Identity and Modernity in Latin America (PDF)

In this important new book Jorge Larrain examines the trajectories
of modernity and identity in Latin America and their reciprocal
relationships. Drawing on a large body of work across a vast
historical and geographical range, he offers an innovative and
wide-ranging account of the cultural transformations and processes
of modernization that have occurred in Latin America since colonial
times.

The book begins with a theoretical discussion of the concepts of
modernity and identity. In contrast to theories which present
modernity and identity in Latin America as mutually excluding
phenomena, the book shows their continuity and interconnection. It
also traces historically the respects in which the Latin American
trajectory to modernity differs from or converges with other
trajectories, using this as a basis to explore specific elements of
Latin America's culture and modernity today.

The originality of Larrain's approach lies in the wide coverage and
combination of sources drawn from the social sciences, history and
literature. The volume relates social commentaries, literary works
and media developments to the periods covered, to the changing
social end economic structure, and to changes in the prevailing
ideologies.

This book will appeal to second and third-year undergraduates and
Masters level students doing courses in sociology, cultural studies
and Latin American history, politics and literature.

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