Faculty

Profile

I have written on diverse topics in Latin American literature: including the work of the Peruvian novelist Mario Vargas Llosa; on the way revolution and revolutionary thinking has been depicted in the region's fiction; and on the political and cultural activism of the Peruvian Marxist José Carlos Mariátegui, during the 1920s.  I am currently at work on the volume on Latin American literature in the Routledge "Engagements with LIterature" series.

Degrees Held

PhD, Comparative Literature, University of Southern California; MA, Comparative Literature, University of Southern California; BA, English, California State University, Los Angeles

Professional Affiliation

• Modern Language Association
• Latin American Studies Association

Recent Publications

Books:

• The Oxford Handbook of the Latin American Novel, co-editor with Ignacio López-Calvo  (Oxford UP, 2023).                                             https://login.libproxy.newschool.edu/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=3548089&site=ehost-live&scope=site
• Borges and Kafka, Bolaño and Bloom: Latin American Authors and the Western Canon (Vanderbilt UP, 2022)
• Bread and Beauty: The Cultural Politics of José Carlos Mariátegui (Brill, 2020; Haymarket, 2021)                                                            https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.libproxy.newschool.edu/lib/newschool/detail.action?docID=6376199
• Writing Revolution in Latin American: From Martí to García Márquez to Bolaño (Vanderbiilt UP, 2019)                                                     https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/79553
• Roberto Bolaño as World Literature, co-editor with Nicholas Birns (Bloomsbury, 2017)                                                                             https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.libproxy.newschool.edu/lib/newschool/detail.action?docID=4742334
• Critical Insights: Mario Vargas Llosa, editor (Salem Press, 2014).                                                                                                                https://search-ebscohost-com.libproxy.newschool.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=e900xww&AN=766342&site=ehost-live
• The Contemporary Spanish-American Novel: Bolaño and After, co-editor with Will H. Corral and Nicholas Birns  (Bloomsbury, 2013)
• Mario Vargas Llosa: Public Intellectual inNeoliberal Latin America (U of Arizona P, 2011)
• Vargas Llosa and Latin American Politics , co-editor with Nicholas Birns (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010) 
• The Spaces of Latin American Literature: Tradition, Globalization and Cultural Production  (Palgrave Macmillan, 2008) 
• Mestizo Nations: Culture, Race andConformity in Latin American Literature (U of Arizona P, 2002) 

 Selected Articles:

• "Boom Writers and Power."  Council of Hemispheric Affairs. September 15, 2014.
• "Vargas Llosa, el Nobel y la izquierda.Guaraguao" 16.40 (2012): 55-66.
• (co-written with Nicholas Birns) “The Historical Novel: The War of the End of the World.” The Cambridge Companion to Mario Vargas Llosa. Ed. Efraín Kristal. Cambridge UP, Cambridge, 2012. 62-73.  
• “‘¿En qué idioma escribe usted?’: Spanish, Tagalog, and Identity in José Rizal’s Noli me tangere.” MLN 126.2 (March 2011). 
• “Australia in Borges andBuarque.”  Antipodes: A Global Journal of Australian/NewZealand Literature 24.2 (December 2010): 157-63. 
• “Mr. Vargas Llosa Goes to Washington.” Vargas Llosa and Latin American Politics. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010. 21-28.
• “Mario Vargas Llosa versus Barbarism [PDF]” Latin American Research Review 45.2 (June, 2010). 5-26. 
• “¿Fue José CarlosMariátegui racista? [PDF]” A Contracorriente 7.2 (Winter 2010). 80-91.
• “DeEliot a Borges: Tradición y periferia [PDF]” Iberoamericana 7.26 (2007): 7-18.
• “RubénDarío Visits Ricardo Palma:Tradition, Cosmopolitanism, and the Development of an Independent LatinAmerican Literature.” Chasqui: Revista de Literatura Latinoamericana 36.1 (2007): 48-61. 
• “Christopher Isherwood Meets Jorge LuisBorges: On the Value of South American Cultures [PDF]” MLN 119 (2004): 329-43. 
• “Richard Rodriguez in ‘Borderland’:The Ambiguity of Hybridity [PDF]” Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies 26.1 (2001): 101-27.

Interviews: 

• "Bolaño and beyond: An Interview with Juan E. De Castro on Contemporary Spanish Language Literature."   Former People: Bangs, Whimpers, Art, Culture, and Commentary. September 30, 2013.

Research Interests

Latin American literature; Latin American popular cultures; constructions of nationality; Spanish literature.

Awards And Honors

Prose Award in the Literature Category for Writing Revolution in Latin America.