Juan Decastro
Emeritus Professor
Email
decastrj@newschool.edu
Office Location
A - 66 West 12th Street
Profile
I have written on diverse topics in Latin American literature: including the work of the Peruvian novelist Mario Vargas Llosa; on the way revolution and revolutionary thinking has been depicted in the region's fiction; and on the political and cultural activism of the Peruvian Marxist José Carlos Mariátegui, during the 1920s. I am currently at work on the volume on Latin American literature in the Routledge "Engagements with LIterature" series.
Degrees Held
PhD, Comparative Literature, University of Southern California; MA, Comparative Literature, University of Southern California; BA, English, California State University, Los Angeles
Recent Publications
Books:
- The Oxford Handbook of the Latin American Novel, co-editor with Ignacio López-Calvo (Oxford UP, 2023). https://login.libproxy.newschool.edu/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=3548089&site=ehost-live&scope=site
- Borges and Kafka, Bolaño and Bloom: Latin American Authors and the Western Canon (Vanderbilt UP, 2022)
- Bread and Beauty: The Cultural Politics of José Carlos Mariátegui (Brill, 2020; Haymarket, 2021) https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.libproxy.newschool.edu/lib/newschool/detail.action?docID=6376199
- Writing Revolution in Latin American: From Martí to García Márquez to Bolaño (Vanderbiilt UP, 2019) https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/79553
- Roberto Bolaño as World Literature, co-editor with Nicholas Birns (Bloomsbury, 2017) https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.libproxy.newschool.edu/lib/newschool/detail.action?docID=4742334
- Critical Insights: Mario Vargas Llosa, editor (Salem Press, 2014). https://search-ebscohost-com.libproxy.newschool.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=e900xww&AN=766342&site=ehost-live
- The Contemporary Spanish-American Novel: Bolaño and After, co-editor with Will H. Corral and Nicholas Birns (Bloomsbury, 2013)
- Mario Vargas Llosa: Public Intellectual inNeoliberal Latin America (U of Arizona P, 2011)
- Vargas Llosa and Latin American Politics , co-editor with Nicholas Birns (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010)
- The Spaces of Latin American Literature: Tradition, Globalization and Cultural Production (Palgrave Macmillan, 2008)
- Mestizo Nations: Culture, Race andConformity in Latin American Literature (U of Arizona P, 2002)
Selected Articles:
- "Boom Writers and Power." Council of Hemispheric Affairs. September 15, 2014.
- "Vargas Llosa, el Nobel y la izquierda.Guaraguao" 16.40 (2012): 55-66.
- (co-written with Nicholas Birns) “The Historical Novel: The War of the End of the World.” The Cambridge Companion to Mario Vargas Llosa. Ed. Efraín Kristal. Cambridge UP, Cambridge, 2012. 62-73.
- “‘¿En qué idioma escribe usted?’: Spanish, Tagalog, and Identity in José Rizal’s Noli me tangere.” MLN 126.2 (March 2011).
- “Australia in Borges andBuarque.” Antipodes: A Global Journal of Australian/NewZealand Literature 24.2 (December 2010): 157-63.
- “Mr. Vargas Llosa Goes to Washington.” Vargas Llosa and Latin American Politics. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010. 21-28.
- “Mario Vargas Llosa versus Barbarism [PDF]” Latin American Research Review 45.2 (June, 2010). 5-26.
- “¿Fue José CarlosMariátegui racista? [PDF]” A Contracorriente 7.2 (Winter 2010). 80-91.
- “DeEliot a Borges: Tradición y periferia [PDF]” Iberoamericana 7.26 (2007): 7-18.
- “RubénDarío Visits Ricardo Palma:Tradition, Cosmopolitanism, and the Development of an Independent LatinAmerican Literature.” Chasqui: Revista de Literatura Latinoamericana 36.1 (2007): 48-61.
- “Christopher Isherwood Meets Jorge LuisBorges: On the Value of South American Cultures [PDF]” MLN 119 (2004): 329-43.
- “Richard Rodriguez in ‘Borderland’:The Ambiguity of Hybridity [PDF]” Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies 26.1 (2001): 101-27.
Interviews:
- "Bolaño and beyond: An Interview with Juan E. De Castro on Contemporary Spanish Language Literature." Former People: Bangs, Whimpers, Art, Culture, and Commentary. September 30, 2013.
Current Courses
- Independent Study
LLSL 3950 - Fall 2026 - Ind Senior Project
LLSL 4990 - Fall 2026
Future Courses
- Independent Study
LLSL 3950 - Spring 2027 - Ind Senior Project
LLSL 4990 - Spring 2027
Past Courses
- Latin America Nobel Literature
LLSL 2033 - Spring 2026 - Magical Realism
LLSL 2044 - Spring 2026 - Independent Study
LLSL 3950 - Spring 2026 - Ind Senior Project
LLSL 4990 - Spring 2026