Corporeality in Early Twentieth-Century Latin American Literature: Body Articulations

240 Pages·2013·1.41 MB·English

by  Bruce Dean Willis (auth.)

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Corporeality in Early
Twentieth-Century Latin
American Literature
Body Articulations
Bruce Dean Willis
CORPOREALITY IN EARLY TWENTIETH-CENTURY LATIN AMERICAN LITERATURE
Copyright © Bruce Dean Willis, 2013.
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2013 978-1-137-26879-2
All rights reserved.
First published in 2013 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN®
in the United States—a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world,
this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited,
registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills,
Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS.
Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies
and has companies and representatives throughout the world.
Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States,
the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries.
ISBN 978-1-349-44363-5 ISBN 978-1-137-26880-8 (eBook)
DOI10.1057/9781137268808
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available from the
Library of Congress.
A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library.
Design by Newgen Imaging Systems (P) Ltd., Chennai, India.
First edition: January 2013
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
For B, G, and J.
LIST OF PREVIOUS PUBLICATIONS
Aesthetics of Equilibrium: The Vanguard Poetics of Vicente Huidobro and
Mário de Andrade
Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction: Articulating the Body 1
Synecdoche and Sparagmos 7
Identity and Fluidity 12
1 Body, Language, and the Limits of Ontology 17
A Streetcar Named Despair: Urban Bodies
in Girondo’s Buenos Aires and Mário’s São Paulo 20
Altazor: A New Arrangement 31
Bed, Bath, and the Great Beyond: Remodeling
Desire with Manuel Bandeira 53
Sites of Resistance: Trindade’s Palmares
and the Afro-Brazilian Body 67
Portraits and Voices 78
2 L anguage Immersion: Return to the Original
Tongue 81
On the Threshold of Speech in Las Memorias de
Mamá Blanca 85
On the Lips of Language Loss in Macunaíma 96
Language and Ontology in Leyendas de Guatemala 111
The Spitting Image 123
3 T he Body Politic: Immediate Breakdown,
Renewal Deferred 129
Embodiment of the Class Struggle in Parque
Industrial 134
Huasipungo as Oppressed Collectivity 143
The Ardent Earth-Woman in Aluvión de fuego 149
Rot to Redemption: The Spirit Politic 158
viii CONTENTS
Conclusion: Anthropophagy, Legacy of a Body
Aesthetics 165
De Andrades 165
The Cannibal at Work: What’s on the Menu
at Churrascaria Oswald 166
Legacy of a Body Aesthetics 177
Notes 183
Works Cited 205
Index 225
Acknowledgments
An invitation to speak about Brazilian literature at the University
of South Alabama in 2001 led me to begin research for what
would become this book. Over the course of the subsequent
decade at the University of Tulsa, the book project strength-
ened through my participation at conferences, through courses
I was encouraged to design, and through some of my publi-
cation forays. Most importantly, I received funding, grants,
release time, or other forms of support from the University of
Tulsa (specifically the Department of Languages, the Henry
Kendall College of Arts & Sciences, the Office of Research and
Sponsored Programs, and McFarlin Library), the University of
London (a visiting fellowship in summer 2009 at the Institute
for the Study of the Americas as well as logistical support from
the Institute of Germanic and Romance Studies), the Oklahoma
Humanities Council, and the Universidade do Estado da Bahia
in Salvador.
It has been my pleasure and my privilege to count on the
encouragement of a community of readers, interlocutors, and
research facilitators in this endeavor. First and foremost I place
my debt of gratitude to the late Lawrence R. Schehr, whose
generosity with time and resources is legendary among those
who knew him. Larry instigated me with his own bibliography
on the body in literature, and encouraged me with his quick
wit and thoughtful commentary on initial drafts. In addition,
with gratitude and with the caveat that any and all mistakes
in the book are mine and mine alone, I thank my colleagues
Robert N. Anderson, Jorge Bandeira, Zilá Bernd, Aquiles
Alencar Brayner, Mark Brewin, Mark de Brito, Isabel Z. Brown,
Eduardo Faingold, M. Elizabeth Ginway, David T. Haberly,
Rafael Hernández Rodríguez, Gioia Kerlin, Zoya Khan, José
Carlos Limeira, Victoria Livingstone, Susan McCready, Lydie