Pariah in the Desert: The Heroic and the Monstrous in Horacio...

This is the first book in English on Horacio Quiroga (Uruguay 1878-Argentina 1937), a canonical author whose works are read by all advanced students of Spanish in the US and many other countries. The study examines Quiroga’s work through the theoretical lens of the heroic—a lens elaborated in part by means of Quiroga’s own disquisitions on the subject—and the complementary phenomenon of the monstrous. This lens serves to elucidate many evidently obscure and self-contradictory aspects of Quiroga’s work and its relation to the context in which he lived. That context included the neo-colonial social and economic milieu of Argentina’s fast-changing, immigrant-charged, increasingly materialistic society; the growing influence of foreign cultural discourses, particularly Hollywood film; the conflict between the genders in a society that embraced modernity but resisted changes in gender roles; the weight of new scientific discourses, especially Darwinian evolution, in social and political thought; and the impact on pedagogical theory and practice of these multiple changing discourses. This study discloses the extraordinary range of Quiroga’s work, which includes erotic romance, science fiction and fantasy, psychological occult, social satire, a great variety of juvenile literature, outdoor adventure and—most familiar to readers in the United States—gothic and naturalist horror. The book concludes that Quiroga’s consistent imperative of the heroic is essential to reconciling these various, evidently incompatible aspects of Quiroga’s poetics, revealing its theoretical and ethical coherence.

his ambivalent relationship to science and technology, the tension between his fascination with the menacing aspects of tropical nature and his commitment to what is today known as environmental sustainability, and, especially, his apparent misogyny. Garth reads the canonical stories in tandem with Quiroga's lesser-known fiction, his letters, film criticism, and copious writings for children so as to skillfully and convincingly unpack Quiroga's radical critique of the social and sexual mores of the urban bourgeoisie. -- Jennifer L. French, Williams College Master of a long tradition of the short story in Latin America, Quiroga’s life, works and influence are widely known in the Spanish-speaking world. Violence, tragedy and testing nature’s limits are central to Quiroga’s life and fiction as he moved between the heightened rhythms of urban modernization and immigration, and the untamed, dangerous nature of tropical wilderness. Quiroga asks,

A wonderful achievement, and a very welcome addition to the body of scholarship on the life and work of Horacio Quiroga, a writer of great relevance in our time of ecological crisis. Todd Garth tackles some of the most puzzling questions for readers of Quiroga

About the Author

Todd S. Garth is professor of Spanish in the Languages and Cultures Department at the United States Naval Academy.

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