The Catastrophe of Modernity

Tragedy and the Nation in Latin American Literature

Patrick Dove

2004
336 pages
ISBN 9781611481921
LC 2003015422
Bucknell Studies in Latin American Literature and Theory

The Catastrophe of Modernity examines four very different Latin American writers in the context of their respective national traditions. In a series of sophisticated and challenging theoretical readings of texts by Jorge Luis Borges, Juan Rulfo, César Vallejo, and Ricardo Piglia, Patrick Dove persuasively argues that the idea of tragedy offers new ways of understanding the relation between literature and the modern Latin American nation-state.

Powerfully argued, The Catastrophe of Modernity brings together Latin American texts with important contemporary concepts in philosophical and theoretical criticism, enabling those concepts in relation to tragedy to emerge from Dove's discussion with greater clarity and renewed interest.

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About the author:

Patrick Dove is Assistant Professor of Latin American Literature and Culture at Indiana University. His work focuses on connections between literature, culture, and contemporary theory in the Southern Cone, Mexico, and and Perú. His current research investigates the implication of "transition" (in its political, economic, and epistemological configurations) for literature and other forms of cultural production.

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