La estética de lo mínimo: Ensayos sobre microrrelatos mexicanos ed. by Brescia, Pablo (review)

Abstract

Brescia, Pablo, ed. La estetica de lo minimo: Ensayos sobre microrrelatos mexicanos. Guadalajara: Universidad de Guadalajara, 2013. 167 pp. When considering emergence of microfiction and its subsequent consolidation as a genre in last century, contributions of Mexican writers are not only prolific but clearly foundational--especially if we take into account work of Carlos Diaz Dufoo Hijo and Julio Torri, or that of Juan Jose Arreola and Augusto Monterroso, whose microfictions shaped genre in multiple ways. La estetica de lo minimo is a collection of essays that focus predominantly on current state of Mexican microfiction, and each chapter examines production of several contemporary writers through different critical and/or theoretical approaches. This multifaceted and thoughtfully arranged volume combines work of established and crucial authors, such as Francisca Noguerol and Lauro Zavala, with new critical voices in a collective effort to simultaneously secure and open up academic space for study of microfiction. Pablo Brescia has devoted a substantial part of his career to study of Latin American short fiction, as we can see in his edited volumes, El cuento mexicano (1996), Borges multiple (1999), and also in unprecedented compilation of studies on Latin America's textos integrados (El ojo en el caleidoscopio, 2006). An accomplished practitioner of short story, in 2011 he also published monograph Modelos y practicas en el cuento hispanoamericano: Arreola, Borges, Cortazar. And now he gives us another collection of critical essays that will certainly attract attention of Latin Americanists devoted to study of microfiction. After Brescia's introduction, La estetica de lo minimo is divided into four sections: Macromicros: perspectivas plurales, Un mini: el precursor, Minimexicanos: escritores y escritoras de minificcion, and Sea breve: cien anos de microrrelatos mexicanos. The first section is constituted by three essays that offer innovative approaches to study of microfiction: Gerardo Cruz's chapter explores circulation of these texts in magazines and websites before their final inclusion in books, while Candida Elizabeth Vivero Marin traces Freudian notion of the uncanny in microfictions of four women writers: Guadalupe Angeles, Sofia Ramirez, Socorro Venegas, and Cecilia Eudave. In last essay of this section, Lauro Zavala presents microfiction as a space of reflection, as he finds philosophical themes, such as truth, identity, and desire, in works of Rogelio Guedea, Guillermo Fadanelli, Monica Lavin, Luis Bernardo Perez, and Oscar de la Borbolla. …