"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.
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