Ressenyes

Index de les obres ressenyades: Judith BUTLER, Frames of War : When Is Life Grievable

Under the Radar: Jess Walter's The Zero and the State of Irony and Satire after 9/11

This article explores a typically overlooked novel within the corpus of post-9/11 fiction, Jess Walter's The Zero (2006), and puts forward some hypotheses for this under-examination. The article suggests that the various debates that arose in the aftermath of 9/11¿the status of fiction after tragedy, the theses on the demise of irony and satire, the high expectations put on canonical authors to give meaning to the event, and standardized explorations of the figure of the terrorist Other¿all served to construct readings for The Zero that fell within prescriptive approaches to post-9/11 fiction and thus miss its highly subversive potential. While recent academic output is starting to explore The Zero in innovative ways, early reception failed to examine it conceptually and formally, favoring as it did a trauma studies approach that resulted in a bland analysis of the novel's focus on terrorist figures. This article offers a reading of The Zero through Bakhtin's theorization of satirical carnivalization, a practice that is especially suited to construct a dialogic, polyphonic and inquisitive narrative to not only question but dialogue with the post-9/11 United States

Queering Acts of Mourning in the Aftermath of Argentina’s Dictatorship: The Performances of Blood

Cecilia Sosa's volume offers an incisive, heart-wrenching yet joyful exploration through the aftermath of the convulse years of the military dictatorship in Argentina (1976-1983), which brought horror and death to Argentine society with an estimated 30,000 people disappeared by the State (according to human rights organizations; 9,000 according to official figures), and of how Argentine society has managed to deal and engage with loss..

Revolución feminista y políticas de lo común frente a la extrema derecha. María Eugenia R. Palop. Barcelona, Icaria, 2019

Obra ressenyada: María Eugenia R. PALOP, Revolución feminista y políticas de lo común frente a la extrema derecha. Barcelona: Icaria, 2019

Frames of War: When is Life Grievable?

La tesis principal de Butler en Frames of War es que los marcos interpretativos por medio de los cuales nos es posible entender la violencia son parte material y esencial del propio acto de librar una guerra. Del mismo modo que un contenido y su envoltorio a veces no pueden separarse, lo que entendemos como"contenido" (el hecho bélico) está necesariamente enmarcado y no es posible aproximarse a él ajeno a los marcos que lo vehiculan. El marco es una estrategia activa de contención que no sólo contiene lo que es sino también su justificación y su interpretación, y en un contexto de guerra el marco dictamina, además de la justificación, la distinción entre las vidas que merecen ser preservadas y lloradas, y las que no

Of heroes and victims: Jess Walter’s The Zero and the satirical post-9/11 novel

[eng] This dissertation analyzes a typically overlooked novel within the corpus of post-9/11 fiction studies, Jess Walter’s The Zero (2006), and puts forward some hypotheses for this under-examination. It suggests that the debates that arose in the United States in the wake of 9/11—regarding the status of fiction in the face of tragedy, the theses about the demise of irony and satire, the high expectations put on canonical authors to give meaning to the event, and standardized interpretations of what a “good 9/11 novel” should be—all contributed to construct readings of The Zero that fell within the somewhat prescriptive approaches established by the first wave of post-9/11 fiction studies, and thus overlooked the subversive potential of Walter's novel. While recent academic output is starting to explore The Zero in innovative ways, early reception of the novel failed to examine it conceptually and formally, favoring as it did a trauma studies approach that resulted in a bland analysis of the discursive exploration that the novel carries out. On the other hand, the novel’s use of satirical humor has been mostly ignored, and this is partly explained by the currency of outdated theoretical conceptions of what constitutes a satirical novel. Therefore, this dissertation carries out a revision of the theoretical corpus on narrative satire and proposes its renewal through the theories of carnivalization of Mikhail Bakhtin. Approaching the novel through the notions of satirical carnival, dialogism, and intertextuality reveals how satire is a very effective way of exploring and questioning the discursive apparatus that mobilized in the United States after the attacks. Such is the object of the novel, the interaction with, the representation and the eventual subversion of a nationalist discourse that was underpinned by its appeal to foundational myths and cultural themes and that was highly accepted by the general population, which allowed the Bush administration to respond to the attacks in military terms and to suspend certain rights and freedoms on the domestic front, under the premise of promoting security. This dissertation seeks to demonstrate how satire understood this way is especially suited for constructing a dialogical, polyphonic and inquisitive narrative that not only questions but also dialogues with the American nation after 9/11[spa] La presente tesis explora una novela poco estudiada del corpus de ficción post-11-S, The Zero (2006), de Jess Walter, y propone algunas hipótesis que puedan explicar esta falta de atención. Se sugiere que los debates que se originaron en los Estados Unidos tras el 11-S—respecto al estatus de la ficción frente a la tragedia, la supuesta falta de adecuación del humor satírico e irónico para explicarla, las grandes expectativas depositadas en los autores canónicos para que dieran sentido al hecho, y las interpretaciones un tanto prescriptivas y normativas por parte del campo de los “post- 9/11 fiction studies”—contribuyeron a determinar ciertas lecturas de The Zero dentro de los parámetros establecidos por la primera ola de ficción post-11-S, pasando por alto el potencial subversivo de la novela de Walter. La recepción temprana de la novela ha tendido a desatender el análisis formal y conceptual de The Zero al favorecer una aproximación desde los estudios del trauma que resulta en un análisis insustancial de la exploración discursiva que la novela lleva a cabo. Por otra parte, se ha ignorado casi por completo su uso del humor satírico, y ello en parte se explica por ciertas concepciones teóricas un tanto parciales y anticuadas sobre qué es una novela satírica. Por lo tanto, la tesis lleva a cabo una revisión del corpus teórico sobre la sátira narrativa y propone su renovación a través de las teorías de carnivalización de Mikhail Bakhtin. La aproximación a la novela desde las nociones de carnaval satírico, dialogismo, e intertextualidad revela como la sátira es un modo muy efectivo de explorar y cuestionar el aparato discursivo que se movilizó en Estados Unidos tras los atentados. Tal es el objeto de la novela, la interacción con, representación y eventual subversión de un discurso nacionalista que se sostuvo por la apelación a mitos fundacionales y temas culturales de alta aceptación entre la población, lo cual permitió una respuesta militar y el abandono de ciertas libertades en el frente doméstico con el fin de garantizar la seguridad. La tesis busca demostrar como la sátira entendida de este modo es especialmente idónea para construir un relato dialógico, polifónico e inquisidor que no solo cuestione sino que dialogue con la nación estadounidense tras el 11-S