Latin American Cultural Studies: A Reader

Marking the foundation of the Journal of Latin American Cultural Studies in 1992, we have selected twenty-five stellar essays surveying the most influential themes and concepts, as well as scouring some of the polemics and controversies, which have marked the field over the last quarter of a century. The collection maps the fault lines of Latin American cultural studies over three decades, from the now classical discussions of the ‘cultural turn’ to more recent responses to the challenges of biopolitics, affect theory, posthegemony and ecocriticism. It also addresses novel political constellations including resurgent national-popular or eco-nativist and indigenous agencies.

For more information, or to purchase a copy of Latin American Cultural Studies: a Reader, please click here. To order a review copy, please click here.

Table of contents

1. Introduction

Part I: Temporalities

1. War and Cultural Studies: Reflections on Recent Work in Peru and Argentina William Rowe
2. The Reconfigurations of Post-dictatorship Critical Thought Nelly Richard
3. For whom the eye cries: Memory, monumentality, and the ontologies of violence in Peru Paulo Drinot
4. The Last Sacred Image of the Latin American Revolution Mariano Mestman

Part II: Territories

5. Hemispheric Domains: 1898 and the Origins of Latin Americanism Julio Ramos
6. Patagonia as Borderland: Nature, Culture, and the Idea of the State Gabriela Nouzeilles
7. The Return of Coatlicue: Mexican nationalism and the Aztec past Jean Franco
8. A Short Andean History of Photography: Yawar Fiesta John Kraniauskas
9. Cuba: A curated culture Guillermina De Ferrari

Part III: Aesthetics

10. Argentina’s secret poetry boom Néstor Perlongher
11. Tin Tan: the Pachuco Carlos Monsiváis
12. (Queer) boleros of a tropical night José Quiroga
13. Heavy Metal Music in Postdictatorial Brazil: Sepultura and the coding of nationality in sound Idelber Avelar

Part IV: Affects

14. Sabina’s Oranges: The Colours of Cultural Politics in Rio de Janeiro, 1889–1930 Tiago de Melo Gomes and Micol Seigel
15. Mob Outrages: Reflections on the media construction of the masses in Venezuela (April 2000–January 2003) Luis Duno Gottberg
16. The City Cross-dressed: Sexual Rights and Roll-backs in De la Rúa’s Buenos Aires Ana Gabriela Álvarez
17. Conspicuous Consumption and the Performance of Identity in Contemporary Mexico: Daniela Rossell’s Ricas y famosas Elaine Luck

Part V: Cityscapes

18. From Urb of Clay to the Hypodermic City: Improper cities in Modern Latin America Marzena Grzegorczyk
19. Obverse Colonization: São Paulo, global urbanization and the poetics of the Latin American city Justin A. Read
20. Favelas and the Aesthetics of Realism: Representations in film and literature Beatriz Jaguaribe
21. Amores Perros: Exotic violence and neoliberal fear Ignacio M. Sánchez-Prado

Part VI: Medialities

22. Post/Colonial Toponymy: Writing Forward ‘in Reverse’ Quetzil Castañeda
23. Material Culture, Slavery, and Governability in Colonial Cuba: The humorous lessons of the cigarette Marquillas Agnes Lugo-Ortiz
24. Indigenous media and the end of the lettered city Freya Schiwy
25. Subjective displacements and ‘reserves of life’ Ivana Bentes

JLACS

+ posts

• DOSSIER: COVID-19 in Latin America: Dispatches from the Southern Frontlines
• Call for Papers for a Special Issue on "Obscenity, Censorship, and Libidinal Politics in Latin America"
• Pandemonio 2021
• ¿Cambio de corriente? Crítica cultural y nueva derecha