The Social Conscience in Latin-American Writing

Abstract

The Social Conscience in Latin-American Writing. By Naomi Lindstrom. Austin: U of Texas P, 1998. 187 pages. The purpose of this extremely useful book is to illuminate the historical and social dynamics of contemporary Latin American literature and criticism. Lindstrom surveys the literary terrain by focusing on five topics important in literary criticism and originating in the social sciences: dependency theory, postmodernism, testimonial narrative, the intellectual and mass culture, and women's writing and gender issues. She discusses the development of each theme, the principal arguments within each and how these have been adapted to Latin America's hybrid cultural traditions and social realities. Examples from literary texts illustrate each topic. Lindstrom shows that dependency theory came about in the 1960s as a critique of the prevailing mentality in economic development circles that equated progress with technical advancement. The theory, which centers on the opposition between metropolis and periphery, has evolved radically in recent decades and, to Lindstrom, is currently represented by the interactive concept of transculturation. For its depiction of the overwhelming influence that U.S. commercial culture exerts in Latin America and that large urban centers hold over small provincial towns, Lindstrom chooses Puig's Betrayed by Rita Hayworth to illustrate dependency theory as originally conceived. In the chapter on postmodernism, Lindstrom asks what is postmodern about Latin American literature. The historic mestizaje of styles? The growing body of testimonial literature? The declining influence of master narratives? Lindstrom refers to essays by noted intellectuals as she lays out various positions in the debate, including the relationship between post-- boom literature and postmodernism in Latin America. With the caveat that there is no agreed upon body of postmodern literature in Latin America, Lindstrom selects Puig's novels, such as Kiss of the Spider Woman, as best exemplifying a postmodernist blending of high and popular culture. Testimonial literature represents the most controversial category in Latin American literary criticism today for its boundary-breaking implications. As in her discussion of postmodernism, Lindstrom takes pains to point out that there is no accepted definition of the term. Some testimonials are eye-witness accounts by representative members of nonliterate ethnic minorities. Others consist of ethnographic or ideological studies. Lindstrom addresses the heated question of authorship of this hybrid genre, highlighting the narrative examples of Menchu/Burgos, I, Rigoberta Menchu and Montejo/Barnet, Autobiography of a Runaway Slave. …