Cruel Modernity by Jean Franco

Cruel Modernity Reviews

• 
  R.J. Gilmour

  Just finished Jean Franco's Cruel Modernity (Durham: Duke University Press, 2013). From the start I was intrigued by the book. Franco a professor of comparative literature began with a promising premise, seeking to explore the relationship between cruelty, modernity, the nation-state, politics, masculinity and misogyny. "Cruelty on the massive scale described in these pages is not a spontaneous and individual act, committed by deviants. It requires sanction from the state or from the rogue organization, as well as a process of dehumanization. It is often directed not toward an equal but toward a helpless and hated enemy: a peasant, a child, a pregnant woman, or a member of an indigenous group, each of whom transgresses the ideal masculinity that kills the mother and exalts the father. But while cruelty clearly is a transgression of "the inherent dignity and of the equal and unalienable rights of all members of the human family," listed in the 1948 Declaration of Human Rights as "the foundation of freedom, justice, and peace in the world," it cannot be explained as a throwback to some prior state of humanity. Not only has cruelty been instrumental in the cooperation of the nation-state by private interests and the softening up of civil society through a regime of fear; it is also a scar on liberal society." (247)
  
  It was theoretically sophisticated quoting all the right sources and authors for such a study. However, studies of cruelty risk becoming a catalog of abuse in their effort to craft a coherent study. There is no doubt that Franco provides a phenomenal amount of research about cruelty, torture, rape and the systemic abuse of power in Latin America, but too often the catalog of these abuses becomes a litany that reifies the horror in the telling. This is a problem for anyone wanting to study cruelty. Language fails to express the nature of horror and cruelty, and while Franco discusses the tension between the need to narrate the unspeakable, and the inability to express it, the endless catalog of abuse fails to prove her point. As she quotes from the novel 2666, "No one pays attention to these killings, but the secret of the world is hidden in them." (238)
  
• 
  Ulises

  este es un libro de ensayos de la magnífica Jean Franco, quien se ha interesado por esclarecer los mapas políticos que guarda la literatura con otros aspectos como la sociología, la filosofía política (poder, cuerpos, violencia, biopolíticas, etc.).
  me gusta bastante cómo localiza la intersección del poder sobre los cuerpos con la cultura de masas, así como con los aspectos políticos que se han suscitado en América Latina, como el narco, las dictaduras latinoamericanas del siglo XX y, obviamente, en el plano de lo sociológico, como la densidad de la población y sus estrategias de control económico y social.
• 
  Andrew Bentley

  In what is described as a "disturbing" and "powerful" study, leading Latin Americanist Jean Franco explores what she describes as the hypocritical modernity in Latin America that requires the privileged population to give up the basic human taboo of inflicting harm upon others. Through literature, photographs, testimonies, and archives, she had meticulously explored what it means when globalization, violence, and gender have collided to reshape Latin America in the last two centuries. She uses pertinent case examples from the civil wars in Guatemala and Peru, as well as current events along the borders of Mexico and the US, as well as where Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay meet at Iguazu. This is a must read for anyone interested in Latin America!
• 
  Naomi

  I had high hopes for this book, but it wasn't quite what I had expected. It's much more a literature (including fiction) and film review about the cultural presentation of violence and cruelty. As I had only limited reference to the works in question, it often proved frustrating. The overall arc about the connection between modernity and cruelty and the connections between dictatorships and gangs were there and academically interesting, but I do wish they were better fleshed out. But the problem with discussions on torture and cruelty is the inherent difficulty with sources and bias. So Jean Franco tried to avoid this problem by centering on fictional portrayals that have the ability to withdraw one level and yet still reflect societal norms. Also, warning, a lot of this book is graphic.