The corpus delicti : a manual of Argentine fictions

by Josefina Ludmer

Other authorsGlen S. Close (Translator)
Hardcover, 2004

Status

Available

Genres

Publication

Pittsburgh : University of Pittsburgh Press, 2004.

Description

An intellectual tour de force from one of today's leading critics of Latin American literature and culture, The Corpus Delicti (The Body of Crime) is a manual of crime, a compendium of crime tales, and an extended meditation on the central role of crime in literature, in life, and in the life of the nation. Drawing her examples from canonical texts, popular novels, newspaper serials, and more, Josefina Ludmer captures the wide range of Argentine crime stories and detective fiction from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. She offers more than a mere genre study, examining the relationship of crime and punishment to the formation of law, the body, and the modern state, exposing the ways in which literature--both high art and mass culture--can help construct, not just represent, social reality. Covering a dazzling array of primary sources, social history, and cultural theory, this provocative work is also a structural masterpiece, challenging readers as it charts new roles for text and notes. In this redefined dialogue, the notes variously offer alternate views, additional insights, and, often, parallel commentaries. Glen Close's stylish translation captures the energy of Ludmer's prose--simultaneously subtle and daring--for English-language readers.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member keylawk
Ludmer, professor of Latin American literature and culture at Yale, examines crime tales. She finds that the role of crime is central in literature, which functions as a hypertext of social reality. It reflects the politics of violence. The popular criminal hero, Juan Moreira, unveiled as an
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incarnation of the mass culture that creates a kind of progress for the liberal state. The footnotes are priceless.
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LibraryThing member CarlosMcRey
Highly intriguing in subject matter. The writing is somewhat repetitive and at times opaque, though I can't say how much of that is the translation.

Language

Original language

Spanish

Barcode

4640
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