False Documents: Inter-American Cultural History, Literature, and the Lost Decade (1975-1992)

256 Pages·2020·4.091 MB·English

by  Frans Weiser

GLOBAL LATIN/O AMERICAS
Frederick Luis Aldama and Lourdes Torres, Series Editors
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“In False Documents, Frans Weiser vividly demonstrates the value of the A
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comparative inter-American project, which is rapidly changing how we see
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ourselves and each other here in the Americas. Weiser makes a significant
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contribution to both our better understanding of what the inter-American
project entails and of how much, our differences notwithstanding, we have E
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in common as various forms of American nation states.”
—Earl E. Fitz
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False Documents: Inter-American Cultural History, Literature, and the Lost E
Decade (1975–1992) examines the “return of history” that swept across the U
Americas during the final two decades of the Cold War as Latin American nations
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redemocratized and US multiculturalism responded to the conservative bicentennial
backlash. Revising the predominantly economic and isolationist accounts of the era, E Inter-American D
Frans Weiser examines the work of journalists and academics from Hispanic America,
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Brazil, and the United States who adopted fiction to document recent national Cultural History,
discord, repositioning challenges to self-determination in a postnational context. T O
After deconstructing economic accounts of the “two Americas,” including the lost S Literature, and
decade (1981–1992) and the “end of history” (1975–1992), Weiser considers six case
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postmodern irony more effectively galvanized citizen responses. As the first book to 5–19, andltura M
contextualize the parallel, hemispheric evolutions of postwar literary criticism and 92 thl
cultural historiography, False Documents responds to the methodological impasse )e

between Latin American and American studies as well as the antagonism between
history and literature, arguing that collaboration and synthesis are particularly vital
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at a moment when the humanities is increasingly under attack.
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FRANS WEISER is Assistant Professor at the University of Georgia. E
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COVER DESIGN: Laurence J. Nozik R
COVER IMAGE: Shutterstock, Inc.
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RANS WEISER S
The Ohio State University Press
Columbus
OHIO
ohiostatepress.org STATE
PRESS
FALSE DOCUMENTS
GLOBAL LATIN/O AMERICAS
Frederick Luis Aldama and Lourdes Torres, Series Editors
FALSE DOCUMENTS
INTER-AMERICAN CULTURAL
HISTORY, LITERATURE, AND THE
LOST DECADE (1975–1992)
Frans Weiser
THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY PRESS
COLUMBUS
Copyright © 2020 by The Ohio State University.
All rights reserved.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Weiser, Frans, author.
Title: False documents : inter-American cultural history, literature, and the lost decade
(1975–1992) / Frans Weiser.
Description: Columbus : The Ohio State University Press, 2020. | Series: Global Latin/o
Americas | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Summary: “Examines
the work of writers and journalists from Hispanic America, Brazil, and the US from
the 1970s to 1990s who appropriated history as a tool for repositioning democracies
in a hemispheric context in order to expose how governments controlled and
misrepresented events”—Provided by publisher.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019041117 | ISBN 9780814214367 (cloth) | ISBN 9780814277737 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Latin American fiction—20th century—History and criticism. | American
fiction—20th century—History and criticism. | Literature and history—Latin
America—History—20th century. | Literature and history—United States—History—
20th century. | Comparative literature—Latin American and American. | Comparative
literature—American and Latin American. | Latin America—Historiography. | United
States—Historiography.
Classification: LCC PQ7082.N7 W42 2020 | DDC 809/.897—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019041117
Cover design by Laurence J. Nozik
Text design by Juliet Williams
Type set in Adobe Minion Pro
C O N T E N T S
List of Illustrations vii
Acknowledgments ix
INTRODUCTION The Ends of History and “American” Studies 1
CHAPTER 1 Interdependent Methods: Postwar Cultural History,
Historical Literature, and False Documents 27
CHAPTER 2 History’s Return: Literary Revisionism in North
America, Hispanic America, and Brazil during the
Lost Decade 47
CHAPTER 3 The Ends of Argentine Democracy: The False
Memoir(s) and Cultural Hybridity behind Tomás Eloy
Martínez’s The Perón Novel 73
CHAPTER 4 The “Dialectics” of Feminist Caribbean History: Laura
Antillano, José Martí, and the Venezuelan Lost Decade 97
CHAPTER 5 History at the Periphery: Postdictatorial Literature and
the Abandoned Generation of Ana Maria Machado’s
Tropical Sun of Liberty 125
vi • CONTENTS
CHAPTER 6 Allegorizing Brazilian History: Silviano Santiago’s In
Liberty, Invisible Texts, and Ideological Patrols 149
CHAPTER 7 The Many Deaths of Che Guevara: Jay Cantor’s Anxiety
of Origins and the Limits of Transnationalism 173
CHAPTER 8 Renewing History? John Updike’s Critique of Cultural
Studies and the Two Americas in Memories of the Ford
Administration 195
POSTSCRIPT Fake News and the New Lost Decade 217
Works Cited 221
Index 235
I L L U S T R AT I O N S
FIGURE 1 Juan Perón on the front cover of the Panorama 1970
special edition 75
FIGURE 2 The cover of COPRE’s 1987 special issue of Estado & Reforma 99
FIGURE 3 “Cli-ché,” part of D*Face’s 2007 collection “Eyecons” 183
FIGURE 4 Time Magazine’s 1974 cover on President Ford and the
economic crisis 198
vii

A C K N O W L E D G M E N T S
IT HAS BEEN almost a decade since the seeds of this project first took root,
and I have many people to thank for not getting lost along the way. Earl Fitz
is not only the trailblazer of Inter-American studies, but he is also a generous
mentor to young scholars who work in and across comparative fields. Luiz
Valente, who took a chance on including an unknown graduate student on his
MLA panel many years ago, offered responses to early chapter drafts, but even
more importantly, has offered friendship over the years. While participating in
the Futures of American Studies Institute, John Carlos Rowe kindly offered to
correspond and provide suggestions, while Winfried Fluck furnished honest
feedback regarding the project’s intended American Studies audiences. Luci-
ano Tosta likewise offered helpful encouragement during moments of self-
doubt. In addition to Kristen Elias Rowley’s editorial interest, I would like to
thank the press readers who offered insightful commentary and suggestions
for improving the clarity of the entire manuscript’s historical and disciplinary
discussions.
At the University of Georgia, Richard Gordon made himself available to
provide advice at many junctures, and his support offered through the Latin
American and Caribbean Studies Institute has helped inform my academic
trajectory in numerous professional contexts. The Willson Center for the
Humanities is a vital resource; its assistance via a Research Fellowship gave me
crucial time to finish key theoretical chapters of the project, while the Sarah
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