Acknowledgments  

Introduction: Allegory and Mourning in Postdictatorship  

1. Oedipus in Post-Auratic Times  

2. The Genealogy of a Defeat  

3. Countertraditions  

4. Encrypting Restitution  

5. Pastiche, Repetition, and the Angel  

6. Overcodification of the Margins  

7. Bildungsroman at A Standstill or the Weakening of Storytelling  

8. The Unmourned Dead and the Promise of Restitution  

Afterword: Postdictatorship and Postmodernity  

Notes  

Works Cited  

Index  

Winner, 2000 Katherine Singer Kovacs Award (MLA)

“[A]n ambitious and formidably intelligent study of the overlapping of the literary and the political in recent Southern Cone literature.”—G. Gómez, Choice

“Avelar conjugates an impeccably researched and wide-ranging historical sensibility with a philosophically engaged approach to literary texts produced in the aftermath of the recent dictatorships in the Southern Cone of Latin America. . . . [T]he great strengths of this book include its uncompromising attention to cultural history, its complex yet elegant arguments, its fine, philosophically inflected and well contextualized readings of individual texts, and its intelligent contributions regarding allegory theory.”—Mary Beth Tierney-Tello, Modern Language Notes

“Challenging many commonly held assumptions, deploying a complex theoretical framework, and displaying his vast knowledge of Latin American literature and culture, Avelar’s book promises to spark much discussion on the nature of the postdictatorial predicament and establish itself as one of the key texts in a growing field of study.”—Alessandro Fornazzari, Nepantla: Views from South

“The Untimely Present convincingly argues that the distinctive feature of South American fiction in the aftermath of military regimes, a horizon marked by a sense of defeat, loss, and the impossibility of writing itself, lies in its efforts to insert the untimely. . . . [A] brilliant analysis of contemporary Southern Cone fiction.”—Laura García-Moreno, Bryn Mawr Review of Comparative Literature

“[A] remarkable project . . . . The Untimely Present offers compelling readings of some of the most sophisticated narratives to have emerged in the Southern Cone in recent years . . . . [Avelar has an] unerring sense of the ways in which the text may interact with its moment to bring culture and politics into complex and crucially intimate relationships.”—Joanna Page, Bulletin of Hispanic Studies

Winner, 2000 Katherine Singer Kovacs Award (MLA)

“[A]n ambitious and formidably intelligent study of the overlapping of the literary and the political in recent Southern Cone literature.”—G. Gómez, Choice

“Avelar conjugates an impeccably researched and wide-ranging historical sensibility with a philosophically engaged approach to literary texts produced in the aftermath of the recent dictatorships in the Southern Cone of Latin America. . . . [T]he great strengths of this book include its uncompromising attention to cultural history, its complex yet elegant arguments, its fine, philosophically inflected and well contextualized readings of individual texts, and its intelligent contributions regarding allegory theory.”—Mary Beth Tierney-Tello, Modern Language Notes

“Challenging many commonly held assumptions, deploying a complex theoretical framework, and displaying his vast knowledge of Latin American literature and culture, Avelar’s book promises to spark much discussion on the nature of the postdictatorial predicament and establish itself as one of the key texts in a growing field of study.”—Alessandro Fornazzari, Nepantla: Views from South

“The Untimely Present convincingly argues that the distinctive feature of South American fiction in the aftermath of military regimes, a horizon marked by a sense of defeat, loss, and the impossibility of writing itself, lies in its efforts to insert the untimely. . . . [A] brilliant analysis of contemporary Southern Cone fiction.”—Laura García-Moreno, Bryn Mawr Review of Comparative Literature

“[A] remarkable project . . . . The Untimely Present offers compelling readings of some of the most sophisticated narratives to have emerged in the Southern Cone in recent years . . . . [Avelar has an] unerring sense of the ways in which the text may interact with its moment to bring culture and politics into complex and crucially intimate relationships.”—Joanna Page, Bulletin of Hispanic Studies

“This is a book of superior scholarship, providing an original reading of texts that are of increasing interest to students and critics.”—Jean Franco, Columbia University

“Avelar delivers a complex account of postdictatorship society, culture, thought, and literature in a lucidly clear prose and an eloquent style.”— George Yudice, New York University

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