pp. 23-36. Through the examination of Buenos Aires Noir (2017) and Mexico City Noir (2010), released by Akashic Books in its Noir series, this paper analyzes the relations between both volumes and the tradition of “Urban mysteries” literary fiction emerged in the 19th Century, the inherent circulation and validation on the Literary field, and its discursive construction as anthological-format books of stories by their owns kind of publisher’s initiative, the selection criterion and the writers...

pp. 4-13.

pp. 20-32. The modern transformation process that Mexico has tried since 1993 with the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), has produced a big mutation of the notion and practice of the traditional nationalism that It produced deep changes in the economical, political, social, agricultural, technical and legal structures of our country. These changes, have transformed the life, work, education, production and competition styles of most of the national population. These alterations have not only...

pp. 8-10

pp. 12-20

pp. 5-20

pp. 98-107. This work revises the letters exchanged between Octavio Paz and Pere Ginferrer, which show the long relationship that Paz had with Barcelona as well as with other intellectuals like Tàpies. The letters deal with philosofical, poetic or political issues. However, above all, the features that stand out are the complicity and intellectual understanding between both writers. Due to the wide-ranging character of the collection of letters, the analysis focuses on two aspects: on...

pp. 47-62. Art criticism is seen by Octavio Paz, José Revueltas y Juan García Ponce as a part of "intuitive observation". In their visual intuitions, and this is the hypothesis this article seeks to discuss, all of them deal with a productive notion they discover in visual arts, although their arguments differ. By a comparative analysis this essay focuses on critical texts which nearly haven’t been studied until now searching for similarity and differences in...

pp. 28-37. This essay describes two 20th Century exceptional writers: Paz and Revueltas. Both writers share ideas and trust in the world of books, art and culture that the Mexican Revolution created. They tried to change the world, but each one of them, at the right time, was changed by history. I see similarities as well as strong differences among those two 20th Century minds. They both believed in the Revolution and above all, in...

220 pp.

pp. 21-27

pp. 118-130. The short novel El Apando by Mexican writer José Revueltas, and its film adaptation by Felipe Cazals, very closely share aesthetic and ethical stances. The former serves as the plot basis for the latter, while the latter is the visual and explosive representation of the former. Both works communicate with each other naturally, expressing the anxiety of human existence. In this paper, I analyze two symbolic elements –strongly visual– that, through the plot,...

pp. 1-16. This study analyzes the literary representations of motherhood, present in Empty Houses, by Brenda Navarro, observing the construction of maternal subjectivities that complicate the figure of the mother, in relation to the children. In this area, the violence through which these maternity wards are carried out acquires a leading role, by revisiting the discussion around motherhood and childhood. In addition to considering the political conditions of a Mexico that seeks to blur the...

pp. 99-111. The non-fiction novel, genre between journalism and literature improved by the Argentinian journalist-writer and militante Rodolfo Walsh with Operación Masacre (1957) to denounce a crime of the State, shows different typical aspects of crime fiction, another genre practiced by Walsh through which he was famous in his country. The use of these literary tools allowed him to bring his denounces to a larger public than if he were doing it only through traditional...

pp. 84-98. This article analyzes the novel El decimo infierno (1997) by the Argentine writer and theorist of crime novels Mempo Giardinelli as a ‘post-detective’ novel, a subgenre of Spanish-American crime fiction that emerged in the late nineties of the twentieth century in which criminals instead of the detective or private investigator act as protagonists. The present article suggests examining the topoi of hell and heat from a new angle, which is Byung-Chul Han’s philosophical...

pp. 53-69. The paper analyzes the transformations that western film undergoes-a genre that represents the foundational and constituent crimes of the nation state-, in the appropriations made by Argentine and Mexican cinema. I focus in particular on the changes that can be perceived in the figure of the hero, in the representation of indigenous peoples and in the representation of women. Within Argentine cinema, I discuss in particular the film Pampa bárbara, while in Mexican...

pp. 97-109 This article reflects on how Mexican modern press allows its readers to become inhabitants or visitors of Mexico City, which works many times not only as a geographical destination, but mainly as the Utopia of the postrevolutionary peace. But it also shows them how vices that capital city entails are penalized, fortifying as well the idea of the city as Distopia. "It is the best moment to live in the city", but at...

pp. 84-96 This article explores two films by Mexican director Alonso Ruizpalacios that, despite being recent productions, focus their plots on pivotal events in Mexican history. Going back to the year 1999 in Güeros (2014) or to 1985 in Museo (2018), I propose that the exercises of inscription of multiple temporalities between the image and the horizon of enunciation of the director, function as readings of a palimpsest that reveals, on the one hand, the...

pp. 34-37

pp. 122-138 This article thinks how the meaning of sculpture has changed from the heroic monument of the State-formation period. Today, it is, rather a flexible environment that, instead of presenting a static vision of the past, includes the moveable and complex interacting parts of the present. This vision is the core of what Gabriel Orozco has planned for the future of the city’s largest park.

138 pp.

pp. 22-33 "Cambio de Tiempo" is the name of a song by Astrud that I recommend listening to. Under this title I have gathered six urban chronicles -more inclined to literature than journalism- related to Mexico City and its quality of palimpsest: the anniversary of the city, the infraordinary from my window, the nomenclature and commercial vocation of some streets, a forgotten legend, the social pulse of the covid-19 pandemic in 2021, and the earthquake...

pp. 33-54. This article tries to deconstruct the concept of development, national identity and poverty through the analysis of the project Mundo Maya. The key concept to dismantle those connections is the figure of the "indígena". Being unable to participate as neoliberal actor as part of the "poors", – although the development policies seem to propose solutions in order to fix this – the "indígena" is stuck in his function as "cultural heir of the...

pp. 158-176. In this article is carried out a follow-up of the phrase "Gray is the theory and green is the tree of gold of life", which José Revueltas took as vital watchword. From 1939 until 1975, shortly before the death of the Mexican author, the phrase appears in letters, notes, and essays, as well as drafts of Los días terrenales, one of the greatest novels of the author. In addition to a minimum record...

pp. 108-117. How is world literature shaped by publishing house politics? The present article deals with this question by examining the relationship between Octavio Paz and Siegfried Unseld in the context of the boom of Latin-American literature furthered by the Suhrkamp Verlag publishing house. Contemporary documents from the Siegfried Unseld Archive (German Literature Archives (DLA) Marbach) were evaluated for the first time and provide information about a conglomerate of aesthetic projections, political hopes and economic...