This month, we’re showcasing our titles from the Liverpool Latin American Studies collection which, along with all the titles from the Contemporary Hispanic and Lusophone series, are included within our Open Access initiative, Opening the Future.

Opening the Future is Liverpool University Press’ collective subscription model that, through its membership scheme, makes library funds go further: achieving the dual objectives of increasing collections and supporting Open Access.

To celebrate the success of the initiative so far, we’ve put together a reading list of some of the key titles included within scheme as part of the Modern Languages Package. The following books are just a few examples from the Liverpool Latin American Studies collection, which are among the 36 titles currently on offer which members will get free, unlimited, digital access to – across the globe.

---

Writing and the Revolution by Katie Brown

In contrast to recent theories of the ‘global’ Latin American novel, this book reveals the enduring importance of the national in contemporary Venezuelan fiction, arguing that the novels studied respond to both the nationalist and populist cultural policies of the Bolivarian Revolution and Venezuela’s literary isolation. Grounded in theories of metafiction and intertextuality, the book provides a close reading of eight novels, relating them to the context of their production.

Adventuring Through Spanish Colonies by Matthew Brown

Between 1810 and 1825, 7,000 English, Scottish and Irish mercenaries sailed to Gran Colombia to fight against Spanish colonial rule under the rebel forces of Simón Bolívar. Adventuring Through Spanish Colonies explores the lives of these men – their encounters with other soldiers, indigenous people, local women and slaves – as recounted in documents that fall outside the usual remit of military, political and economic historians.

Literary Re-imaginings of Argentina’s Independence by Catriona McAllister

Literary Re-imaginings of Argentina’s Independence argues for a new approach to reading contemporary Latin American historical fiction that showcases its response to politically urgent questions. As the moment of the birth of the patria, Independence enjoys a privileged role in the historical imaginary of many Latin American nations. In Argentina, the period has been fundamental to state discourses of nation-building and identity, lending its figures and central narratives a powerful symbolic function.

Decadent Modernity by Michela Coletta

By treating modernity as a ubiquitous category in which ideas of progress and decadence are far from being mutually exclusive, this book explores how different groups drew from European sociological and medical theories to produce a series of cultural representations based on notions of degeneration. The book investigates four themes that were central to definitions of Latin American modernity at the turn of the century: race and the nation, the search for the autochthonous, education, and aesthetic values. 

Colonial Legacies and Contemporary Identities in Chile by Céire Broderick

This book explores traditional and contemporary concerns surrounding gender and ethnicity in Chile through a textual analysis of historical novels depicting seventeenth-century figure, Catalina de los Ríos y Lisperguer. Drawing on theories from the Global North and South, it incorporates postcolonial perspectives and decolonial feminist methodologies to expose patriarchal, Eurocentric hierarchies constructed during the colonial era.

Argentina’s Partisan Past by Michael Goebel

Argentina’s Partisan Past is a challenging new study about the production, the spread and the use of understandings of national history and identity for political purposes in twentieth-century Argentina. Based on extensive research of primary and published sources, it analyses how nationalist views about what it meant to be Argentine were built into the country’s long drawn-out crisis of liberal democracy from the 1930s to the 1980s. 

---

To view the full collection of Liverpool Latin American Studies books within the Modern Languages Package, and to find out more about the initiative, please visit the Opening the Future website or email OpeningTheFuture@copim.ac.uk.

Follow us for more updates
Sign up to our mailing list
Twitter | Instagram
www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk