Exploring “the contradictions that lie at the center of [Peruvian] indigenismo” (p. 1) is the main objective of this book. It builds upon work done over the last two decades by a series of authors devoted to debunking indigenista mythical elaborations, from literature specialists (Antonio Cornejo Polar and Efraín Kristal) to anthropologists (Deborah Poole and Marisol de la Cadena) to historians (Gerardo Leibner) and even to renowned novelists such as Mario Vargas Llosa playing the role of literary critic in a book adequately titled La utopia arcaica: José María Arguedas y las ficciones del indigenismo. To this rich trajectory, Jorge Coronado contributes with a penetrating analytical perspective rooted in the field of cultural studies.
Coronado’s innovation lies in his understanding of indigenismo as part of a broader debate on modernity. It was from there that, in his view, indigenista intellectuals received “the impetus, indeed the mandate, to correct the...
