The Burden of Modernity

An interpretation of cultural discourse in Spanish America which argues that Spanish American cultural production is marked by an internal rhetoric crisis that resulted from the adoption of discourses regarded as modern in historical and economic circumstances that are, in fact, the negation of modernity.

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This book offers a provocative interpretation of cultural discourse in Spanish America. Alonso argues that Spanish American cultural production constituted itself through commitment to what he calls the "narrative of futurity," that is, the uncompromising adoption of modernity. This commitment fueled a rhetorical crisis that followed the embracing of discourses regarded as "modern" in historical and economic circumstance that are themselves the negation of modernity. Through fresh readings of texts by Sarmiento, Mansilla, Quiroga, Vargos Llosa, Garcia Marquez, and others, Alonso tracks this textual dynamic in works from the nineteenth century to the present.