NASHVILLE, Tenn. — One of Latin America‘s oldest and most prestigious
literary awards was won by a professor at Vanderbilt University for his
book examining cannibalism as a recurring cultural metaphor.
Carlos J·uregui, assistant professor of Spanish and anthropology, was notified Jan. 27 that his book-manuscript Canibalia has won the Premio Casa de las AmÈricas award for best socio-historical and literary essay of 2005.
“I am very pleased and certainly overwhelmed with the distinction and
recognition the prize represents,” J¬∑uregui said. “I was thrilled to
hear the good news and to get so many congratulatory messages from
colleagues around the country, Latin America and Europe.”
The book‘s full title is Canibalia: canibalismo, calibanismo, antropofagia cultural y consumo en Am√àrica Latina. The work explores the recurring and diverse uses of the metaphor of cannibalism in Latin American cultural history.
“Through the figure of the cannibal, we can perceive the most basic
aspirations, contradictions and fears of a culture defining and
reshaping itself, a culture forced to confront the many faces of
coloniality, beginning with classic imperialism and ending with the
most recent impact of globalization,” J¬∑uregui writes.
Casa de las Americas was founded in 1959 in Havana by Hayde Santamaria
and is currently directed by Roberto Fernandez Retamar. It promotes,
supports, awards and publishes the work of writers, artists, musicians
and academics.
Winning the prize puts J·uregui in the company of scholars and writers
including Edward Brathwaite, Eduardo Galeano, Susana Rotker, FranÁoise
Perus, Beatriz Gonz·lez-Stephan and Luis Britto GarcÌa.
The panel of judges of the Casa de las Americas prize said that
Canibalia is “a remarkable contribution to the field of cultural
studies, able to renew several of the most crucial debates in our
cultural history.” Rub√àn R√åos ¬°vila, a member of the panel, added that Canibalia
is “a great essay and cultural critique: erudite, ambitious, sharp; its
generous academic journey understands culture as indivisible from
politics, and it is from this intellectual conviction that the essay
exerts its radical critical gesture.”
Canibalia was submitted to Casa de las Americas by Tatiana Botero, a senior lecturer in Spanish at Vanderbilt and J¬∑uregui‘s wife.
“Almost furtively, she made the package with a preliminary version of
the manuscript and put it in the mail,” J¬∑uregui said. “I was then
obsessively working on the book and distracted from everything else.
Frankly, I did not have much faith in the possibility of winning.
“I have to thank my wife, Tatiana, who is greatly responsible for this accomplishment.”
Media contact: Jim Patterson, (615) 322-NEWS
jim.patterson@vanderbilt.edu