Nightmares of the Lettered City: Banditry and Literature in Latin America, 1916–1929 presents an original study of the popular theme of banditry in works of literature and banditry’s pivotal role during the conceptualization and formation of the Latin American nation-state. Dabove examines writings over a broad time period, and while the book focuses on four crucial countries (Argentina, Mexico, Brazil, and Venezuela), it is the first to address the depiction of banditry in Latin America as a whole. Dabove analyzes the bandit as a radical other, a figure through which the elites depicted the threats posed to them by various sectors. As he convincingly demonstrates, the elite’s construction of the bandit is essential to our understanding of the development of the Latin American nation in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Professor Dabove joined the CU-Boulder faculty in 2002.
