Neo-baroques: From Latin America to the Hollywood Blockbuster

The Baroque is back in contemporary culture. The ten essays authored by international scholars, and three interventions by artists, examine the return of the baroque as Neo-Baroque through interdisciplinary perspectives. Understanding the Neo-Baroque as transcultural (between different cultures) and transhistorical (between historical moments) the contributors to this volume offer diverse perspectives that suggest the slipperiness of the Neo-Baroque may best be served by the term ’Neo-Baroques’. Case studies analysed reflect this plurality and include: the productions of Belgian theatre company Abattoir Fermé; Claire Denis’ French New Extremist film Trouble Every Day; the novel Lujuria tropical by exiled El Salvadorian Quijada Urias; the science fiction blockbuster spectacles The Matrix and eXistenZ; and the spectacular grandeur of early Hollywood movie palaces and the contemporary Las Vegas Strip.

Contributors: Jens Baumgarten, Marjan Colletti, Bolívar Echeverría, Rita Eder, Hugh Hazelton, Monika Kaup, Peter Krieger, Patrick Mahon, Walter Moser, Angela Ndalianis, Richard Reddaway, Karel Vanhaesebrouck, Saige Walton.

Walter Moser, Ph.D. (1968) is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures at the University of Ottawa. He is a renowned scholar who has published widely, including the edited anthology Résurgences baroques. Trajectoires d’un processus transculturel, 2001.

Angela Ndalianis, Ph.D (1998) is Professor of Screen Studies at the University of Melbourne. Her research focuses on entertainment histories. Her publications include Neo-Baroque Aesthetics and Contemporary Entertainment (2004), The Horror Sensorium (2012), and The Contemporary Comic Book Superhero (2008).

Peter Krieger, Ph.D (1995) is Professor at the Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. His recent book is Transformaciones del paisaje urbano en México. Representación y registro visual, 2012.