The Senses of Democracy

An extraordinary book…Masiello's book is a beautiful exploration of the long history of [the mighty power of managing one's own senses] in Latin America. ~Iberoamericana

Masiello's work is undoubtedly persuasive and engaging throughout, offering a refreshing method to pursue studies of politics and emotion. ~Bulletin of Hispanic Studies

[Masiello's] local scenes of sense work successfully make the case for a new approach to Latin American literature, art, and culture grounded in the aesthetics and politics of sense perception. They also serve as anchor points for one of Masiello’s subsidiary claims: that the work of the senses in culture is best understood when one turns way from universalist generalizations to focus on localized regimes of perception. In this way, The Senses of Democracy extends an invitation to other theorists and scholars to continue mining the local and regional specificity of sense perception in Latin America, in contexts and time periods that are not covered in this book. ~Revista de Esudios Hispánicos

While the focus is on Latin America, the universe this book moves in is a wide one, informed by US literature and history, European arts, literature and philosophy, and imperial and postcolonial theory and history, all rendered by a sharp-eyed and prodigiously informed mind. Few scholars can hold so many literary and historical traditions in dynamic counterpositioning. In this sense, the book is a real tour de force. It welcomes the reader and sets up no barriers to comprehension. Much of its brilliance lies in this incredible juggling act. ~Gwen Kirkpatrick, Georgetown University, author of The Dissonant Legacy of Modernismo: Lugones, Herrera y Reissig, and the Voices of Modern Spanish American Poetry

A new literary and cultural history of more than two hundred years of cultural production. This book is clearly the work of a scholar who has reached a brilliant point of integration of her analytical and interpretive powers and who has the insight to be both original and persuasive. I would not be surprised if Masiello opens up a field of Latin American sense studies with the publication of this book. ~Diana Sorensen, Harvard University, author of A Turbulent Decade Remembered: Scenes from the Latin American Sixties