Latin American Literature at the Millennium: Local Lives, Global Spaces

Latin American Literature at the Millennium analyzes literary constructions of locality from the early 1990s to the mid-2010s. In this astute study, Raynor reads work by Roberto Bolaño, Valeria Luiselli, Luiz Ruffato, Bernardo Carvalho, João Gilberto Noll, and Wilson Bueno to reveal representations of the human experience that unsettle conventionally understood links between locality and geographical place. The book raises vital considerations for understanding the region’s transition into the twenty-first century, and for evaluating Latin American authors’ representations of everyday place and modes of belonging. It further examines relevant theory on globalization and historical context, discussing the political and economic forces at work in Latin America’s engagement with global processes. Across chapters, Raynor traces localizing techniques in canonical works as well as understudied and peripheral texts, deftly exploring the “local” as a plural concept constructed through language, memory, and attachment to place.