Roberto Schwarz Beyond Borders

The point of departure for this volume is the work of the Austrian Brazilian critic Roberto Schwarz on literature and culture. Since the 1970s, both his essayistic and dramatic writings have been impacting radical debates that transcend national and disciplinary borders. His international interlocutors include Beatriz Sarlo, Fredric Jameson, Franco Moretti, Susan Sontag, among many others.

In this volume, scholars from various contexts discuss Schwarz’s critical legacy, approaching it with new perspectives and relating it to different research objects. The topics addressed range from literature to issues of sociology, theory, translation, politics, etc. Despite the variety of themes, the contributions are interrelated by their common background: the Schwarzian approach. In particular, this volume reflects the radicality of a perspective which, through the formal analysis of, for example, a novel, achieves to shed light on sociohistorical dynamics not evident until then.

Especially in an intellectual scenario that is increasingly interested in the decentralization of thought and therefore in understanding global power relations in the culture, this volume is a unique contribution to the international critical debate.

Laura Rivas Gagliardi and Claudio Cardinali, University of Cologne, Germany; Melanie Strasser, University of Vienna, Austria.