First Call for Papers:

Catedral Tomada
Journal of Latin American Literary Criticism
Revista de crítica literaria latinoamericana

The University of Pittsburgh is pleased to announce the forthcoming publication of

Catedral Tomada: Journal of Latin American Literary Criticism (CT),
http://catedraltomada.pitt.edu/, coordinated by the graduate students of the Department of
Hispanic Languages and Literatures at the University of Pittsburgh. Catedral Tomada marks the
new phase of the publication Revista Osa Mayor, a journal which contributed to reflection on
Latin American cultural production since 1989.
Under the editorial supervision of the University of Pittsburgh, the journal seeks to
assume the challenges faced by Latin-American criticism in the new millennium. Catedral
Tomada will benefit from the OJS virtual platform, http://pkp.sfu.ca/about, in order to provide a
specialized publication with unrestricted access in both Latin America and United States. The
journal will publish articles in Spanish, English, and Portuguese that contribute to the debates of
Latin American literary criticism. Articles will be peer-reviewed prior to acceptance for
publication, according to anonymous process by specialists. The journal will also include book
reviews, original literary works and bibliographic citations of recent works within Latin
American Studies.

Thinking Contemporaneity from Latin America Literature

In literary terms, how might we establish a temporal cut to describe the contemporary
moment? Is a conventional, chronological criteria, such as the turn of the century, sufficient?
Recent tendencies in literature would indicate the need to redefine the periodization and schemas
that conventionally divide history. Rather than assuming from the outset the existence of a
“contemporary literature” in Latin America, perhaps it is more engaging to ask if recent Latin
American literature is a field from which it is possible to think and articulate that which is
contemporary. This calls for reflection on the ways in which recent Latin American literature
participates in the construction of the idea of the contemporary in the world and to problematize
whether the contemporary is something intrinsic to literature, or if it is an extra-literary force that
confers this “contemporary” character upon literature.
 Inquiring, then, into the ideas of contemporaneity that are outlined in this recent
literature, it is to be expected that the configuration of the contemporary within recent Latin
American literature traverses issues such as forms of production, producers, uses and receptions,
and routes of circulation. Furthermore, it requires that we wonder how, in these recent literatures,
images of the world are combined with narrative techniques that use, conserve and pervert
established ways of reading, of narrating and of experiencing the world. Asking after such
configurations serves to open up the debate over the singular character or possible novelty of
some recent literary tendencies. Consequently, what idea of the contemporary is it that penetrates
this literature? What kind of contemporaneity do we derive from it?
At a time when the conditions of production of the new are in flux, we are witnessing
processes of reading and writing that are in tension with traditional forms, with the anachronisms
of an unequal Latin American modernity, and with a future whose only interpretation can be
neither utopia nor the end of history. Given the sharp transformations in the world of
communications, what possibilities are derived from this literature at the moment of articulating
and undoing the relationship between word and image? What geographical spaces are recreated
in an era when territorial limits are increasingly mobile? Ultimately, what emerging world does
this literature announce? The question of the role of literature in the construction of the
contemporary, leads us to ask: What claims are made for the restoration of the order of things?
To which archaisms do they take recourse? What dignity is granted to select pasts?

Areas to consider from these perspectives may include:

• Exiles/migration in recent literature

• Literature and globalization in Latin America
• The (new?) Latin American imaginary
• Latin American literature: new urbanisms and displacements
• Subalternity and postcoloniality: incorporation/ displacement/ debates
• Poverty/violence/chaos in the new Latin American discourse
• Latin American literature’s dialogue with Cultural Studies today
Submission Requirements

• Articles may be submitted in English, Spanish, and Portuguese

• Length of 12 to 15 pages double-spaced
• MLA style
• Include an article abstract in both English and Spanish
• Include five key words in both English and Spanish

Deadline
June 30th 2012
E-mail: catedraltomada@mail.pitt.edu

Catedral Tomada
Journal of Latin American Literary Criticism
Revista de crítica literaria latinoamericana
http://catedraltomada.pitt.edu/

Editor in Chief
Mónica Barrientos
mdb72@pitt.edu