The Wandering Signifier: Rhetoric of Jewishness in the Latin American Imaginary. ERIN GRAFF ZIVIN: Durham & London: Duke University Press, 2008

Abstract

Erin Graff Zivin's The Wandering Signifier: Rhetoric of Jewishness in the Latin American Imaginary belongs to this forming tradition that aims to explore the Judeo-Latin American field by studying late nineteenth- through late twentieth-century literature from Argentina, Brazil, Peru, Mexico, Colombia, and Nicaragua. She opts for a unique perspective by proposing that Jewishness be viewed as a wandering signifier, a floating artifact that shifts between literary texts and socio-historical contexts, a sign that may pertain to certain extra-textual circumstances, yet still remain a sublime textual representation, never fully attained.