This book argues for a new reading of the political and ethical through the literatures of Argentina, Chile, and Paraguay from 1970-2000. Carlos Amador reads a series of examples from the last dictatorship and the current post-dictatorship period in the Southern Cone, including works by Augusto Roa Bastos, Roberto Bolaño, Ceferino Reato, Horacio Verbitsky, Nelly Richard, Diamela Eltit, and Willy Thayer, with the goal of uncovering the logic behind their conceptions of belonging and rejection. Focusing on theoretical concepts that make possible the formation of any and all communities, this study works towards a vision of literature as essential to the structure of ethics.

Carlos M. Amador is an Assistant Professor of Spanish and Culture Studies at Michigan Technological University, USA.

Introduction: Reading Ethics and Logics of Individuation in the Southern Cone.- Theorizing Art in Chile during Dictatorship:The Conditions for the Singular and the Specific in Cultural Debate.- The Cultural Politics of The Singular and Specific: Chile, Vanguardism, and The Body.- Yo, el Supremo as the Singular.- The Scilingo Effect and the Specified.- Roberto Bolaño's Specific Exiles.- Conclusion.