This volume looks at the shifting role of aesthetics in Latin American literature and literary studies, focusing on the concept of 'ethical responsibility' within these practices. The contributing authors examine the act of reading in its new globalized context of postcolonial theory and gender and performance studies.

Introduction: Reading Otherwise; E.G.Zivin PART I: ETHICS, POLITICS, REPRESENTATION The Ethical Superstition; B.Bosteels Ethics, Perhaps; G.Basterra PART II: ETHICS AND CULTURAL STUDIES Cultural Studies in the Blogosphere: Academics Meet New Technologies of Online Publication; I.Avelar Modernist Ethics: Really Engaging Popular Culture in Mexico and Brazil; E.Gabara PART III: THE LIMITS OF LITERATURE A Few Notes on Constructed Worlds: The Contradictory Legacy of Past Decades; S.Chejfec Saying the Unsayable: Saer, Or for an Ethics of Writing; G.Riera Infrapolitics and the Thriller: A Prolegomenon to Every Possible Form of Anti-Moralist Literary Criticism on Héctor Aguilar Camín's La guerra de Galio and Morir en el golfo; A.Moreiras PART IV: THE EXPERIENCE OF READING Ethical Asymmetries: Learning to Love a Loss; D.Sommer Reading for the People and Getting There First; F.Masiello