Harbinger of Modernity: Marcos Aguinis and the Democratization of Argentina

Wassner, Dalia. Harbinger of Modernity: Marcos Aguinis and the Democratization of Argentina

. Leiden: Brill, 2014. First edition. Octavo. viii, 174pp. Index and bibliography. Colored pictorial boards with white lettering on a black spine, and brown wraparound band at foot. A fine, as new copy.

In Harbinger of Modernity: Marcos Aguinis and the Democratization of Argentina, Dalia Wassner presents an integrated analysis of the civic work and literary oeuvre of Marcos Aguinis, who served as Secretary of Culture during Argentina’s transition from dictatorship to democracy. Situating his writings in their historical and intellectual context, Wassner explores Aguinis’s engagement with the dialectic of modernization as a Jewish public intellectual equally dedicated to fostering Argentine democracy and to inscribing himself in the annals of westernization. Encompassing intellectual history, literary criticism, Latin American history, and Jewish studies, Wassner’s work illuminates the intersecting roles of Jews and public intellectuals in bringing democracy to post-dictatorship Argentina. (Publisher)

Contents: Introduction — The historical and literary context of the Argentine public intellectual — Aguinis and Alfonsin: public intellectuals and the Argentine government — Aguinis and the essay: the Argentine Erasmus? — Dialogue: leading by example — Jews and the novel: Aguinis’s means to an end — Conclusion. (OCLC)

Volume 3 of the Brill series, “Jewish Latin America; Issues and Methods.” Fine. Hardcover. (51974) $75