Edwin Murillo: Latin America and Existentialism

Murillo, E. Latin America and existentialism: A Pan-American literary history (1864-1938). Chicago, 2023.

This book is a comparative study of existentialism in Latin America, addressing and rectifying Latin America’s subordinated position in the existentialist canon. It is an intellectual history that prioritizes literature and contextualizes Latin America’s philosophical contributions from the

1880s to the late 1930s, decades that coincide with the canon’s foundational years. Using a Pan-American approach, the book discusses key figures such as Juan Carlos Onetti, Carlos Astrada, and Ernesto Sábato within the broader context of Latin American existentialism and examines writers from less studied regions, such as Brazil’s Machado de Assis and Graciliano Ramos, Colombia’s José Asunción Silva, Cuba’s Enrique Labrador Ruiz, and Chile’s María Luisa Bombal.