We, the Barbarians - (Critical Mexican Studies) by Mabel Moraña

About the Book

Representations of Mexican collective imaginaries in the face of social and political fragmentation since the final decades of the twentieth century

Book Synopsis

"We, the Barbarians" embarks on a careful and exhaustive reading of three of the most prominent authors in the latest wave of Mexican fiction: Yuri Herrera, Fernanda Melchor, and Valeria Luiselli. Originally published in Mexico in 2021, this work is divided into three parts, one for each author's narrative production. The book analyzes all of the literary works published by Herrera, Melchor, and Luiselli from the beginning of their writing careers until 2021, allowing for a diachronic interpretation of their respective narrative projects as well as for comparative approaches to their aesthetic and ideological contours.

Characterized by the fragmentation of civil society and the decomposition of the myths that accompanied the consolidation of the modern nation, Mexican visual and literary arts have explored a myriad of representational avenues to approach the phenomena of violence, institutional decay, and political instability. The critical and theoretical approaches in "We, the Barbarians" explore a variety of alternative symbolic representations of topics such as nationalism, community, and affect in times impacted by systemic violence, precariousness, and radical inequality. Moraña perceives the negotiations between regional/local imaginaries and global scenarios characterized by the devaluation and resignification of life, both at individual and collective levels. Though it uses three authors as its focus, this book seeks to more broadly theorize the question of the relationship between literature and the social in the twenty-first century.

Review Quotes

"What is most interesting here is Moraña's cross-reading of her writers, the originality of the approach, and the great lengths she goes to interpret the linguistic, political, and cultural importance of Herrera, Melchor, and Luiselli, three young writers that are in the center of the revival of Mexican literature translated into English."
--Pedro Ángel Palou, author of Mestizo Failure(s): Race, Film, and Literature in Twentieth-Century Mexico

About the Author

Mabel Moraña is a professor of Spanish at Washington University in St. Louis.

Stephanie Kirk is a translator and professor of Hispanic studies at Washington University in St. Louis, working on Latin American literature and translation studies.