Decolonial Approaches to Latin American Literatures and Cultures

Decolonial Approaches to Latin American Literatures and Cultures engages and problematizes concepts such as -decolonial- and -coloniality- to question methodologies in literary and cultural scholarship. While the eleven contributions produce diverse approaches to literary and cultural texts ranging from Pre-Columbian to contemporary works, there is a collective questioning of the very idea of -Latin America,- what -Latin American- contains or leaves out, and the various practices and locations constituting Latinamericanism. This transdisciplinary study aims to open an evolving corpus of decolonial scholarship, providing a unique entry point into the literature and material culture produced from precolonial to contemporary times.

Juan G. Ramos is Assistant Professor of Spanish at the College of the Holy Cross, USA. His most recent book project is Sensing Otherwise: Decolonial Aesthetics and Latin American Arts . Tara Daly is Assistant Professor of Spanish at Marquette University, USA. She is finishing her first monograph tentatively titled, Vital Aesthetics in the Andes .

Table of Contents   Acknowledgments   Introduction - Decolonial Strategies for Reading and Looking Against the Grain   (Juan G. Ramos and Tara Daly)   I.                   Undisciplining "Spanish" and "Literature"    1.      Notes from the Field: Decolonizing the Curriculum/The "Spanish" Major   (Sara Castro-Klarén, The Johns Hopkins University)   2.      The Rule of Impurity: Decolonial Theory and the Question of Literature   (Horacio Legrás, University of California, Irvine)     II.                Decolonizing Translation and Representations of the Indigenous   3.      The (De)coloniality of Conceptual Inequivalence: Reinterpreting Ometeotl through Nahua Tlacuiloliztli    (Zairong Xiang, ICI Berlin Institute for Cultural Inquiry)   4.      What does the Sumak Kawsay Mean for Women in the Andes Today?: Unsettling Patriarchal Sedimentations in Two Inca Writers   (Antonia Carcelén-Estrada, College of the Holy Cross)   5.      New Indigenous Literatures in the Making: A Contribution to Decoloniality   (Arturo Arias, University of California, Merced)     III.             Material Culture and Literature as Decolonial Critiques   6.      Decolonizing Aesthetic Representation: The Presence of the European Savage in Bolivian Modernity   (Javier Sanjinés C., University of Michigan)   7.      The Air as Decolonial Critique of Being in César Calvo's Las tres mitades de Ino Moxo y otros brujos de la Amazonía   (Tara Daly, Marquette University)   8.      Disruptive Capital in Andean/World Literature: A Decolonial Reading of Enrique Gil Gilbert's Nuestro Pan   (Juan G. Ramos, College of the Holy Cross)   IV.             Decolonial Options, Indigenous Sovereignty, and Transregional Alliances   9.      Ethnic Reemergence in Uruguay: The Return of the Charrúa in the Light of Settler Colonialism Studies   (Gustavo Verdesio, University of Michigan)    10.  When Nationality Becomes A "Negative Condition" For Politics: Gamaliel Churata's Contribution To Bolivian Political Theory   (Elizabeth Monasterios P., University of Pittsburgh)   11.  Decolonization and Indigenous Sovereignty: Coming to Terms with Theories in the             Americas   (Laura J. Beard, University of Alberta)      Postscriptum: Decolonial Scenarios and Alternative Thinking: Critical and Theoretical Explorations   (Mabel Moraña, Washington University in St. Louis) Notes on Contributors