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Contrapunto neobarroco

Andrea Villa (Lecturer of Spanish) recently published Contrapunteo neobarroco entre la literatura y las artes visuales: Aproximación a un nuevo discurso estético en Latinoamérica (Editorial Pliegos, 2021). Her research explores the possibility of a feminine neobaroque aesthetic in the literature and visual arts in Latin America.

Contrapunteo includes a female author and a visual artist from three different countries: Colombia, Brazil, and Mexico. In order to study Colombia’s female neobaroque expression the author analyzes Laura Restrepo’s novel Delirio (2004) and the artwork by Doris Salcedo, a Colombian sculptor whose oeuvre is characterized by a constant tension, a lack of unity in traditional terms, and the combination of organic materials and textures to form dysfunctional objects. The chapter about Brazil examines Clarice Lispector’s novel A hora da estrela (1977) and several art pieces by Lygia Clark whose oeuvre undergoes a radical transformation from the pictorial image to an ambiguous three-dimensional expression of such image, to a complete detachment from the artwork per se into a more sensorial and collaborative approach to the work of art. The Mexican case study focuses on the novel Nadie me verá llorar (2002) by Cristina Rivera Garza and Graciela Iturbide’s photographic work.  The above-mentioned novels and artwork are characterized by tension, interior rupture, juxtaposition, artifice, and contradiction, all of which are neobaroque characteristics.

Congratulations, Dr. Villa!

The book can be purchased on pliegoseditorial.com.

Return to the Fall/Winter 2021 newsletter.