This book contextualizes 21st century representations of disappearance, torture, and detention within a historical framework of inter-American narratives. Examining a range of sources, Pitt finds a persistent focus on the body that links contemporary practices of political terror to concerns about corporality and sovereignty.

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"Pitt's comparative analyses of the literary narratives drawn together in Body, Nation, and Narrative in the Americas enriches and deepens our understanding of the vexed relations between bodies, communities, citizens, and nation-states. Setting out from Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Blithedale Romance and concluding with Edwidge Danticat's The Dew Breaker, she herself weaves an astute and compelling narrative of the roles of literal and figurative bodies in the modern nation. The opening and closing chapters insightfully draw our attention to 'disappeared bodies' not only in literary narratives but also to the only-too-literally disappeared, violated, and tortured bodies of the present. A richly written and important contribution." - Mary N. Layoun, Professor of Comparative Literature, University of Wisconsin-Madison

About the author

KRISTIN E. PITT Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, USA.

Bibliographic Information

Book Title: Body, Nation, and Narrative in the Americas
Authors: Kristin E. Pitt
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230115347
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan New York
eBook Packages: Palgrave Literature Collection, Literature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)
Hardcover ISBN: 978-0-230-10713-7Published: 19 January 2011
Softcover ISBN: 978-1-349-29063-5Published: 19 January 2011
eBook ISBN: 978-0-230-11534-7Published: 20 December 2010
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: VIII, 211
Topics: Literary Theory, Cultural Theory, North American Literature, Nineteenth-Century Literature, Postcolonial/World Literature, Twentieth-Century Literature

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Table of contents (5 chapters)

Front Matter

Introduction: Disappearing Citizens: Body, Nation, and Narrative in the Americas

Buried Bodies: Landing a Nation in José de Alencar and Nathaniel Hawthorne

Lost Citizens: Memory and Mourning in William Faulkner and Elena Garro

Tortured Citizens: Terror and Dissidence in Luisa Valenzuela and Edwidge Danticat

Postscript: Disappearing Threats: Reflections on Security, Immigration, and Detention

Back Matter

About this book