Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Date of Degree

9-2022

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Program

Latin American, Iberian and Latino Cultures

Advisor

Oswaldo Zavala

Committee Members

Isolina Ballesteros

Sarah Pollack

Jorge Téllez

Subject Categories

Advertising and Promotion Management | Civic and Community Engagement | Communication Technology and New Media | Critical and Cultural Studies | Gender, Race, Sexuality, and Ethnicity in Communication | International and Intercultural Communication | Latin American Literature | Marketing | Mass Communication | Public Relations and Advertising | Publishing | Social Influence and Political Communication | Social Media | Sociology of Culture | Spanish Literature | Translation Studies

Keywords

self-exhibition, Latin American and Spanish literature, spectacle, neoliberalism, literary market, literary postures

Abstract

The consolidation of neoliberalism, the demands of the market, the importance of the image, the possibilities offered by social media, and the ways celebrity is constructed not only favor but also demand the exhibition of the artist.

This dissertation examines for the first time how twenty-first-century Latin American and Spanish authors with sexual, ethnic, gender, or class identities traditionally excluded from the realm of literary distinction employ self-exhibition to engage with the public, thus redrawing the limits of literature. Reflecting critically on the commodification and manipulation of the contemporary authorial figure, as well as the possibilities of agency that certain non-hegemonic writers have been able to find in recent decades, I demonstrate that through self-exhibition these authors are not only promoting their work but also mobilizing anti-hegemonic activism, incorporating new voices into the transnational publishing market, and broadening the literary experience, contributing to the resignification of the concept of literature.

This work is embargoed and will be available for download on Wednesday, September 30, 2026

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