The Self of the City shows Macedonio's work to be a highly systematic effort to "save the city" from the ills of modernity. Responding directly to the context of early twentieth-century Buenos Aires, Macedonio rejects modern culture as inherently paradoxical and pernicious, hinging on the unsustainable fallacy of Descartes' autonomous self.
This is the first book in English on Horacio Quiroga (Uruguay 1878-Argentina 1937), a canonical author whose works are read by all advanced students of Spanish in the US and many other countries. The study examines Quiroga’s work through the theoretical lens of the heroic—a lens elaborated in part by means of Quiroga’s own disquisitions on the subject—and the complementary phenomenon of the monstrous. This lens serves to elucidate many evidently obscure and self-contradictory aspects of Quiroga’s work and its relation to the context in which he lived. That context included the neo-colonial social and economic milieu of Argentina’s fast-changing, immigrant-charged, increasingly materialistic society; the growing influence of foreign cultural discourses, particularly Hollywood film; the conflict between the genders in a society that embraced modernity but resisted changes in gender roles; the weight of new scientific discourses, especially Darwinian evolution, in social and political thought; and the impact on pedagogical theory and practice of these multiple changing discourses. This study discloses the extraordinary range of Quiroga’s work, which includes erotic romance, science fiction and fantasy, psychological occult, social satire, a great variety of juvenile literature, outdoor adventure and—most familiar to readers in the United States—gothic and naturalist horror. The book concludes that Quiroga’s consistent imperative of the heroic is essential to reconciling these various, evidently incompatible aspects of Quiroga’s poetics, revealing its theoretical and ethical coherence.
Macedonio Fernandez (Argentinian, 1874 - 1952) is a critical figure in modern Latin American literature, mentor to Borges and precursor to the avant-garde. The Self of the City shows Macedonio's work to be a systematic effort to "save the city" from a modernity based on the fallacy of Descartes' autonomous self. Garth dismantles the myth of Macedonio, exposing Borges's role in creating it. Comparing Macedonio's work to that of the avant-garde, he reveals how Macedonio critiques the avant-garde's continued reliance on the self. Garth examines important social and political realities in early twentieth-century Buenos Aires along with current theories on these phenomena. He concludes that Macedonio's opus rejects the modern city as paradoxical and untenable, detrimental to the sentient individual, and in need of salvation by means of a radical new poetics.
This is the first book in English on Horacio Quiroga (Uruguay 1878-Argentina 1937), a canonical author whose works are read by all advanced students of Spanish in the US and many other countries. The study examines Quiroga’s work through the theoretical lens of the heroic—a lens elaborated in part by means of Quiroga’s own disquisitions on the subject—and the complementary phenomenon of the monstrous. This lens serves to elucidate many evidently obscure and self-contradictory aspects of Quiroga’s work and its relation to the context in which he lived. That context included the neo-colonial social and economic milieu of Argentina’s fast-changing, immigrant-charged, increasingly materialistic society; the growing influence of foreign cultural discourses, particularly Hollywood film; the conflict between the genders in a society that embraced modernity but resisted changes in gender roles; the weight of new scientific discourses, especially Darwinian evolution, in social and political thought; and the impact on pedagogical theory and practice of these multiple changing discourses. This study discloses the extraordinary range of Quiroga’s work, which includes erotic romance, science fiction and fantasy, psychological occult, social satire, a great variety of juvenile literature, outdoor adventure and—most familiar to readers in the United States—gothic and naturalist horror. The book concludes that Quiroga’s consistent imperative of the heroic is essential to reconciling these various, evidently incompatible aspects of Quiroga’s poetics, revealing its theoretical and ethical coherence.
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