Violence and Naming

On Mexico and the Promise of Literature

AvDavid E. Johnson

Inbunden, Engelska, 2019

Del i serien Border Hispanisms

577 kr

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Beskrivning

Reclaiming the notion of literature as an institution essential for reflecting on the violence of culture, history, and politics, Violence and Naming exposes the tension between the irreducible, constitutive violence of language and the reducible, empirical violation of others. Focusing on an array of literary artifacts, from works by journalists such as Elena Poniatowska and Sergio GonzÁlez RodrÍguez to the Zapatista communiquÉs to Roberto BolaÑo's The Savage Detectives and 2666, this examination demonstrates that Mexican culture takes place as a struggle over naming-with severe implications for the rights and lives of women and indigenous persons.Through rereadings of the Conquest of Mexico, the northern Mexican feminicide, the Zapatista uprising in Chiapas, the disappearance of the forty-three students at Iguala in 2014, and the 1999 abortion-rights scandal centering on “Paulina,” which revealed the tenuousness of women’s constitutionally protected reproductive rights in Mexico, Violence and Naming asks how societies can respond to violence without violating the other. This essential question is relevant not only to contemporary Mexico but to all struggles for democracy that promise equality but instead perpetuate incessant cycles of repression.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum:2019-04-15
Mått:152 x 229 x 25 mm
Vikt:594 g
Format:Inbunden
Språk:Engelska
Serie:Border Hispanisms
Antal sidor:296
Förlag:University of Texas Press
ISBN:9781477317969

Utforska kategorier

Amerikas historia inom Historia och arkeologi
Litteraturvetenskap inom Skönlitteratur

Mer om författaren

David E. Johnson is a professor of comparative literature at the University at Buffalo (SUNY) and adjunct professor in the Instituto de FilosofÍa at the Universidad Diego Portales in Santiago, Chile. His previous books include Anthropology’s Wake: Attending to the End of Culture (with Scott Michaelsen), Kant’s Dog: On Borges, Philosophy, and the Time of Translation, and El mundo en llamas. Since 2000, he has been the coeditor of CR: The New Centennial Review.

Recensioner i media

Ambitious, complex, and subtly argued…The commentary is rich, broad reaching, and significant. (CHOICE) Violence and Naming offers multiple paths to account for and rethink the intersections of literature, philosophy, and politics…The book is an insightful and provocative cluster of explorations and analyses that summons readers to evaluate, participate, and produce their own critical perspectives. (MLN) [Violence and Naming is] a truly valuable monograph. Johnson's application of fiction as an active philosophy is impressive and illuminating. The book's bringing into dialogue of lives shattered by violence with longstanding cultural narratives and contemporary, global socio-politics is daring and necessary. (Bulletin of Spanish Studies) Violence and Naming offers a panoramic account of language and violence in Mexico...Violence and Naming is remarkable for its theoretical depth and clarity of exposition. It is a challenging read, but will prove highly rewarding to readers who are familiar with Mexican culture, with Derrida and deconstruction, or with both. (Chasqui)

Innehållsförteckning

AcknowledgmentsIntroduction: Accounting for the NameChapter 1. Dar(se) cuenta: The Logic of the SecretChapter 2. Murder and Symbol: Feminicide’s RemainsChapter 3. As If . . . Literature before the WorldChapter 4. Killing Time: Jet Lag, or the Anachronism of LifeChapter 5. Suspending Sur/render: Accounting for the OtherPostscript: Fear of DemocracyNotesReferencesIndex