MACMILLAN Queer Argentina: Movement Towards the Closet in a Global Time (New Directions in Latino American Cultures)

Through insightful, high-paced commentary this book directs attention south, towards Argentina. Current events, political debates, and the cultural production of artists, authors and public figures, including César Aira, María Moreno, Naty Menstrual and Copi, among others, provide case studies where heterosexual social models are rejected and, in their place, queer frameworks become the preferred model for living differently. Queer Argentina traces the movements of today’s marginalized communities as they pass through and choose to remain within the closet: a space that is emblematic of collective struggles in silence and community formation outside the (hetero)norm. Review “More than a place, Queer Argentina names both a historical experience and the possibility of new cartographies and temporalities―a crossroad where the North no longer embodies democratic progress and queer avant-garde, and the allegedly backward, regressive South offers concrete examples of remarkable―if fragile―legal victories and cultural experiments on queer life. At the heart of this dislocation, Matthew Edwards traces the challenges and possibilities for queer cultures today, less interested in the affirmation of recognizable identities than in the ability of literary and aesthetic production to imagine other sociabilities, alternative publics, new forms of life. In doing this, he brings to light new cultural repertoires … and asks provoking questions that mobilize classic themes of queer thinking, such as the closet, utopia or non-normative communities. Queer Argentina is a refreshing, highly stimulating and timely reading of queer Argentine cultures in the light of recent historical transformations and emerging cultural cartographies.” (Gabriel Giorgi, Associate Professor of Spanish at New York University, USA) From the Back Cover Through insightful, high-paced commentary this book directs attention south, towards Argentina. Current events, political debates, and the cultural production of artists, authors and public figures, including César Aira, María Moreno, Naty Menstrual and Copi, among others, provide case studies where heterosexual social models are rejected and, in their place, queer frameworks become the preferred model for living differently. Queer Argentina traces the movements of today’s marginalized communities as they pass through and choose to remain within the closet: a space that is emblematic of collective struggles in silence and community formation outside the (hetero)norm. About the Author Matthew J. Edwards is Assistant Professor of Spanish at the University of Missouri–Kansas City, USA. His work has been published in such journals as Hispanic Review and Chasqui.