Everyday Luxury Objects in the Literature of Globalization

The talk interrogates Marx's notion of commodity fetishism from the vantage point of new materialisms. Complicating the notion that counternarrative may reveal the social relations behind the fascination toward commodities, Hoyos draws from fiction writers like Fernando Vallejo and Margo Glantz to characterize a mode of storytelling he calls "hyperfetishism".

Hyperfetishism exacerbates social tension, seeking to disturb our relationship with the object, rather than to demystify it. The advantage of this mode is manifold, for it affirms the reality of fetishism and recognizes its connection to material properties, instead of searching for a supposedly hidden truth.

From the softness of shoes to the glow of faux gold, from unfashionable toilets to crumbling houses, Hoyos shows how contemporary Latin American fiction theorizes globalization's emerging material paradigms.

Free and open to the public!
Thursday November 3rd, 2016
3:30pm-5:00pm
Jewel Box (CTIHB)