Van Delden (U. of Southern California) and Grenier (St. Francis Xavier U.) combine their respective disciplinary perspectives of comparative literature and political science in order to explore
the interfaces between literature and politics in Latin America. They examine the role of literature in forging Latin American national identities, focusing on the work and legacy of Cuban poet
and revolutionary Jos矇 Mart穩 and historiographical representations of the figure of La Malinche (the female interpreter for and mistress of Hern獺n Cort矇s during the Spanish conquest of Mexico).
They also explore conceptions of modernity in the work of Mexican intellectual Octavio Paz and the politics of Mexican author Carlos Fuentes and the role of aesthetics in shaping his political
views. Finally, they present case studies concerned with the tensions between private passion and public responsibility in the work of Mario Vargas Llosa, between literary visions and
journalistic agendas in the work of Garbriel Garc穩a M獺rquez, and between modernist literary devices and political denunciation in the works of Clarible Alegr穩a and Ricardo Piglia. Annotation
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