Critical geographies of Globalization: Buenos Aires and São Paulo in the 21st century

Critical Geographies of Globalization examines the trans formations of urban space and culture in turn-of-the-millennium Latin America. More specifically, the study focuses on critical approaches to discourses of globalization as they appear in literature, art and other forms of cultural production in and about Buenos Aires and São Paulo. This study contends that recent Argentine and Brazilian literature and other cultural texts register a (re)organization of urban spaces and interpret its local effects by critically looking at the portrayal of the urban effects of globalization. This project responds to a vital need to attend to the study of Latin American cities as they provide us with important sources for analysis of overarching questions of national identities, race and ethnic identities, gender identities, and class identities in Latin American societies from the perspective of culture. By working across disciplines and national experiences, my project contributes to the task of producing cultural interpretations focusing on critiques of globalization in two of Latin America's principle cities. There are four chapters that comprise this study, the first two chapters deal with discursive and territorial transformations of Buenos Aires with respect to experiences of neoliberal restructuring as seen in Puerto Apache (2002) by Argentine novelist Juan Martini and Invasión live performance by the Grupo de Arte Callejero, staged in December of 2001. The third and fourth chapters look at São Paulo as a space of critical reflection that helps us understand the political and ideological impacts of the global city narrative as they appear in the novel eles eram muitos cavalos (2001) by Brazilian author Luis Ruffato and in the 28th São Paulo Biennial of 2008.