Research Catalog

Title

Rethinking community from Peru : the political philosophy of José María Arguedas / Irina Alexandra Feldman.

Author

Feldman, Irina Alexandra

Publication

Pittsburgh, Pa. : University of Pittsburgh Press, [2014]

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Series Statement

Illuminations : cultural formations of the Americas

Uniform Title

Illuminations (Pittsburgh, Pa.)

Subject

• Arguedas, José María > Criticism and interpretation
• Arguedas, José María > Political and social views
• Peruvian fiction > 20th century > History and criticism
• Arguedas, José María. Todas las sangres
• Ethnic relations in literature
• Social conflict in literature
• Community life in literature
• Sovereignty in literature
• Indians of South America > Andes Region > Politics and government
• Andes Region > Politics and government

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Contents

Introduction: Arguedas : Rethinking Community -- Sovereignty and Authority in Todas las sangres -- Andean Community : Beyond the Limits of Death Demand -- "Why Have You Killed Me?" : Violence, Law, and Justice in Todas las sangres -- Moments of Revolutionary Transformation in Arguedean Novels.

Call Number

JFE 14-7733

ISBN

• 9780822963073 (paperback : acid-free paper)
• 0822963078 (paperback : acid-free paper)

LCCN

2014012658

OCLC

864504628

Author

Feldman, Irina Alexandra, author.

Title

Rethinking community from Peru : the political philosophy of José María Arguedas / Irina Alexandra Feldman.

Publisher

Pittsburgh, Pa. : University of Pittsburgh Press, [2014]

Description

ix, 182 pages ; 23 cm.

Type of Content

text

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Series

Illuminations : cultural formations of the Americas

Illuminations (Pittsburgh, Pa.)

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Summary

"Peruvian novelist, poet, and anthropologist José María Arguedas (1911-1969) was a highly conflicted figure. As a mestizo, both European and Quechua blood ran through his veins and into his cosmology and writing. Arguedas's Marxist influences and ethnographic work placed him in direct contact with the subalterns he would champion in his stories. His exposés of the conflicts between Indians and creoles, and workers and elites were severely criticized by his contemporaries, who sought homogeneity in the nation-building project of Peru. In Rethinking Community from Peru, Irina Alexandra Feldman examines the deep political connotations and current relevance of Arguedas's fiction to the Andean region. Looking principally to his most ambitious and controversial work, All the Bloods, Feldman analyzes Arguedas's conceptions of community, political subjectivity, sovereignty, juridical norm, popular actions, and revolutionary change. She deconstructs his particular use of language, a mix of Quechua and Spanish, as a vehicle to express the political dualities in the Andes. As Feldman shows, Arguedas's characters become ideological speakers and the narrator's voice is often absent, allowing for multiple viewpoints and a powerful realism. Feldman examines Arguedas's other novels to augment her theorizations, and grounds her analysis in a dialogue with political philosophers Walter Benjamin, Jean-Luc Nancy, Carl Schmitt, Jacques Derrida, Ernesto Laclau, and Álvaro García-Linera, among others. In the current political climate, Feldman views the promise of Arguedas's vision in light of Evo Morales's election and the Bolivian plurality project recognizing indigenous autonomy. She juxtaposes the Bolivian situation with that of Peru, where comparatively limited progress has been made towards constitutional recognition of the indigenous groups. As Feldman demonstrates, the prophetic relevance of Arguedas's constructs lie in their recognition of the sovereignty of all ethnic groups and their coexistence in the modern democratic nation-state, in a system of heterogeneity through autonomy--not homogeneity through suppression. Tragically for Arguedas, it was a philosophy he could not reconcile with the politics of his day, or from his position within Peruvian society"-- Provided by publisher.

Research Call Number

JFE 14-7733