Anti-Literature - Illuminations by Adam Joseph Shellhorse Paperback

About the Book

Anti-Literature articulates a rethinking of what is meant today by "literature." Examining key Latin American forms of experimental writing from the 1920s to the present, Shellhorse reveals literature's power as a site for radical reflection and reaction to contemporary political and cultural conditions.

Book Synopsis

Anti-Literature articulates a rethinking of what is meant today by "literature." Examining key Latin American forms of experimental writing from the 1920s to the present, Adam Joseph Shellhorse reveals literature's power as a site for radical reflection and reaction to contemporary political and cultural conditions. His analysis engages the work of writers such as Clarice Lispector, Oswald de Andrade, the Brazilian concrete poets, Osman Lins, and David Viñas, to develop a theory of anti-literature that posits the feminine, multimedial, and subaltern as central to the undoing of what is meant by "literature." By placing Brazilian and Argentine anti-literature at the crux of a new way of thinking about the field, Shellhorse challenges prevailing discussions about the historical projection and critical force of Latin American literature. Examining a diverse array of texts and media that include the visual arts, concrete poetry, film scripts, pop culture, neo-baroque narrative, and others that defy genre, Shellhorse delineates the subversive potential of anti-literary modes of writing while also engaging current debates in Latin American studies on subalternity, feminine writing, posthegemony, concretism, affect, marranismo, and the politics of aesthetics.

Review Quotes

...a seminal study poised to spur ongoing conversation and debate. Though the work may appear most immediately relevant to scholars of Brazilian concrete and experimental poetry, Shellhorse's model has implications of fay beyond the specific case studies offered. It will prove equally thought-provoking to those interested in subaltern studies, critical genre studies, and the limit between literature and other media, and it is indispensable reading for anyone interested in the politics of avant-garde form in Latin American literature.

"Anti-literature" is the term Shellhorse gives to experimental texts that make space for previously excluded perspectives within literature not by mimetically representing historically marginalized experiences but, rather, by self-reflexively questioning the limits of literature as a representational regime. The stakes of this ambitious project amount to no less than reconceiving of the relationship between literature, politics, and identity in Latin America.-- "Transmodernity"

Anti-literature is a bold and timely intervention in a dire moment for "literary studies in the field of Latin American Studies. What is the epistemological status of the 'literary' today, if not an ambiguous force driven by machinistic inertia? . . . Ambitious in scope, theoretically sophisticated, and generous in its readings of a heterogeneous corpus, Shellhorse attempts to understand what is meant by "literature in contemporary posthegemonic times" Whether such interrogation opens up a desirable future, is the very heart of this important book.-- "Gerardo Muñoz, Princeton University, Infrapolitical Deconstruction"

Anti-Literature offers highly productive, provocative readings of major works of twentieth-century Brazilian and Argentine production, besides developing a welcome reassessment of current and recent debates on the literary--and the anti-literary--in Latin American studies.-- "Hispanic Review"

Anti-Literature is about a new way of understanding the subversive potential of literary and cultural production, and of reading it. . . . this is a book that challenges us to read in different ways.-- "Luso-Brazilian Review"

"Defying critical consensus at every turn. . . one of Anti-Literature's greatest merits is setting in conversation provinces of Latin Americanism that often talk past one another. . . . [Shellhorse's book] exemplif[ies] scholarship of the highest caliber."-- "Héctor Hoyos, Revista Hispánica Moderna"

A seminal study poised to spur ongoing conversation and debate. . . Shellhorse's model has implications far beyond the specific case studies offered . . . it is indispensable reading for anyone interested in the politics of avant-garde form in Latin American literature.-- "Ashley Brock, University of Pennsylvania"

Shellhorse proposes a new reading method that attends to the marginal, subaltern qualities of the literary text, qualities that exceed our attempts to name or fix them. De-emphasizing identity without sacrificing the political potency of literature and literary criticism, Shellhorse addresses literary as well as filmic production, placing them in urgent conversation with the most cutting-edge concepts coming out of critical theory and philosophy today. Anti-Literature is surely among the most original, theoretically sophisticated, yet accessible books published in a very long time. It promises to be one of the most important and widely-read new books in Latin American literary studies.-- "Erin Graff Zivin, University of Southern California"

Suggesting a theoretical revision of the term "literature" within Latin American studies, Shellhorse maintains that experimental writers seek to push the limits of writing and representation toward an anti-literary aesthetic of the sensible.-- "Choice"

This is a remarkable first book by a young teacher-scholar with impressive expository skills and a mature critical arsenal. . . . Shellhorse sets out ambitiously to expand the scope of what "literature" in Latin America might mean in this new millennium by elaborating a complex notion of "anti-literature." The aim is to develop a theory of anti-literature that stresses, depending on the author and/or work in question, the feminine, multimediality, genre-busting, aesthetic politics, and the subaltern. Throughout AJS shows he has done extensive research on his subjects and, refreshingly, he often challenges prevailing views about given works, authors, their historical projections, and the critical force of Latin American literature.-- "Charles A. Perrone, Chasqui"

This study is absolutely needed. It adds a lot to the important discussion on the nature of Latin American literature. Shellhorse's argument is exceedingly well-supported and expands the standard frontiers of this subject. A major contribution.-- "Earl E. Fitz, Vanderbilt University"

About the Author

Adam Joseph Shellhorse is associate professor of Spanish, Portuguese, and Global Studies and Director of Latin American Studies at Temple University.