The Burden of Modernity : The Rhetoric of Cultural Discourse in Spanish America

This book offers a provocative interpretation of cultural discourse in Spanish America. Alonso argues that Spanish American cultural production constituted itself through commitment to what he calls the narrative of futurity, that is, the uncompromising adoption of modernity. This commitment fueled a rhetorical crisis that followed the embracing of discourses regarded as modern in historical and economic circumstance that are themselves the negation of modernity. Through fresh readings of texts by Sarmiento, Mansilla, Quiroga, Vargos Llosa, Garcia Marquez, and others, Alonso tracks this textual dynamic in works from the nineteenth century to the present. Contents 12 Chapter 1 Modernity as Ideal and Curse 16 Chapter 2 Reading Sarmiento: Once More, with Passion 63 Chapter 3 Strange Fruit: The Discourse of the Cuban Antislavery Novel 79 Chapter 4 Oedipus in the Pampas: Lucio Mansilla's Una excursión a los indios Ranqueles 97 Chapter 5 Death and Resurrections: Horacio Quiroga's Poetics of the Short Story 121 Chapter 6 The Elementary Structure of Kinship: Vargas Llosa's La tía Julia y el escribidor 141 Chapter 7 The Closing of the Circle: The End of Modernity in Spanish America 165 Epilogue: They Have Never Been Modern (Either) 185 Notes 192 Bibliography 224 Index 238 A 238 B 238 C 238 D 238 E 238 F 238 G 239 H 239 I 239 J 239 K 239 L 239 M 239 N 239 O 239 P 240 Q 240 R 240 S 240 T 240 U 240 V 240 W 240 An interpretation of cultural discourse in Spanish America which argues that Spanish American cultural production is marked by an internal rhetoric crisis that resulted from the adoption of discourses regarded as modern in historical and economic circumstances that are, in fact, the negation of modernity