Visible Dissent: Latin American Writers, Small U.S. Presses, and Progressive Social Change (New American Canon)

As Teresa Longo’s groundbreaking examination reveals, North America’s dissident literature has its roots in the Latin American literary tradition. From Pablo Neruda’s __Canto General__ to Eduardo Galeano’s __Open Veins of Latin America__ to Gabriel García Márquez’s __One Hundred Years of Solitude__—among others—contemporary writers throughout the Americas have forced us to reconsider the United States’s relationship with Latin America, and more broadly with the Global South. Highlighting the importance of reading and re-reading the Latin American canon in the United States, Longo finds that literature can be an instrument of progressive social change, and argues that small literary presses—City Lights, Curbstone, and Seven Stories—have made that dissent visible in the United States. In the book’s final two chapters on the Robert F. Kennedy Center’s Speak Truth to Power initiative and the publication of Marc Falkoff’s __Poems from Guantánamo__, the author turns our attention further outward, probing the role poetry, theater, and photography play in global human rights work. Locating the work of artists and writers alongside that of scholars and legal advocates, __Visible Dissent__ not only unveils the staying-power of committed writing, it honors the cross-currents and the on-the-ground implications of humane political engagement.

As Teresa Longo's groundbreaking examination reveals, North America's dissident literature has its roots in the Latin American literary tradition. From Pablo Neruda's Canto General to Eduardo Galeano's Open Veins of Latin America to Gabriel García Márquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude —among others—contemporary writers throughout the Americas have forced us to reconsider the United States's relationship with Latin America, and more broadly with the Global South. Highlighting the importance of reading and re-reading the Latin American canon in the United States, Longo finds that literature can be an instrument of progressive social change, and argues that small literary presses—City Lights, Curbstone, and Seven Stories—have made that dissent visible in the United States. In the book's final two chapters on the Robert F. Kennedy Center's Speak Truth to Power initiative and the publication of Marc Falkoff's Poems from Guantánamo, the author turns our attention further outward, probing the role poetry, theater, and photography play in global human rights work.

Locating the work of artists and writers alongside that of scholars and legal advocates, Visible Dissent not only unveils the staying-power of committed writing, it honors the cross-currents and the on-the-ground implications of humane political engagement.

As Teresa Longo’s groundbreaking examination reveals, North America’s dissident literature has its roots in the Latin American literary tradition. From Pablo Neruda’s Canto General to Eduardo Galeano’s Open Veins of Latin America to Gabriel García Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude —among others—contemporary writers throughout the Americas have forced us to reconsider the United States’s relationship with Latin America, and more broadly with the Global South. Highlighting the importance of reading and re-reading the Latin American canon in the United States, Longo finds that literature can be an instrument of progressive social change, and argues that small literary presses—City Lights, Curbstone, and Seven Stories—have made that dissent visible in the United States. In the book’s final two chapters on the Robert F. Kennedy Center’s Speak Truth to Power initiative and the publication of Marc Falkoff’s Poems from Guantánamo , the author turns our attention further outward, probing the role poetry, theater, and photography play in global human rights work. Locating the work of artists and writers alongside that of scholars and legal advocates, Visible Dissent not only unveils the staying-power of committed writing, it honors the cross-currents and the on-the-ground implications of humane political engagement. Contents Preface: The Poetry Exchange Acknowledgments Part One: An Artistry of Dissent 1. Humanity Rendered Visible: Ariel Dorfman’s Other Septembers, Many Americas and Goshka Macuga’s The Nature of the Beast 2. Macchu Picchu and Other Poetic Sites: Julia de Burgos’s Poems from Welfare Island, Pablo Neruda’s Alturas de Macchu Picchu, and Martín Espada’s The Republic of Poetry Part Two: Small Pockets / Deep Roots 3. Meme’s Macondo: García Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude 4. From Macondo to the Mexican Southeast: Marcos’s “The Southeast in Two Winds” and Esther’s Speech to the Congress of the Union Part Three: Small Pockets / Stubborn Shards 5. The RFK Center and Other Powerful Sites: Ariel Dorfman’s Manifesto for Another World and Kerry Kennedy’s Speak Truth to Power Epilogue: A Poetics of Habeas Corpus Notes Works Cited Index