Abstract
This essay studies the presence of counterpoints in Roger Bartra’s essay The Cage of Melancholy (1987). Firstly, counterpoint represents a writing style that is decentred and evasive, proposed by Bartra as a critical vehicle and an alternative for nationalist appropriations of Mexican identity that precede his work. Secondly, I will examine the references to counterpoint within a series of metacritical meditations that Bartra develops on the appropriation of Otherness by Mexican nationalism and through writing. Ultimately, the tension between contrastive models of counterpoint – that alternatively stress its evasive and synthesizing character – illustrates how Bartra situates the conflict between identity and alterity at the centre of this essayistic project.
| Original language | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 337-355 |
| Journal | Bulletin of Hispanic Studies (Liverpool), |
| Volume | 95 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| Early online date | 15 Mar 2018 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2018 |