Narcoepics: A Global Aesthetics of Sobriety

Narcoepics Unbound foregrounds the controversial yet mostly untheorized phenomenon of contemporary Latin American 'narcoepics.' Dealing with literary works and films whose characteristics are linked to illicit global exchange, informal labor, violence, 'bare life,' drug consumption, and ritualistic patterns of identity, it argues for a new theoretical approach to better understand these 'narratives of intoxication.'

Foregrounding the art that has arisen from or seeks to describe drug culture, Herlinghaus' comparative study looks at writers such as Gutiérrez, J. J. Rodríguez, Reverte, films such as City of God, and the narratives surrounding cultural villains/heroes such as Pablo Escobar. Narcoepics shows that that in order to grasp the aesthetic and ethical core of these narratives it is pivotal, first, to develop an 'aesthetics of sobriety.'

The aim is to establish a criteria for a new kind of literary studies, in which cultural hermeneutics plays as much a part as political philosophy, analysis of religion, and neurophysiological inquiry.

An account and analysis of new transnational narratives emerging from Latin America.

Narcoepics Unbound foregrounds the controversial yet mostly untheorized phenomenon of contemporary Latin American 'narcoepics.' Dealing with literary works and films whose characteristics are linked to illicit global exchange, informal labor, violence, 'bare life,' drug consumption, and ritualistic patterns of identity, it argues for a new theoretical approach to better understand these 'narratives of intoxication.' Foregrounding the art that has arisen from or seeks to describe drug culture, Herlinghaus' comparative study looks at writers such as Gutiérrez, J. J. Rodríguez, Reverte, films such as City of God, and the narratives surrounding cultural villains/heroes such as Pablo Escobar. Narcoepics shows that that in order to grasp the aesthetic and ethical core of these narratives it is pivotal, first, to develop an 'aesthetics of sobriety.'The aim is to establish a criteria for a new kind of literary studies, in which cultural hermeneutics plays as much a part as political philosophy, analysis of religion, and neurophysiological inquiry.

Narcoepics tackles the controversial yet mostly un-theorized phenomenon of contemporary Latin American 'narcoepics". Dealing with literary works and films whose characteristics are linked to illicit global exchange, informal labor, violence, drug consumption, and ritualistic patterns of identity, it argues for a new theoretical approach to better understand these "narratives of intoxication." Foregrounding the art that has arisen from or seeks to describe drug culture, Herlinghaus' comparative study looks at writers such as Gutiérrez, J. J. Rodríguez, Reverte, films such as City of God, and the narratives surrounding cultural villains/heroes such as Pablo Escobar. Narcoepics shows that that in order to grasp the aesthetic and ethical core of these narratives it is pivotal, first, to develop an "aesthetics of sobriety."

Narcoepics aims to establish a criteria for a new kind of literary studies, in which cultural hermeneutics plays as much a part as political philosophy, analysis of religion, and neurophysiological inquiry.

Hermann Herlinghaus is Professor of Latin American Literatures in the Institute of Romance Languages and Literatures at the University of Freiburg, Germany, and International Adjunct Professor of Latin American Literatures and Cultural Studies at the University of Pittsburgh, USA. He is the author or editor of a dozen books in English, Spanisch, and German including Violence Without Guilt: Ethical Narratives from the Global South (Palgrave Macmillan, 2009) and Renarración y Descentramiento: Mapas Alternativos de la Imaginación en América Latina (Iberoamericana-Vervuert, 2004).

Introduction / 1. Aesthetics of Sobriety: Approximating Narratives from the Hemispheric South / 2. Genealogical Origins of the Narco-Novel: Nefarious Territories BeyondConfession / 3. A Hundred Plateaus: Wandering Delinquents Exposed to Globalization / 4. Big Criminals and Scapegoats: Pablo Escobar and the Titans of Delirium / 5. Female Outcasts Unbound: "Queens of the South" Far from Modernity / 6. Hemispheric Counter-Almanacs: A No-Man's Land of Introspection / Bibliography