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

by Idelber Avelar

The Untimely Present examines the fiction produced in the aftermath of the recent Latin American dictatorships, particularly those in Argentina, Brazil, and Chile. Idelber Avelar argues that through their legacy of social trauma and obliteration of history, these military regimes gave rise to unique and revealing practices of mourning that pervade the literature of this region. The theory of postdictatorial writing developed here is informed by a rereading of the links between mourning and mimesis in Plato, Nietzsche’s notion of the untimely, Benjamin’s theory of allegory, and psychoanalytic / deconstructive conceptions of mourning. Avelar starts by offering new readings of works produced before the dictatorship era, in what is often considered the boom of Latin American fiction. Distancing himself from previous celebratory interpretations, he understands the boom as a manifestation of mourning for literature’s declining aura. Against this background, Avelar offers a reassessment of testimonial forms, social scientific theories of authoritarianism, current transformations undergone by the university, and an analysis of a number of novels by some of today’s foremost Latin American writers—such as Ricardo Piglia, Silviano Santiago, Diamela Eltit, João Gilberto Noll, and Tununa Mercado. Avelar shows how the ‘untimely’ quality of these narratives is related to the position 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 postmodernity.

312 pages, Paperback

First published November 19, 1999

Reviews

[Lidiana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Avelar's work is so interesting! The way he writes is academy with passion, which is rare!!!

[Sierra · Rating 4 out of 5]

"As the sociopolitical context evolves, the discourses I have highlighted should, themselves, progressively become allegorical ruins, much like the memories of past defeats they engage. This self-reflexive, potentially infinite chain of allegorization is not, as some versions of a self-satisfied post-modernism would have it, to be celebrated. On the contrary, the chain should always be brought to a halt, interrupted, and referred back to the desolation and misery that makes it possible."

It's been a long few days, but finally finished—this was quite good, if a difficult read.