Writing Paris

Urban Topographies of Desire in Contemporary Latin American Fiction

By Marcy E. Schwartz

Subjects: Cultural Studies
Series: SUNY series in Latin American and Iberian Thought and Culture
Paperback : 9780791441527, 182 pages, May 1999
Hardcover : 9780791441510, 182 pages, May 1999

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Table of contents

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgments

Introduction:
The City As Text and Paris As Fiction

Chapter One
Desiring Paris
The Latin American Conception of the Lettered City, 1840 to 1960

Chapter Two
The Interstices of Desire Paris
As Passageway in Julio Cortázar's Short Fiction

Chapter Three
The Immovable Feast
Paris and Politics in Manuel Scorza's La danza inmóvil

Chapter Four
On The Border
Cultural and Linguistic Trespassing in Alfredo Bryce Echenique's La vida exagerada de Martín Romaña and El hombre que hablaba de Octavia de Cádiz

Chapter Five
Paris Under Her Skin
Luisa Futoransky's Urban Inscriptions of Exile

Epilogue

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Explores Paris as a desired and imagined place in Latin American postcolonial identity, uncovering the city's class, gender, political, and aesthetic resonances for Latin America

Description

Exploring Paris as a desired and imagined place in Latin American postcolonial identity, Marcy E. Schwartz examines fiction by Julio Cortázar, Manuel Scorza, Alfredo Bryce Echenique, and Luisa Futoransky as she uncovers the city's class, gender, political, and aesthetic resonances for Latin America.

Marcy E. Schwartz is Assistant Professor of Spanish at Rutgers University–New Brunswick.

Reviews

"As an illusory, novelistic city, Paris occupies an unrivaled position in Latin American thought and writing. Schwartz is concerned not with the Paris of geography, history, or demography, but with a Paris of the mind, inscribed in narrative and recreated in the imagination of readers. Her study draws on the work of cultural historians and critics to analyze this imaginary Paris, and her perspective offers a fascinating literary tour. Schwartz pays close attention to questions of language, the role of gender, the impact of exile, and the overall structure of 'desire' within the literary production of Latin American writers who construct Paris." — Rosemary G. Feal, University of Rochester

"A solid, thought-provoking contribution to the study of contemporary Latin American fiction, cultural studies, and the on-going debate on postcolonial critical theory." — César Ferreira, University of Oklahoma