Latin America and Existentialism

Latin America and Existentialism is a preliminary intellectual history, prioritising literature and contextualising Latin American philosophical contributions from the 1860s to the late 1930s, decades that coincide with the canons foundational years. This study takes a Pan-American approach to move the critical focus away from the River Plate, a region that has received some critical attention. In doing so, it focuses on existentially-neglected writers such as Brazils Machado de Assis and Graciliano Ramos, Jos Asuncin Silva from Colombia, Cubas Enrique Labrador Ruiz, and the Chilean Mara Luisa Bombal. Underappreciated Latin American philosophical voices and existentialisms canonical perspectives allow the author to discuss the many problems concerning the experiencing I of these authors, and to consider such existential themes as ethical vacuity, forlornness, the crisis of insufficiency, the conundrum of choice, and the enigma of authentic being. The concentration on Latin Americas existentially-hued interest in the human condition is an invitation to the reader to reconsider the peripheral status in the existentialism canon.