MACMILLAN Decolonial Approaches to Latin American Literatures and Cultures (Literatures of the Americas)

Decolonial Approaches to Latin American Literatures and Cultures engages and problematizes concepts such as “decolonial” and “coloniality” to question methodologies in literary and cultural scholarship. While the eleven contributions produce diverse approaches to literary and cultural texts ranging from Pre-Columbian to contemporary works, there is a collective questioning of the very idea of “Latin America,” what “Latin American” contains or leaves out, and the various practices and locations constituting Latinamericanism. This transdisciplinary study aims to open an evolving corpus of decolonial scholarship, providing a unique entry point into the literature and material culture produced from precolonial to contemporary times. Review Review “This groundbreaking anthology showcases how Latin American cultural studies has and continues to benefit from decolonial studies and vice versa. The contributors design decolonial practices of reading and writing to unmask the colonial legacies informing the historical, political, social, cultural, and epistemic dimensions of social inequality. This book engages decolonial theory critically by analyzing identities, discursive formations and subjects to propose a new curriculum and a new imaginary, reconnecting research and teaching in Latin American Studies in innovative ways.” (Yolanda Martínez-San Miguel, Professor of Latino and Caribbean Studies and Comparative Literature, Rutgers University―New Brunswick, USA) “This collection on decolonial theory represents an important reconsideration of what is now a vigorous field of critical debate in Latin American and indeed global (South) studies. Taking up the interpretive tools offered by such groundbreaking figures as Walter Mignolo and Aníbal Quijano, the established and emerging critics included in the collection reframe, reconsider, and ultimately reinvigorate the state of the decolonial question through a fecund, kaleidoscopic engagement with literature, visual culture, the academy, political theory, and indigeneity, among other topics. The book represents a prime intervention in current critical theoretical discussions concerning Latin America.” (Jorge Coronado, Associate Professor of Spanish, Northwestern University, USA) Review From the Back Cover Decolonial Approaches to Latin American Literatures and Cultures engages and problematizes concepts such as “decolonial” and “coloniality” to question methodologies in literary and cultural scholarship. While the  eleven contributions produce diverse approaches to literary and cultural texts ranging from Pre-Columbian to contemporary works, there is a collective questioning of the very idea of “Latin America,” what “Latin American” contains or leaves out, and the various practices and locations constituting Latinamericanism. This transdisciplinary study aims to open an evolving corpus of decolonial scholarship, providing a unique entry point into the literature and material culture produced from precolonial to contemporary times. About the Author Juan G. Ramos is Assistant Professor of Spanish at the College of the Holy Cross, USA. His most recent book project is Sensing Otherwise: Decolonial Aesthetics and Latin American Arts. Tara Daly is Assistant Professor of Spanish at Marquette University, USA. She is finishing her first monograph tentatively titled, Vital Aesthetics in the Andes.