Latin American Cultural Studies: A Reader

Featuring twenty-five key essays from the Journal of Latin American Cultural Studies (Traves/sia), this book surveys 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 since the Journal's foundation in 1992. Emerging at a moment of crisis of revolutionary narratives, and at the onset of neoliberal economics and emergent narcopolitics, the cultural studies impetus in Latin America was part of an attempted intellectual reconstruction of the (centre-) left in terms of civil society, and the articulation of social movements and agencies, thinking beyond the verticalist constructions from previous decades. This collection maps these developments 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. Framed by a critical introduction from the editors, this volume is both a celebration of influential essays published over twenty five years of the Journal and a representative overview of the field in its multiple ramifications, entrenchments and exchanges.

Jens Andermann, Ben Bollig, Lorraine Leu, Daniel Mosquera, Rory O'Bryen and David M. J. Wood are Editors of the Journal of Latin American Cultural Studies.

Introduction Part I: Temporalities 1. War and Cultural Studies: Reflections on Recent Work in Peru and Argentina 2. The Reconfigurations of Post-dictatorship Critical Thought 3. For whom the eye cries: Memory, monumentality, and the ontologies of violence in Peru 4. The Last Sacred Image of the Latin American Revolution Part II: Territories 5. Hemispheric Domains: 1898 and the Origins of Latin Americanism 6. Patagonia as Borderland: Nature, Culture, and the Idea of the State 7. The Return of Coatlicue: Mexican nationalism and the Aztec past 8. A Short Andean History of Photography: Yawar Fiesta 9. Cuba: A curated culture Part III: Aesthetics 10. Argentina's secret poetry boom 11. Tin Tan: the Pachuco 12. (Queer) boleros of a tropical night 13. Heavy Metal Music in Postdictatorial Brazil: Sepultura and the coding of nationality in sound Part IV: Affects 14. Sabina's Oranges: The Colours of Cultural Politics in Rio de Janeiro, 1889-1930 15. Mob Outrages: Reflections on the media construction of the masses in Venezuela (April 2000-January 2003) 16. The City Cross-dressed: Sexual Rights and Roll-backs in De la Rúa's Buenos Aires 17. Conspicuous Consumption and the Performance of Identity in Contemporary Mexico: Daniela Rossell's Ricas y famosas Part V: Cityscapes 18. From Urb of Clay to the Hypodermic City: Improper cities in Modern Latin America 19. Obverse Colonization: São Paulo, global urbanization and the poetics of the Latin American city 20. Favelas and the Aesthetics of Realism: Representations in film and literature 21. Amores Perros: Exotic violence and neoliberal fear Part VI: Medialities 22. Post/Colonial Toponymy: Writing Forward 'in Reverse' 23. Material Culture, Slavery, and Governability in Colonial Cuba: The humorous lessons of the cigarette Marquillas 24. Indigenous media and the end of the lettered city 25. Subjective displacements and 'reserves of life'