The Untimely Present Postdictatorial Latin American Fiction and the Task of Mourning

The Untimely Present examines the fiction produced in the aftermath of the twentieth century's Latin American dictatorships, particularly those in Argentina, Brazil, and Chile. Idelber Avelar argues that through their legacy of social trauma and their obliteration of history, these military regimes gave rise to unique and revealing practices of mourning that pervade the literature of the region. Avelar begins by offering new readings of works produced during the dictatorship era-often considered the boom of Latin American fiction-giving particular attention to the writings of Mario Vargas Llosa, Octavio Paz, Carlos Fuentes, and Julio Cortazar. Distancing himself from previous celebratory interpretations and regarding these authors as strangers to their own time, he reinterprets the boom as a manifestation of mourning for the decline of literature in the face of regimes that had commodified virtually all aspects of social life. Whereas the fiction of the boom attempted to substitute aesthetics for politics, Avelar argues, much post-dictatorial literature-including social science writing and the works of Ricardo Piglia, Tununa Mercado, Silviano Santiago, and others-reaches back to the obliterated past. Moreover, Avelar shows how the "untimely" quality of these narratives is related to the nature of literature itself, a mode of expression threatened with obsolescence. This book will appeal to scholars and students of Latin American literature and politics, cultural studies, and comparative literature, as well as to all those interested in the role of literature in post-modernity.