The Ends of Literature analyzes the part played by literature within contemporary Latin American thought and politics, above all the politics of neoliberalism. The "why?" of contemporary Latin American literature is the book's overarching concern. Its wide range includes close readings of the prose of Cortazar, Carpentier, Paz, Valenzuela, Piglia, and Las Casas; of the relationship of the "Boom" movement and its aftermath; of testimonial narrative; and of contemporary Chilean and Chicano film. The work also investigates in detail various theoretical projects as they intersect with and...

In this ambitious book, Brett Levinson explores the possibilities for a genuinely radical critique of globalized culture and politics--at a time when intellectuals and nonintellectuals alike struggle to understand the configuration of the contemporary world. Levinson seeks to unsettle a naturalized and commonsensical assumption: that democracy and the economic market must be viewed as either united or at odds. Against both neoliberalists and cultural pluralists, he argues that the state is not yielding to the market, but that the universe now turns on a "duopoly" between statist and global...

In this ambitious book, Brett Levinson explores the possibilities for a genuinely radical critique of globalized culture and politics-at a time when intellectuals and nonintellectuals alike struggle to understand the configuration of the contemporary world. Levinson seeks to unsettle a naturalized and commonsensical assumption: that democracy and the economic market must be viewed as either united or at odds. Against both neoliberalists and cultural pluralists, he argues that the state is not yielding to the market, but that the universe now turns on a duopolybetween statist and global forms,...