Literary Fictions of the Contemporary Art System

The main objective of this book is to explain how contemporary literatures in Spanish and Portuguese are dealing with artistic creativity when artmaking is no longer a specialised field of cultural production, but rather an expanded field of socioeconomic interaction, personal and creative self-definition and collective imagination. The project positions the contemporary art novel as the most suitable place to understand how the economisation of cultural labour is affecting writers and artists alike. The authors examined in this book, including José Saramago, Rita Indiana Hernández, María Gainza, Mayra Santos Febres and Ondjaki (amongst others) explore the contradictions of the art market, the dynamics of art education, the multifaceted activity of curators and socially engaged artists in relation to broader debates on the role of culture in the configuration of socioeconomic dynamics. The book maps a new trend within contemporary literature that taps into the visual art system to reassess the role of literature in critical ways.

Carlos Garrido Castellano is Lecturer at University College Cork, Ireland.

Acknowledgements Chapter 1 Introduction. Art F(r)ictions: Assessing the Contemporary Art Novel Section 1: Do We Live in Neoliberal Art Worlds? Chapter 2 The Aesthetics of Narcocapitalist Politics Chapter 3 Art Economies and Energy Colonialism, Luanda Version Section 2: Literature and Artistic Subjectivity: Expertise, Entrepreneurialism, Activism. Chapter 4 Redefining Artistic Expertise in Pre- and Post-Crisis Portugal Chapter 5 "Killing Several Birds with One Stone": Art Activism and Financial Speculation in the Dominican Republic Section 3: The Contemporary Art Novel: Forms, Uses, Formations Chapter 6 The Novel after Art Theory: Neoliberalism as Reterritorialization in the Spanish State Chapter 7 The Phenomenology of the Art Novel Chapter 8 The Transdividual Art Novel Index