Rutgers University Press Beyond Human: Vital Materialisms in the Andean Avant-Gardes (Bucknell Studies in Latin American Literature and Theory)

In the Andes, indigenous knowledge systems based on the relationships between different beings, both earthly and heavenly, animal and plant, have been central to the organization of knowledge since precolonial times. The legacies of colonialism and the continuance of indigenous cultures makes the Andes a unique place from which to think about art and social change as ongoing, and as encompassing more than an exclusively human perspective. Beyond Human revises established readings of the avant-gardes in Peru and Bolivia as humanizing and historical. By presenting fresh readings of canonical authors like César Vallejo, José María Arguedas, and Magda Portal and through analysis of newer artist-activists like Julieta Paredes, Mujeres Creando Comunidad, and Alejandra Dorado, Daly argues instead that avant-gardes complicate questions of agency and contribute to theoretical discussions on vital materialisms: the idea that life happens between animate and inanimate beings―human and non-human―and is made sensible through art. About the Author Tara Daly, assistant professor of Spanish at Marquette University is the co-editor of Decolonial Approaches to Latin American Literatures and Cultures (Palgrave 2016). She has published on visual art and literature from both the central Andes and the Amazon regions of Bolivia, Peru, and Ecuador.