This is the first book in English on Horacio Quiroga (Uruguay 1878-Argentina 1937), a canonical author whose works are read by all advanced students of Spanish in the US and many other countries. The study examines Quirogaâs work through the theoretical lens of the heroicâa lens elaborated in part by means of Quirogaâs own disquisitions on the subjectâand the complementary phenomenon of the monstrous. This lens serves to elucidate many evidently obscure and self-contradictory aspects of Quirogaâs work and its relation to the context in which he lived. That context included the neo-colonial social and economic milieu of Argentinaâs fast-changing, immigrant-charged, increasingly materialistic society; the growing influence of foreign cultural discourses, particularly Hollywood film; the conflict between the genders in a society that embraced modernity but resisted changes in gender roles; the weight of new scientific discourses, especially Darwinian evolution, in social and political thought; and the impact on pedagogical theory and practice of these multiple changing discourses. This study discloses the extraordinary range of Quirogaâs work, which includes erotic romance, science fiction and fantasy, psychological occult, social satire, a great variety of juvenile literature, outdoor adventure andâmost familiar to readers in the United Statesâgothic and naturalist horror. The book concludes that Quirogaâs consistent imperative of the heroic is essential to reconciling these various, evidently incompatible aspects of Quirogaâs poetics, revealing its theoretical and ethical coherence.
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