The Demise of the Picaresque: Dividual Narratives of the Neoliberal Marketplace in Brazil and Argentina (1881-2000)

Abstract

The Demise of the Picaresque: Dividual Narratives of the Neoliberal Marketplace in Brazil and Argentina (1881-2000) examines the connections between economics, Jewish conversos (or new Christians), mechanisms of desire, and literature from a transatlantic and Luso-Hispanic perspective. Taking as a point of reference the Iberian Golden Age (16th and 17th centuries) and the influential figure of the pícaro from the picaresque novels of the time —a roguish figure living in the margins of society— this project questions the nature, conditions, and problems of renowned writers living in Golden Age times, only to interrogate the reenacting of this genre in Latin America centuries later by way of two Brazilian and two Argentine authors. In so doing, this study announces a post-picaresque aesthetic that formally hearkens back to the rogues of old while establishing a new paradigm from which to observe the neoliberal subject in the information age.