Ciphers of History: Latin American Readings for a Cultural Age

Gathered in one volume are seven of the best essays written in the last fifteen years or so by the eminent Latin Americanist Enrico Mario Santí. The essays cover a wide range of topics in Latin American poetry, narrative, film, and intellectual history and also explore Spanish Peninsular subject-matter: the Spanish Generation of 98's response to Spain's loss of Cuba in the Spanish-American War of 1898. The essays are introduced by a long text in which the author develops a bracing critique of some dominant trends in current critical practice, and spells out an alternative methodology.