3 Review(s)

Macedonio Fernandez (Argentinian, 1874-1952) is a critical figure in modern Latin American literature, mentor to Borges and precursor to the avant-garde. "The Self of the City" shows Macedonio's work to be a systematic effort to "save the city" from a modernity based on the fallacy of Descartes' autonomous self. Garth dismantles the myth of Macedonio, exposing Borges's role in creating it. Comparing Macedonio's work to that of the avant-garde, he reveals how Macedonio critiques the avant-garde's continued reliance on the self. Garth examines important social and political realities in early twentieth-century Buenos Aires along with current theories on these phenomena. He concludes that Macedonio's opus rejects the modern city as paradoxical and untenable, detrimental to the sentient individual, and in need of salvation by means of a radical new poetics. Todd S. Garth is Assistant Professor of Spanish at the U.S. Naval Academy.