A companion to José Enrique Rodó

This Companion to José Enrique Rodó (1871-1917) is the first comprehensive intellectual biography in English of the great Latin Americanist, stylist, and writer on the ethical and aesthetic development of the youth of his subcontinent. Rodó is best known for his essay Ariel (1900), which marked the consolidation of modernity in Latin America in the wake of mass immigration and Spain's crushing defeat at the hands of a United States that was impressing upon its southern neighbours the unequivocal signs of its might. The circumstances were therefore most propitious for reflection on what being Latin American meant; Ariel did precisely that, as it pondered "roots" and proposed future "routes".

The book provides, in chronological order, a detailed and up-to-date assessment of Rodó’s work, his context and legacy, and draws widely on unpublished material from the extensive archives of his papers that are held in Montevideo.