Overview

An engaging and insightful guide to Argentine crime fiction since 2000. Argentina Noir offers a guide to Argentine crime fiction, with a focus on works published since the year 2000. It argues that the novela negra, or crime novel, has become the favored genre for many writers to address the social malaise brought about by changes linked to globalization and market-driven economic policies. Cynthia Schmidt-Cruz presents close readings and original interpretations of eleven novels, all set in or around Buenos Aires, and explores the ways these texts adapt major motifs, figures, and literary techniques in Hispanic crime fiction in order to give voice to wide-ranging social critiques. Schmidt-Cruz addresses such topics as organized crime and institutional complicity, corruption during the presidency of Carlos Menem (1989–1999), terrorist attacks on Jewish institutions in Buenos Aires and the mysterious death of Alberto Nisman, and the winners and the losers of neoliberal structural changes. With a solid underpinning in sociological studies and criticism of the genre and its historical context, Argentina Noir reveals how these novels are renovating the genre to engage pressing issues confronting not only Argentina but also countries throughout Latin America and around the globe.

Full Product Details

9781438473048

Table of Contents

Reviews

""Schmidt-Cruz's work represents a significant contribution to the field … this is an accomplished study that will be essential reading for scholars of Argentine crime fiction, but that should also hold appeal for those interested in understanding contemporary Argentina, or indeed anyone curious about the power of popular narratives to help illuminate the social and political phenomena of the age."" — Bulletin of Spanish Studies ""This is a very significant contribution to the field. It is a full and illustrative, as well as authoritative, guide to crime fiction and the novela negra in Argentina in the twenty-first century, with a particular focus on the literature's social and political thematics."" — Philip Swanson, author of The New Novel in Latin America: Politics and Popular Culture after the Boom

This is a very significant contribution to the field. It is a full and illustrative, as well as authoritative, guide to crime fiction and the novela negra in Argentina in the twenty-first century, with a particular focus on the literature's social and political thematics. - Philip Swanson, author of The New Novel in Latin America: Politics and Popular Culture after the Boom

Schmidt-Cruz's work represents a significant contribution to the field ... this is an accomplished study that will be essential reading for scholars of Argentine crime fiction, but that should also hold appeal for those interested in understanding contemporary Argentina, or indeed anyone curious about the power of popular narratives to help illuminate the social and political phenomena of the age. - Bulletin of Spanish Studies This is a very significant contribution to the field. It is a full and illustrative, as well as authoritative, guide to crime fiction and the novela negra in Argentina in the twenty-first century, with a particular focus on the literature's social and political thematics. - Philip Swanson, author of The New Novel in Latin America: Politics and Popular Culture after the Boom

Author Information

Cynthia Schmidt-Cruz is Associate Professor of Spanish and Portuguese and Director of the Center for Global and Area Studies at the University of Delaware. Her previous books include Mothers, Lovers, and Others: The Short Stories of Julio Cortázar, also published by SUNY Press.

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available