Beyond Individualism
Portraying Collective Selfhood in Latin American Literature and Art
9780226843179
9780226843186
Beyond Individualism
Portraying Collective Selfhood in Latin American Literature and Art
A sweeping analysis of “archetypal realism” in Latin American literature and art.
Beyond Individualism examines the portrayal of collective identities over two centuries in Latin American literature and visual art. Lois Parkinson Zamora shows that many authors and artists are less concerned with singular selves than with selves-in-relation: less with individual autonomy than with communal affiliation. Their works—sometimes situated under the labels Neobaroque, magical realism, Surrealism, Expressionism, and idealism—resist the kind of psychological realism typical of European and North American novels, moving instead toward a wholly new kind of fiction.
Zamora calls this new Latin American form “archetypal realism” because its characters represent entities larger than themselves. They may embody entire communities, cultures, families, religious orders, or ideal planets. Through deft readings of collective characters in fiction by Gabriel García Márquez, Isabel Allende, Jorge Luis Borges, and more alongside the art of Diego Rivera, Remedios Varo, and Xul Solar, Zamora reveals a modernity based not on Enlightenment conceptions of selfhood but on community, collectivity, and kinship.
Beyond Individualism examines the portrayal of collective identities over two centuries in Latin American literature and visual art. Lois Parkinson Zamora shows that many authors and artists are less concerned with singular selves than with selves-in-relation: less with individual autonomy than with communal affiliation. Their works—sometimes situated under the labels Neobaroque, magical realism, Surrealism, Expressionism, and idealism—resist the kind of psychological realism typical of European and North American novels, moving instead toward a wholly new kind of fiction.
Zamora calls this new Latin American form “archetypal realism” because its characters represent entities larger than themselves. They may embody entire communities, cultures, families, religious orders, or ideal planets. Through deft readings of collective characters in fiction by Gabriel García Márquez, Isabel Allende, Jorge Luis Borges, and more alongside the art of Diego Rivera, Remedios Varo, and Xul Solar, Zamora reveals a modernity based not on Enlightenment conceptions of selfhood but on community, collectivity, and kinship.
360 pages | 25 color plates, 82 halftones | 7 x 10
Abakanowicz Arts and Culture Collection
Art: American Art
Reviews
Table of Contents
List of Figures
Preface. Characters and Communities
Introduction. The Other Enlightenment: Francisco Clavijero and “The Dispute of the New World”
Chapter 1. The Genealogical Imperative: Gabriel García Márquez and José Donoso
Chapter 2. Single Selves, Collective Selfhood: Ángeles Mastretta and Nellie Campobello
Chapter 3. Portraits of Power: Gabriel García Márquez, Rosa Beltrán, and Miguel Ángel Asturias
Chapter 4. Surreal Selves: Isabel Allende and Remedios Varo
Chapter 5. Cosmic Selves, Cosmopolitan Citizens: Jorge Luis Borges and Xul Solar
Conclusion. Archetypal Realism
Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Preface. Characters and Communities
Introduction. The Other Enlightenment: Francisco Clavijero and “The Dispute of the New World”
Chapter 1. The Genealogical Imperative: Gabriel García Márquez and José Donoso
Chapter 2. Single Selves, Collective Selfhood: Ángeles Mastretta and Nellie Campobello
Chapter 3. Portraits of Power: Gabriel García Márquez, Rosa Beltrán, and Miguel Ángel Asturias
Chapter 4. Surreal Selves: Isabel Allende and Remedios Varo
Chapter 5. Cosmic Selves, Cosmopolitan Citizens: Jorge Luis Borges and Xul Solar
Conclusion. Archetypal Realism
Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography
Index