Latin American Women and the Literature of Madness - by Elvira Sánchez-Blake & Laura Kanost (Paperback)

About the Book

At the turn of the millennium, narrative works by Latin American women writers have represented madness within contexts of sociopolitical strife and gender inequality. This book explores contemporary Latin American realities through madness narratives by prominent women authors, including Cristina Peri Rossi (Uruguay), Lya Luft (Brazil), Diamela Eltit (Chile), Cristina Rivera Garza (Mexico), Laura Restrepo (Colombia) and Irene Vilar (Puerto Rico). Close reading of these works reveals a pattern of literary techniques--a "poetics of madness"--employed by the writers to represent conditions that defy language, make sociopolitical crises tangible and register cultural perceptions of mental illness through literature.

Book Synopsis

At the turn of the millennium, narrative works by Latin American women writers have represented madness within contexts of sociopolitical strife and gender inequality. This book explores contemporary Latin American realities through madness narratives by prominent women authors, including Cristina Peri Rossi (Uruguay), Lya Luft (Brazil), Diamela Eltit (Chile), Cristina Rivera Garza (Mexico), Laura Restrepo (Colombia) and Irene Vilar (Puerto Rico). Close reading of these works reveals a pattern of literary techniques--a "poetics of madness"--employed by the writers to represent conditions that defy language, make sociopolitical crises tangible and register cultural perceptions of mental illness through literature.

Review Quotes

"valuable...essential academic resource"-Hispania; "in-depth study...impressive exploration of contemporary literary representations of madness in Latin American narratives...essential"-Letras Femininas; "an important contribution to the field of Latin American literary and women's studies. The most outstanding contribution of this book is thorough and clear review of theoretical and critical texts regarding madness...of the utmost importance."-Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature.

About the Author

Elvira Sánchez-Blake is an associate professor of Latin American literature and culture at Michigan State University. Her publications include books, short stories, theatrical plays and poetry. She lives in Florida. Laura Kanost is an associate professor of Spanish at Kansas State University. Her studies on constructions of gender and disability in Latin American literature have appeared in various journals, including Hispanic Review and Frontiers. She is the editor of the open access journal Studies in Twentieth and Twenty-First Century Literature. She lives in Manhattan, Kansas.