Chapter 32 - Scenes from Postmodern Life: Literary Interventions in the Public Sphere

Summary

Beatriz Sarlo’s Escena de la vida postmoderna represents a turning point in literary studies, cultural studies, and media studies in Argentina. Originally published in 1994, it was a major, influential intervention on cultural and media questions that had not been central in literary studies, written by a well-known literary scholar. It represents a shift from “the book” to “the city” as a site of analysis and interpretation of cultural forms. Part urban critic, part flâneur, Sarlo is intrigued by the changing public spaces of Buenos Aires amid a new phase of late capitalism, marked by new forms of consumerism, visual culture, and entertainment. She dissects the meanings and dynamics of cultural expressions that transcend and challenge the power of the written word, and unearths a new Buenos Aires, increasingly dominated by screens, public gatherings in private spaces, youth subcultures, and art forms that echo new developments. The book stands as both a call to fellow literary scholars to foreground nonliterary forms of cultural production and engagement in their work, and as a representation of an important point of reference to “demediatize” the study of communication and meaning-making in order to comprehend the significance of public and popular urban sites.