This book examines Latin America's history of engagement with
cosmopolitanisms as a manner of asserting a genealogy that links
cultural critique in Latin America and the United States.
Cosmopolitanism is crucial to any discussion of Latin America, and Latin
Americanism as a discipline. Reinaldo Arenas and Diamela Eltit become
nodal points to discuss a wide range of issues that include the
pedagogical dimensions of the DVD commentary track, the challenges of
the Internet to canonization, and links between ethical practices of
Benetton and the U.S. academy. These authors, whose rejection of the
comfort of regimented constituencies results in their writing being
perceived as raw, vindictive, and even alienating, are ripe for
critique. What they say about their relation to place with regard to
their products' national and international viability is central. The
book performs what it theorizes. It travels between methodologies, hence
bridging the divide between cosmopolitanism and that alleged common
space of Latin American identity as per the colonial experience,
illustrating cosmopolitanism as a mediating operation that is crucial to
any discussion of Latin America, and of Latin Americanism as a
discipline.