Deformative Fictions

<div>Tapping a rich vein of Latin American literature <i>Deformative Fictions</i> by Ashley Hope Pérez excavates works that unsettle defamiliarize and disrupt access to the conventional pleasures of reading and interpretation. Close readings highlight the nuances of texts that have been misread underread or fetishized because they depart from literary norms including fiction by Roberto Bolaño and Silvina Ocampo. Interweaving rhetorical and narratological analysis with reflections on the ethical stakes of writing reading and interpreting deformative fictions and fictional cruelty Pérez issues a resounding entreaty for us to expand our understandings of the value of narrative beyond the logics of utility and comfort. Doing so she contends allows readers to embrace the full possibilities of the relationships among authors readers and the worlds we inhabit on and off the page. In defamiliarizing the act of reading deformative fictions reacquaint us with its ethical weight.</div>