Aesthetic Form and the Limits of “Nuestra América”

Session Submission Type: Panel

Abstract

Several recent interventions in the field of Latin American literary and cultural studies have signaled the limits of identity-based forms of critique and political projects of inclusion that have dominated the field of Latin American literary and cultural studies. They have demonstrated how those forms of critique intersect with an account of the aesthetic that conflates an artwork and its meaning with individual experiences of an artwork, a claim that functions to extend the very structures of inequality they seek to critique. This seminar will explore the promise of modes of critique that: insist on an interpretation of meaning rather than a description of experience; critique exploitation rather than only denounce marginality; and articulate arguments that engage in discussion of the consequences of competing beliefs and convictions rather than organizing an account of affect and emotion. The panel also seeks to articulate the consequences that this shift would entail for the field of Latin American literature, cultural studies and theory and for political projects that seek to eliminate exploitation and poverty.

Sub Track

• Interrogating Latin American Studies

Session Organizer

• Stephen M Buttes, Purdue University Fort Wayne

Chair

• Stephen M Buttes, Purdue University Fort Wayne

Discussant

• Charles Hatfield, University of Texas at Dallas

Individual Presentations

• Infrastructure or Support?: Literature, Meaning and Autonomy in Latin America - Stephen M Buttes, Purdue University Fort Wayne

• Autonomy and Post-Autonomy - Charles Hatfield, University of Texas at Dallas

• How Do the New Materialisms Read Form? - Emilio Sauri, University of Massachusetts Boston