Historian Erik Ching and literary critics Christina Buckley and Angélica Lozano-Alonso offer an introductory reader and essay collection on Latin American cultural studies primarily aimed toward undergraduate courses. The book’s first section is a general introduction to basic concepts on cultural theory and postmodernism. The second section discusses the social construction of class, race, gender, and nation in Latin America. The final section excerpts canonic texts and short essays considered representative of Latin American cultural studies.
In the first section, the authors introduce the reader to the methodologies of Saussure, Edward Said, and Stuart Hall, among other representative cultural critics and theorists, and develop the idea of identity as a social construct. Importantly, the authors address the criticism advanced by influential Latin American scholars who are suspicious of postmodernism, a central influence on cultural studies, “as yet another form of intellectual imperialism by...
