Latin American Neo-Baroque

Pablo Baler studies the ruptures and continuities linking the de-centered dynamics of the 17^thcentury to the logic of instability that permeates 20^th century visual and literary production in Latin America. Bringing philosophy, literary interpretation, art criticism, and a poetic approach to the history of ideas, Baler offers a new perspective from which to understand the uncanny phenomenon of baroque distortion. This interdisciplinary inquiry not only leads to a more specific formulation regarding the singularity of the reappropriations of the baroque in Spanish America, but also allows for a more comprehensive assessment of its historical reach in the broader context of the representational crisis of modernity.

“Latin American Neo-Baroque: Senses of Distortion is more than a guide to understanding the Baroque and Neo-Baroque. It is an interdisciplinary text that offers the multifaceted perspectives to which it alludes. The creative and cogent readings of both visual and literary works construct a convincing paradigm. Pablo Baler makes a significant contribution to the study of the Neo- Baroque, and this book should be included in the library holdings as a reference for scholars.” (Dinora Cardoso, Hispania, Vol. 101 (1), March, 2018)

“Going both forward and backward in time, Pablo Baler masterfully practices a historiography based on mutuality between the earlier historical baroque and the twentieth-century that is both based on it and illuminates it anew. Replete with detailed readings, this book makes its theoretical claims concrete and its analyses theoretically relevant. Both baroque moments come to life.”  (Mieke Bal, Professor, Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis, University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands and author of “Quoting Caravaggio”)

“Baler creates a new vocabulary in Art Criticism. Aesthetics at its queerest! An opportune translation of an essential book.” (Néstor Díaz de Villegas, author of  “Palavras à tribo/Palabras a la tribu and Sade’s Way”)

“With Latin American Neo-Baroque: Senses of Distortion Baler contributes a view of soaring theoretical originality and expansive poetic range to the constantly renewed problematic of the appropriations of the Spanish baroque in Latin America.”  (David William Foster, Regents’ Professor of Spanish, Arizona State University, USA)

“Baler’s Latin American Neo-Baroque should be put in the company of such books like Claude Gilbert Dubois’ Le Maniérisme. The scope of its theoretical approaches, its rigorous yet enjoyable style, and the innovative nature of his ideas, will make this book an essential reading for anyone interested in the field. For English language readers, there will be no better introduction for what it really means the Baroque style these days.”  (Marcelo Pellegrini, Associate Professor, University of Madison, Wisconsin, USA, author of “La ficción suprema: Gonzalo Rojas y el viaje a los comienzos”)

Pablo Baler is Associate Professor of Latin-American Literature at California State University, Los Angeles, USA and an International Research Fellow at the Centre for Fine Art Research at Birmingham City University, UK. A novelist and cultural critic, Baler is the author of the award-winning novel Circa and the collection of short stories, La burocracia mandarina, as well as the editor of The Next Thing: Art in the Twenty-First Century.