Antiheroes: Mexico and Its Detective Novel

Front Cover
Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press, 1997 - Literary Criticism - 177 pages
Stavans's overall argument is that, in a national arena where moral decadence and political corruption prevail, the detective genre has been forced to embrace the hard-boiled model of Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett, rather than exploring its links to the more high-brow, sophisticated British tradition of Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie. An enlightening treatise on parody as a literary device, this book is a fiesta that students of Latin American literature in particular, and fans of the art of slighting in general, will not want to miss.
 

Contents

Constables and Sentries
55
RealLife Cases
64
The Critics Voice
70
Antonio Helú
78
Rafael Solana
85
María Elvira Bermúdez
91
Carlos Fuentes
100
Paco Ignacio Taibo II
108
Revolutionizing the Formula
119
Jorge Ibargüengoitia
131
José Emilio Pacheco
139
Interview with Paco Ignacio Taibo II
144
Bibliography
164
124
173
Copyright

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Antiheroes: Mexico and Its Detective Novel
Ilan Stavans
Snippet view - 1997

Common terms and phrases

adaptation Adolfo Bioy Casares Agatha Christie albañiles anthology Antonio Helú Bakhtin Belascoarán Shayne Borges Buenos Aires Carlos Fuentes Chapter character complot mongol Comunidad Conacyt corruption crime critical Cruz cuento policial mexicano Cultura Económica culture detective fiction detective genre detective literature detective novel detective story Distrito Federal Editorial Ensayo essay Excélsior Fondo de Cultura García Hammett Hydra Head Ibid investigation James Bond Joaquín Mortiz Jorge Ibargüengoitia José Emilio Pacheco Juan language Latin America literary Luis María Elvira Bermúdez Mexico City misterio Monsiváis Morirás lejos muerte Murder mystery narrative narrator North American novela policial novelist Octavio Paz Paco Ignacio Taibo parody Péter Pérez Pitol police private eyes prologue protagonist published Rafael Bernal Rafael Ramírez Heredia Raymond Chandler reader Rodolfo Usigli Roldán Sergio Pitol Sherlock Holmes Spanish Stavans Stavans's theme thriller tion tive Tlatelolco Torres translated University Press Vargas Llosa Vega Vicente Leñero writers Yates

References to this book

About the author (1997)

Ilan Stavans (born Ilan Stavchansky on April 7, 1961, in Mexico City) is a Mexican-American, essayist. He is the author of "The Hispanic Condition", "The Riddle of Cantinflas", and "The One-Handed Pianist & Other Stories" as well as the editor of "The Oxford Book of Jewish Stories" and a dictionary of Spanglish, among other volumes. He has been a National Book Critics Circle Award nominee, the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and the Latino Literature Prize, among other honors. He teaches at Amherst College.

Bibliographic information

Title Antiheroes: Mexico and Its Detective Novel
Author Ilan Stavans
Translated by Jesse H. Lytle, Jennifer A. Mattson
Publisher Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press, 1997
ISBN 0838636446, 9780838636442
Length 177 pages
Subjects  › 

Literary Criticism / Caribbean & Latin American
Literary Criticism / Mystery & Detective
   
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