Figures of the Impersonal in Contemporary Latin American Culture

Florencia Garramuño, Tinker Visiting Professor

Professor Garramuño will discuss a series of cultural and aesthetic interventions in Latin America—particularly within the realms of visual arts and literature — that address a radical discussion of subjectivity, personal identity and forms of living together (BARTHES, 2003). Works by narrators like Diamela Eltit (2002), or installations by artists and photographers Rosângela Rennó (2008) or Gian Paolo Minelli (2007) – among many others – seem to have abandoned the concern with individuality and identity to explore figures of the impersonal out of which emerge a concern with collectivity and community.

What has triggered this new concern with an impersonal yet singular life? In what sense all these formal innovations in contemporary aesthetics opens up new ways to figure and understand shared experience and living together? In the belief that the analysis and reading of these cultural practices can help us fostering the potential for understanding in spite of cultural differences, this project wishes to unlock the ethical and political challenges of our time as it is elaborated and discussed in contemporary art practices.

Florencia Garramuño is a full professor and the Chair of the Humanities Department at the University of San Andrés in Buenos Aires.  She received her Ph.D. in Romance Languages and Literatures from Princeton University, and completed her postdoctoral work at the Programa Avançado de Cultura Contemporânea at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. Her publications address a wide range of topics, including contemporary literature and culture, tango, samba, popular culture and photography. 

Professor Garramuño is teaching ILAC 226: Impersonality and Anonymity in Contemporary Latin American Culture in winter 2018.