Carlos Fonseca is Lecturer in Latin American Literature and Culture and Fellow of Trinity College, University of Cambridge, UK. He is the author of Coronel Lágrimas (2015), Museo animal (2017), and the book of essays La lucidez del miope (2017), which won the National Prize for Literature in Costa Rica.

In this beautifully written book Carlos Fonseca offers a forceful account of what he calls the catastrophic paradigm of history in Latin America, proceeding by way of shock and aftershock to present ways in which writers have coped with three types of disaster or catastrophe: earthquakes, volcanic explosions, and epidemics. This is a must-read for literary scholars, cultural historians, and critical theorists alike.

• Acknowledgments1. Introduction: Radical Landscapes2. Earthquakes: The Shaky Grounds of Latin American History Aftershock: Cesar Aira’s Rugendas: Photographing the Earthquake3. Volcanoes: Emergencies of an Archaeological ModernityAftershock: Malcolm Lowry’s Under the Volcano: On Clouds, Telegraphs and Volcanoes4. Epidemics: Virality, Immunity and the Outbreak of Modern SovereigntyAftershock: Reinaldo Arenas’s El Color del Verano: AIDS and the End(s) of the Immunological State5. Conclusion: One Final Gust: Macondo and the Aftermaths of ModernityNotesIndex

Carlos Fonseca is Lecturer in Latin American Literature and Culture and Fellow of Trinity College, University of Cambridge, UK. He is the author of Coronel Lágrimas (2015), Museo animal (2017), and the book of essays La lucidez del miope (2017), which won the National Prize for Literature in Costa Rica.

In this beautifully written book Carlos Fonseca offers a forceful account of what he calls the catastrophic paradigm of history in Latin America, proceeding by way of shock and aftershock to present ways in which writers have coped with three types of disaster or catastrophe: earthquakes, volcanic explosions, and epidemics. This is a must-read for literary scholars, cultural historians, and critical theorists alike.

• Acknowledgments1. Introduction: Radical Landscapes2. Earthquakes: The Shaky Grounds of Latin American History Aftershock: Cesar Aira’s Rugendas: Photographing the Earthquake3. Volcanoes: Emergencies of an Archaeological ModernityAftershock: Malcolm Lowry’s Under the Volcano: On Clouds, Telegraphs and Volcanoes4. Epidemics: Virality, Immunity and the Outbreak of Modern SovereigntyAftershock: Reinaldo Arenas’s El Color del Verano: AIDS and the End(s) of the Immunological State5. Conclusion: One Final Gust: Macondo and the Aftermaths of ModernityNotesIndex

Carlos Fonseca is Lecturer in Latin American Literature and Culture and Fellow of Trinity College, University of Cambridge, UK. He is the author of Coronel Lágrimas (2015), Museo animal (2017), and the book of essays La lucidez del miope (2017), which won the National Prize for Literature in Costa Rica.

In this beautifully written book Carlos Fonseca offers a forceful account of what he calls the catastrophic paradigm of history in Latin America, proceeding by way of shock and aftershock to present ways in which writers have coped with three types of disaster or catastrophe: earthquakes, volcanic explosions, and epidemics. This is a must-read for literary scholars, cultural historians, and critical theorists alike.

• Acknowledgments1. Introduction: Radical Landscapes2. Earthquakes: The Shaky Grounds of Latin American History Aftershock: Cesar Aira’s Rugendas: Photographing the Earthquake3. Volcanoes: Emergencies of an Archaeological ModernityAftershock: Malcolm Lowry’s Under the Volcano: On Clouds, Telegraphs and Volcanoes4. Epidemics: Virality, Immunity and the Outbreak of Modern SovereigntyAftershock: Reinaldo Arenas’s El Color del Verano: AIDS and the End(s) of the Immunological State5. Conclusion: One Final Gust: Macondo and the Aftermaths of ModernityNotesIndex