{"product_id":"catastrophic-historicism-reading-julia-de-burgos-dangerously-paperback","title":"Catastrophic Historicism: Reading Julia de Burgos Dangerously - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eRonald Mendoza-de Jes俍\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eCatastrophic Historicism\u003c\/i\u003e unsettles the historicist constitution of Julia de Burgos (1914-53), Puerto Rico's most iconic writer--a critical task that necessitates redefining the concept of historicism. Through readings of Aristotle, Walter Benjamin, Jacques Derrida, Werner Hamacher, and Frank Ankersmit, Mendoza-de Jes俍 shows that historicism grounds historical objectivity in the historian's capacity to compose totalizing narratives that domesticate the contingency of the past. While critiques of historicism as a realism leave untouched the sovereignty of the historian, the book insists that \u003ci\u003ereading\u003c\/i\u003e the text of history requires an attunement to \u003ci\u003edanger\u003c\/i\u003e--a modality that interrupts historicism by infusing the past with a contingency that evades total appropriation. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAfter desedimenting the monumental tradition that has reduced de Burgos to a totemic figure, \u003ci\u003eCatastrophic Historicism \u003c\/i\u003ereads the poet's first collection, \u003ci\u003ePoema en 20 surcos\u003c\/i\u003e (1938). Mendoza-de Jes俍 argues that the historicity of \u003ci\u003ePoema\u003c\/i\u003e crystallizes in the lyrical speaker's self-institution as an embodied ipseity, which requires producing racialized\/gendered allegorical figures--the bearers of an abject flesh--that lack any ontological resistance to modern alienation. Rather than treating de Burgos's poetics of selfhood as the ideal image of Puerto Rican sovereignty, Mendoza-de Jes俍 endangers this idealization by drawing attention to the abjection that sustains our attachments to ipseity as the form of a truly sovereign life. In this way, \u003ci\u003eCatastrophic Historicism\u003c\/i\u003e not only resets the terms of ongoing critiques of historicism in the humanities--it also intervenes in Puerto Rican historicity for the sake of its transformation.\u003ch3\u003eBack Jacket\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"The book makes Puerto Rican literary history tremble. By desedimenting the metaphysical ground of historicism's cosmo-poietics, openings emerge for rereading the canonical poet Julia de Burgos. I can think of nothing more difficult and \u003ci\u003efaithful\u003c\/i\u003e--as a scholar--than the reading procedure of danger, which confronts incalculable vulnerability.\"--\u003cb\u003eRen Ellis Neyra\u003c\/b\u003e, Wesleyan University \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Moving with passionate fluency between close reading, historical desedimentation, and conceptual articulation, \u003ci\u003eCatastrophic Historicism\u003c\/i\u003e recovers beneath the legend of Julia de Burgos the problem she inscribed in her own verse: that of the proper name itself. This brilliant work of literary theory shows us how deeply we need to think in order to grasp anew the dangerous sense of all the names of literary history.--\u003cb\u003eNathan Brown\u003c\/b\u003e, Concordia University \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eCatastrophic Historicism\u003c\/i\u003e unsettles the historicist constitution of Julia de Burgos (1914-53), Puerto Rico's most iconic writer--a critical task that necessitates redefining the concept of historicism. Through readings of Aristotle, Walter Benjamin, Jacques Derrida, Werner Hamacher, and Frank Ankersmit, Mendoza-de Jes俍 shows that historicism grounds historical objectivity in the historian's capacity to compose totalizing narratives that domesticate the contingency of the past. While critiques of historicism as a realism leave untouched the sovereignty of the historian, the book insists that \u003ci\u003ereading\u003c\/i\u003e the text of history requires an attunement to \u003ci\u003edanger\u003c\/i\u003e--a modality that interrupts historicism by infusing the past with a contingency that evades total appropriation. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAfter desedimenting the monumental tradition that has reduced de Burgos to a totemic figure, \u003ci\u003eCatastrophic Historicism \u003c\/i\u003ereads the poet's first collection, \u003ci\u003ePoema en 20 surcos\u003c\/i\u003e (1938). Mendoza-de Jes俍 argues that the historicity of \u003ci\u003ePoema\u003c\/i\u003e crystallizes in the lyrical speaker's self-institution as an embodied ipseity, which requires producing racialized\/gendered allegorical figures--the bearers of an abject flesh--that lack any ontological resistance to modern alienation. Rather than treating de Burgos's poetics of selfhood as the ideal image of Puerto Rican sovereignty, Mendoza-de Jes俍 endangers this idealization by drawing attention to the abjection that sustains our attachments to ipseity as the form of a truly sovereign life. In this way, \u003ci\u003eCatastrophic Historicism\u003c\/i\u003e not only resets the terms of ongoing critiques of historicism in the humanities--it also intervenes in Puerto Rican historicity for the sake of its transformation. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eRonald Mendoza-de Jes俍\u003c\/b\u003e is Assistant Professor of Spanish and Comparative Literature at the University of Southern California.\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 272\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.78 x 9 x 6 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e January 02, 2024\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Books by splitShops","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51777041924384,"sku":"9781531505646","price":59.85,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0974\/9764\/5344\/files\/df67909f825f3d236aa39300ef8ccec3.webp?v=1780490968","url":"https:\/\/ebocreations.com\/products\/catastrophic-historicism-reading-julia-de-burgos-dangerously-paperback","provider":"The E-Book Oasis LLC","version":"1.0","type":"link"}