, the most recent of which are Democracia, Otredad y Melancolía. Roger Bartra ante la crítica (with Mabel Moraña, 2015) and A History of Mexican Literature (with Anna Nogar and José Ramón Ruisánchez, 2016).
Review Quotes: "The 15 essays offer readings of a wide range of texts--some familiar, some newer--through theoretical lenses that are often surprising. For example, there is a compelling essay on Rosario Castellanos's Balún Canán and its connections to the Southern gothic; Guadalupe Nettel's El cuerpo en que nací is read with disability theory; and José Ramón Ruisánchez Serra's theory of the "absential" is used in reading the work of Amado Nervo. The collection also offers essays on the literature of the Mexican Revolution, violence in contemporary Mexico, and the cartonera publishing scene in Mexico. Summing Up: Highly recommended." - CHOICE