Arguedas / Vargas Llosa: Dilemmas and Assemblages (New Directions in Latino American Cultures)

An English-language translation of the MLA Katherine Singer Kovacs Prize and LASA Premio Iberoamericano award-winning Spanish-language book, Arguedas/ Vargas Llosa. Dilemas y ensamblajes, Mabel Moraña offers the first comparative study of two of contemporary Latin America's central literary figures: Mario Vargas Llosa and Jose Maria Arguedas. This book provides a groundbreaking analysis of the most prominent writers of contemporary Peru, in which literary works and cultural performances are illuminated through the categories and propositions of postcolonial theory. The study entails a discussion of thematic choices, representational strategies and political contexts, as well as a daring analysis of Vargas Llosa's Nobel Prize and Arguedas' suicide as paradigmatic instances in these authors' cultural and ideological development. Topics such as indigenismo, archaism, modernity, otherness, popular culture, and cultural diversity traverse through this book, which constitutes, more than a traditional academic exercise, a critical intervention in the field of Latin American studies Front Matter....Pages i-x Introduction....Pages 1-5 Opening....Pages 7-11 Arguedas and Vargas Llosa, or the Dilemmas of the Model Intellectual....Pages 13-37 Archaism as Floating Signifier....Pages 39-68 Language as a Battlefield (I): The Dilemma of the Sign....Pages 69-102 Language as a Battlefield (II): The Narcissism of the Voice....Pages 103-128 Toward a Poetics of Social Change: Truth, Modernity, and the National Subject in José María Arguedas....Pages 129-162 Which Truth? Otherness and Melodrama in Vargas Llosa....Pages 163-220 Endpoint? Death/The Nobel Prize....Pages 221-248 Back Matter....Pages 249-275 Arguedas And Vargas Llosa, Or The Dilemmas Of The Model Intellectual -- Archaism As Floating Signifier -- Language As A Battlefield (i) : The Dilemma Of The Sign -- Language As A Battlefield (ii) : The Narcissism Of The Voice -- Toward A Poetics Of Social Change : Truth, Modernity, And The National Subject In José María Arguedas -- Which Truth? : Otherness And Melodrama In Vargas Llosa -- Endpoint? : Death/the Nobel Prize. Mabel Morana ; Translated By Andrew Ascherl. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. An English-language translation of the MLA Katherine Singer Kovacs Prize and LASA Premio Iberoamericano award-winning Spanish-language book, Arguedas/ Vargas Llosa. Dilemas y ensamblajes, Mabel Morana offers the first comparative study of two of contemporary Latin America's central literary figures: Mario Vargas Llosa and Jose Maria Arguedas.