Fantasy of Globalism

For many, the advent of globalization brought with it an end to the way that the world had been viewed previous to the fall of the Berlin Wall. Among the many endings the one that most concerns my book is the perceived foreclosure of any alternatives to the capitalistic ideology that structures globalization. Even criticisms of globalization are bounded by its limits since the critical models they use cannot conceive of a space outside its homogenizing discourse. Against the final limits that shape most interpretations of globalization, I show how writers on the periphery of the globalizing north, through the development and deployment of neo-baroque imaginings, offer a different possibility to monological globalism. I show that the baroque has been a way of resisting and reconfiguring the colonial gaze in Latin America since the time of the first encounter to the present.

In The Fantasy of Globalism, John Waldron brings together texts that are often read in terms of the Neo-baroque and combines these with some unexpected choices to demonstrate how these writers engage with imperial, colonial representations of Latin American and the Caribbean throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Waldron’s dynamic and insightful readings of authors such as Alejo Carpentier, Gabriel García Márquez, Ana Lydia Vega, Judith Ortiz Cofer, and Mayra Montero, in conjunction with contemporary theoretical ideas about globalization which he roots in the baroque, create a dialogue among old and new voices and a much-needed revision of concepts such as magical realism. The scope of Waldron’s project is impressive, and he tackles it with intelligence, acumen, and compassion. His book adds another intriguing perspective to the on-going conversation about Latinamericanism today., John Waldron's book brings together disparate critical perspectives in current Latin Americanist practice. Ranging from Alejo Carpentier to Mayra Montero, from Severo Sarduy to Antonio Viego, Waldron picks up the pieces of twentieth-century practice and weaves them into a reading strategy for the twenty-first. His choices in both fiction and criticism span a generational gap in Latin Americanism by reading 'classic' texts and criticism in the context of globalization, which allows Waldron to revive Magical Realism from its commodified tomb. Waldron's erudite, insightful readings and articulate prose then redeploy Magical Realism and contemporary Latin Americanism to destabilize the crippling hegemony of the present.

John is associate professor of Spanish, global studies and Latin American and Caribbean studies at the University of Vermont. He has published articles on the literature of Puerto Rico, Mexico, Cuba and their diasporas.