While We Wait…: Autonomy and Its Discontents in Latin American Criticism

• Di Stefano, Eugenio Claudio ^[1]
  1. [1] University of Nebraska-Omaha
• Localización: A Contracorriente: Revista de Historia Social y Literatura en América Latina, ISSN-e 1548-7083, Vol. 22, Nº. 3, 2025 (Ejemplar dedicado a: Spring 2025), págs. 235-246
• Idioma: inglés
• Enlaces
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• Resumen

  • This debate piece presents an argument in favor of literary autonomy, not to defend art for art's sake, but rather to defend the idea that literature is not yet another commodity on the market.  César Aira's novel Ghosts suggests that somehow the constant and unfinished elaboration of a literary work avoids commodification.  Likewise, Josefina Ludmer's position (among other literary critics) essentially replaces aesthetics with politics.  Both stances end up erasing the boundaries between art and non-art and, thus, inadvertently confirming art's status as a commodity in this neoliberal stage of capitalism.