Deformative Fictions: Cruelty and Narrative Ethics in Twentieth-Century Latin American Literature (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780814259061)

Tapping a rich vein of Latin American literature, Deformative Fictions by Ashley Hope P駻ez excavates works that unsettle, defamiliarize, and disrupt access to the conventional pleasures of reading and interpretation. Close readings highlight the nuances of texts that have been misread, underread, or fetishized because they depart from literary norms, including fiction by Roberto Bola and Silvina Ocampo. Interweaving rhetorical and narratological analysis with reflections on the ethical stakes of writing, reading, and interpreting deformative fictions and fictional cruelty, P駻ez issues a resounding entreaty for us to expand our understandings of the value of narrative beyond the logics of utility and comfort. Doing so, she contends, allows readers to embrace the full possibilities of the relationships among authors, readers, and the worlds we inhabit on and off the page. In defamiliarizing the act of reading, deformative fictions reacquaint us with its ethical weight.

Author: Ashley Hope P駻ez
ISBN-10: 0814259065
ISBN-13: 9780814259061
Publisher: Ohio State University Press
Language: English
Published: 04/08/2024
Pages: 264
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.85lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.59d