Deviant and Useful Citizens explores the conditions of women and perceptions of the female body in the eighteenth century throughout the Viceroyalty of Peru, which until 1776 comprised modern-day Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay. Author Mariselle Meléndez introduces the reader to a female rebel, Micaela Bastidas, whose brutal punishment became a particularly harsh example of state response to women who challenged the system. She explores the cultural representation of women depicted as economically productive and vital to the health of the culture at large. The role of women in religious orders provides still another window into the vital need to sustain the image of women as loyal and devout--and to deal with women who refused to comply. The book focuses on the different ways male authorities, as well as female subjects, conceived the female body as deeply connected to notions of what constituted a useful or deviant citizen within the Viceroyalty. Using eighteenth-century legal documents, illustrated chronicles, religious texts, and newspapers, Meléndez explores in depth the representation of the female body in periods of political, economic, and religious transformation to determine how it was conceived within certain contexts. Deviant and Useful Citizens presents a highly complex society that relied on representations of utility and productivity to understand the female body, as it reveals the surprisingly large stake that colonial authorities had in defining the status of women during a crucial time in South American history.

Deviant and Useful Citizens: The Cultural Production of the Female Body in Eighteenth-Century Peru

Literature & Fiction

Melendez, Mariselle

History & Criticism

Vanderbilt Univ Pr

Jaguars Tomb

Product Description Jaguars' Tomb is a novel in three parts, written by three interconnected characters. Part one, "Hidden Variables" by María Celina Igarzábal, is narrated by Bruno Seguer. Seguer in turn is the author of the second part, "Recounting from Zero" ("Contar desde zero"), in which Evelynne Harrington, author of the third, is a central character. Harrington, finally, is the author of "Uncertainty" ("La incertidumbre"), whose protagonist is the dying Igarzábal. Each of the three parts revolves around the octagonal room that is alternately the jaguars' tomb, the central space of the torture center, and the heart of an abandoned house that hides an adulterous affair. The novel, by Argentine author Angélica Gorodischer, is both an intriguing puzzle and a meditation on how to write about, or through, violence, injustice, and loss. Among Gorodischer's many novels, Jaguars' Tomb most directly addresses the abductions and disappearances that occurred under the Argentine military dictatorship of 1976–83. This is the fourth of Gorodischer's books translated into English. The first, Kalpa Imperial—translated by Ursula Le Guin—was selected for the New York Times summer reading list in 2003. Review "One of the highest points of Gorodischer's poetic art." --Book Radar"The whole novel can only be read as a poetic of writing, an institutional attempt to create a new world." --Adrián Ferrero, National University of La Plata About the Author Angélica Gorodischer is the Argentine author of seventeen novels and several story collections. Gorodischer's literary awards include the Gilgamesh Prize; the Platinum Konex; the Dignity Award from the Permanent Assembly for Human Rights; the Silvina Bullrich Award from the Argentina Writers' Society; and the Esteban Echeverría Award from Gente de Letras, Argentina. Her work has previously been translated into English by Ursula K. Le Guin, Sue Burke, and Amalia Gladhart.Amalia Gladhart is a professor of Spanish at the University of Oregon. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. I dreamt I was in heaven. Not Heaven, paradise of fortunate souls. In the heavens, that sky blue—what? elytron?—that officially covers all of us, covers religions that promise eternal happiness as much as it does wretched poems, clumsily rhymed. In the heavens, up there above where, a poor imitation, a mirror of our own, there’s another city. Standing on dense clouds, hard as bitumen, compact, immobile as stone angels, clouds sprawled like sacks of corn, I felt no fear that I might fall and fall and smash against the ground. I think it fair to say I felt nothing. Indifference, maybe; or something still more disagreeable, like boredom. Poor heavens, to harbor this ill-humored man, even if it was but to show him the other side of the clouds, just for a moment. So much, so little, so miserly—I thought I should give something in exchange, that I was expected to give something, but what? What more can I give after giving what I gave, what they tore from me? I only know how to write, but words are little if it’s payment—although it could also be a debt—if it’s a matter of payment, of price. Or maybe I could sing, recount in a reverse accounting all the anguish and we’re back to the matter of the words. Poor heavens. Lying on a high bed of clouds, I looked around and saw the city. Not the city down below, the city in the clouds. It was a city—it could have been any of them, or none, it made no difference; a city, yes, that’s what it was, one of the largest. It was enormous, flooded with skyscrapers as if that were a way to defend it, to make it appear (or even be) invulnerable, and it was. I turned on my side so as to see it better and then I saw it the way it had to be seen: static, deserted, all white, the buildings perforated by tiny windows. I didn’t see gardens, or monuments or balconies or inhabitants or libraries or streets or bars or schools; only the city, the buildi

Gorodischer, Angélica

United States

History and Modern Media: A Personal Journey (Critical Mexican Studies)

In History and Modern Media, John Mraz largely focuses on Mexican photography and his innovative methodology that examines historical photographs by employing the concepts of genre and function. He developed this method in extensive work on photojournalism; it is tested here through examining two genres: Indianist imagery as an expression of imperial, neo-colonizing, and decolonizing photography, and progressive photography as embodied in worker and laborist imagery, as well as feminist and decolonizing visuality. The book interweaves an autobiographical narrative with concrete research. Mraz describes the resistance he encountered in US academia to this new way of showing and describing the past in films and photographs, as well as some illuminating experiences as a visiting professor at several US universities. More importantly, he reflects on what it has meant to move to Mexico and become a Mexican. Mexico is home to a thriving school of photohistorians perhaps unequaled in the world. Some were trained in art history, and a few continue to pursue that discipline. However, the great majority work from the discipline known as "photohistory" which focuses on vernacular photographs made outside of artistic intentions. A central premise of the book is that knowing the cultures of the past and of the other is crucial in societies dominated by short-term and parochial thinking, and that today's hyper-audiovisuality requires historians to use modern media to offer their knowledge as alternatives to the "perpetual present" in which we live.

Arts & Photography

Mraz, John

Photography & Video

Review\n"Daring, thought-provoking, and extremely readable. . . . A major contribution in itself, but also of special interest in relation to the importance of Mraz's work to all scholars of Mexican history and visual culture." 
--John Lear, author of Picturing the Proletariat: Artists and Labor in Revolutionary Mexico, 1908-1940\n"Very few intellectuals have the genius to work beyond their training and create something new. John Mraz is one of them." 
--James Krippner, author of Rereading the Conquest: Power, Politics, and the History of Early Colonial Michoacán, Mexico, 1521-1565 and Paul Strand in Mexico\nIn History and Modern Media, John Mraz largely focuses on Mexican photography and his innovative methodology that examines historical photographs by employing the concepts of genre and function. He developed this method in extensive work on photojournalism; it is tested here through examining two genres: Indianist imagery as an expression of imperial, neo-colonizing, and decolonizing photography, and progressive photography as embodied in worker and laborist imagery, as well as feminist and decolonizing visuality. The book interweaves an autobiographical narrative with concrete research. Mraz describes the resistance he encountered in US academia to this new way of showing and describing the past in films and photographs, as well as some illuminating experiences as a visiting professor at several US universities. More importantly, he reflects on what it has meant to move to Mexico and become a Mexican. Mexico is home to a thriving school of photohistorians perhaps unequaled in the world. Some were trained in art history, and a few continue to pursue that discipline. However, the great majority work from the discipline known as &#34;photohistory&#34; which focuses on vernacular photographs made outside of artistic intentions. A central premise of the book is that knowing the cultures of the past and of the other is crucial in societies dominated by short-term and parochial thinking, and that today&#39;s hyper-audiovisuality requires historians to use modern media to offer their knowledge as alternatives to the &#34;perpetual present&#34; in which we live.

Reality in Movement: Octavio Paz As Essayist and Public Intellectual

In the last couple of decades there has been a surge of interest in Octavio Paz's life and work, and a number of important books have been published on Paz. However, most of these books are of a biographical nature, or they examine Paz's role in the various intellectual initiatives he headed in Mexico, specifically the journals he founded. Reality in Movement looks at a wide range of topics of interest in Paz's career, including his engagement with the subversive, adversary strain in Western culture; his meditations on questions of cultural identity and intercultural contact; his dialogue with both leftist and conservative ideological traditions; his interest in feminism and psychoanalysis, and his theory of poetry. It concludes with a chapter on Octavio Paz as a literary character--a kind of reception study. Offering a complex and nuanced portrait of Paz as a writer and thinker--as well as an understanding of the era in which he lived--Reality in Movement will appeal to students of Octavio Paz and of Mexican literature more generally, and to readers with an interest in the many significant literary, cultural, political, and historical topics Paz wrote about over the course of his long career.

Reality in Movement: Octavio Paz as Essayist and Public Intellectual

Biographies & Memoirs

Van Delden, Maarten

Arts & Literature

Resisting Extractivism: Peruvian Gold, Everyday Violence, and the Politics of Attention

Peru is classified as one of the deadliest countries in the world for environmental defenders, where activists face many forms of violence. Through an ethnographic and systematic comparison of four gold-mining conflicts in Peru, Resisting Extractivism presents a vivid account of subtle and routine forms of violence, analyzing how meaning-making practices render certain types of damage and suffering noticeable while occluding others. The book thus builds a theory of violence from the ground up--how it is framed, how it impacts people's lived experiences, and how it can be confronted. By excavating how the everyday interactions that underlie conflicts are discursively concealed and highlighted, this study assists in the prevention and transformation of violence over resource extraction in Latin America. The book draws on a controlled, qualitative comparison of four case studies, extensive ethnographic research conducted over fourteen months of fieldwork, analysis of over nine hundred archives and documents, and unprecedented access to more than 250 semi-structured interviews with key actors across industry, the state, civil society, and the media. Michael Wilson Becerril identifies, traces, and compares these dynamics to explain how similar cases can lead to contrasting outcomes--insights that may be usefully applied in other contexts to save lives and build better futures.

Business & Money

Becerril, Michael Wilson

Economics

Wilson Becerril, Michael

Jos&#233; Mart&#237;'s Liberative Political Theology argues that Mart&#237;'s religious views, which at first glance might appear outdated and irrelevant, are actually critical to understanding his social vision. During a time in which the predominant philosophical view was materialistic (e.g., Darwin, Marx), Mart&#237; sought to reconcile social and political trends with the metaphysical, believing that ignoring the spiritual would create a soulless approach toward achieving a liberative society. As such, Mart&#237; used religious concepts and ideas as tools that could bring forth a more just social order. In short, this book argues Mart&#237; could be considered a precursor to what would come to be called liberation theology.\nMiguel De La Torre has authored the most comprehensive text written thus far concerning Mart&#237;'s religious views and how they affected his political thought. The few similar texts that exist are written in Spanish, and most of them romanticize Mart&#237;'s spirituality in an attempt to portray him as a &;Christian believer.&; Only a handful provide an academic investigation of Mart&#237;'s theological thought based solely on his writings, and those concentrate on just one aspect of Mart&#237;'s religious influences. Jos&#233; Mart&#237;'s Liberative Political Theology allows for mutual influence between Mart&#237;'s political and religious views, rather than assuming one had precedence over the other.

José Marti’s Liberative Political Theology

De LA Torre, Miguel A.

Religion & Spirituality

José Martí's Liberative Political Theology argues that Martí's religious views, which at first glance might appear outdated and irrelevant, are actually critical to understanding his social vision. During a time in which the predominant philosophical view was materialistic (e.g., Darwin, Marx), Martí sought to reconcile social and political trends with the metaphysical, believing that ignoring the spiritual would create a soulless approach toward achieving a liberative society. As such, Martí used religious concepts and ideas as tools that could bring forth a more just social order. In short, this book argues Martí could be considered a precursor to what would come to be called liberation theology. Miguel De La Torre has authored the most comprehensive text written thus far concerning Martí's religious views and how they affected his political thought. The few similar texts that exist are written in Spanish, and most of them romanticize Martí's spirituality in an attempt to portray him as a "Christian believer." Only a handful provide an academic investigation of Martí's theological thought based solely on his writings, and those concentrate on just one aspect of Martí's religious influences. José Martí's Liberative Political Theology allows for mutual influence between Martí's political and religious views, rather than assuming one had precedence over the other.

José Martí’s Liberative Political Theology

See the best price to sell, buy or rent books by the Vanderbilt Univ Pr publisher. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Vanderbilt Univ Pr

See the best price to sell, buy or rent books by the Vanderbilt Univ Pr publisher. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Deviant and Useful Citizens: The Cultural Production of the Female Body in Eighteenth-Century Peru

Jaguars Tomb

History and Modern Media: A Personal Journey (Critical Mexican Studies)

History and Modern Media: A Personal Journey (Critical Mexican Studies)

Reality in Movement: Octavio Paz as Essayist and Public Intellectual

Reality in Movement: Octavio Paz As Essayist and Public Intellectual

Resisting Extractivism: Peruvian Gold, Everyday Violence, and the Politics of Attention

Resisting Extractivism: Peruvian Gold, Everyday Violence, and the Politics of Attention

José Marti’s Liberative Political Theology

José Martí’s Liberative Political Theology