Karl Erik Schøllhammer is Full Professor at the Department of Language and Literature at the Pontifície Universidade Católica in Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio) and a researcher at the Conselho Nacional de Pesquisa (CNPq) and Cientista do Nosso Estado (Faperj).

• Preface; 1. The Contemporary in Current Brazilian Literature; 2. Realisms in Question; 3. A Paper World—Reflections on the Realism of Luiz Ruffato; 4. Brazilian Literature and the Market; 5. The Victorious Return of the Self in Contemporary Writing; 7. The Challenge of the Sensible and the Sublime Revisited; 8. Farewell to the Contemporary!; Bibliography; Index.

The timely publication of Affect and Realism in Contemporary Brazilian Fiction makes the work of one of Brazil’s foremost literary scholars available to the English-speaking public. Written with clarity, elegance and erudition, this brilliant volume combines theoretical depth with a shrewd assessment of the main trends in contemporary Brazilian fiction. — Luiz Fernando Valente, Professor of Portuguese and Brazilian Studies and Comparative Literature, Brown University