There goes my hero: Heroic figures, utopic discourse, and cultural identity in Carlos Monsiváis's Aires de Familia
Ahí va mi héroe: figuras heroicas, discurso utópico e identidad cultural en Aires de Familia de Carlos Monsiváis;
Lá está meu herói: figuras heroicas, discurso utópico e identidade cultural no Aires de Familia de Carlos Monsiváis
Author
Potter, Sara
Full text
https://textoshibridos.uai.cl/index.php/textoshibridos/article/view/1810.15691/textoshibridos.v1i2.18
Abstract
In his 2000 essay Aires de familia, Carlos Monsiváis traces two narrative arcs that extend across the seven chapters or shorter essays within: the first is the evolution of utopismo or the concept of utopia in the Latin American context. The second arc, which is contained within the first, shows the evolution and impact of the heroic figure in Latin America from roughly the last half of the 19th century until 2000. To paraphrase Voltaire, Monsiváis seems to suggest at first that if heroes did not exist, it would be necessary to invent them, asking: “¿Son concebibles las sociedades sin personajes emblemáticos?” (79) The question seems rhetorical; the others that he poses after it seem less so, which in turn casts doubt upon the first. In his 2000 essay Aires de familia, Carlos Monsiváis traces two narrative arcs that extend across the seven chapters or shorter essays within: the first is the evolution of utopismo or the concept of utopia in the Latin American context. The second arc, which is contained within the first, shows the evolution and impact of the heroic figure in Latin America from roughly the last half of the 19th century until 2000. To paraphrase Voltaire, Monsiváis seems to suggest at first that if heroes did not exist, it would be necessary to invent them, asking: “¿Son concebibles las sociedades sin personajes emblemáticos?” (79) The question seems rhetorical; the others that he poses after it seem less so, which in turn casts doubt upon the first. In his 2000 essay Aires de familia, Carlos Monsiváis traces two narrative arcs that extend across the seven chapters or shorter essays within: the first is the evolution of utopismo or the concept of utopia in the Latin American context. The second arc, which is contained within the first, shows the evolution and impact of the heroic figure in Latin America from roughly the last half of the 19th century until 2000. To paraphrase Voltaire, Monsiváis seems to suggest at first that if heroes did not exist, it would be necessary to invent them, asking: “¿Son concebibles las sociedades sin personajes emblemáticos?” (79) The question seems rhetorical; the others that he poses after it seem less so, which in turn casts doubt upon the first.