Politics, Rhetoric and the Future of Testimonio. A Review of Kimberly Nance's <em> Can Literature Promote Justice?: Trauma Narrative and Social Action in Latin American Testimonio</em> (Nashville: Vanderbilt UP, 2006)

Authors

  • Patrick Dove Indiana University

Keywords:

Literature, Criticism, Latin American History, justice

Abstract

Kimberly Nance’s Can Literature Promote Justice? examines the cultural phenomenon of testimonio in the context of its academic reception from the 1970’s through the present. Her book seeks to revitalize critical debate on the genre—which many in the field perceive as having run its course—by offering an alternative to prevailing interpretive tendencies. In Nance’s view, the mourning of solidarity perpetuates an interpretive fantasy—albeit nostalgically or melancholically rather than affirmatively—and thereby blocks critical awareness of the truly emancipatory potential of the genre.

Author Biography

Patrick Dove, Indiana University

Patrick Dove es Profesor Asistente en el Departmento de Español y Portugués en la Universidad de Indiana. Su trabajo de investigación se centra en las intersecciones entre literatura, filosofía, y política, especialmente en el cono sur de América Latina. Su primer libro, The Catastrophe of Modernity: Tragedy and the Nation in Latin American Literature (Bucknell University Press, 2004), examina el uso de lo trágico como topos en las aproximaciones literarias a la modernidad latinoamericana. Actualmente trabaja en dos proyectos: una reflexión sobre la relación entre literatura, valor estético, técnica ynihilismo en la narrativa latinoamericana; y una investigación sobre la política de la memoria (duelo, justicia, verdad, confesión) en la producción cultural post-dictatorial del cono sur.

Published

2007-08-01

How to Cite

Dove, P. (2007). Politics, Rhetoric and the Future of Testimonio. A Review of Kimberly Nance’s <em> Can Literature Promote Justice?: Trauma Narrative and Social Action in Latin American Testimonio</em> (Nashville: Vanderbilt UP, 2006). A Contracorriente: Una Revista De Estudios Latinoamericanos, 5(1), 228–235. Retrieved from https://acontracorriente.chass.ncsu.edu/index.php/acontracorriente/article/view/362

Issue

Section

Reviews: Testimonios