Doris Sommer is Professor of Romance Languages and Literature and Director of Graduate Studies in Spanish at Harvard University. Among her books are Proceed with Caution, When Engaged by Minority Writing in the Americas; Foundational Fictions: The National Romances of Latin America; Bilingual Games: Some Literary Investigations; and The Places of History: Regionalism Revisited in Latin America, published by Duke University Press.

• Thanks vii Invitation xi 1 Choose and Lose 32 Aesthetics is a Joke 293 Irritate the State 714 The Common Sense Sublime 1155 Let’s Play Games 157 Notes 193Index of Proper Names 251

“Doris Sommer’s book is the most thorough exploration of the possibilities that bilingualism opens to public life in contemporary societies. Written in a rigorous way, it is also punctuated by witticisms, insightful historical and sociological comments, and a cultural richness which makes its reading both pleasurable and eye-opening. It is a major contribution to an insufficiently explored field in contemporary scholarship.”-Ernesto Laclau, State University of New York, Buffalo “This is a tour de force-a brilliantly conceived and executed performance of scholarly seduction.”-Diana Taylor, author of The Archive and the Repertoire: Performing Cultural Memory in the Americas

Doris Sommer is Professor of Romance Languages and Literature and Director of Graduate Studies in Spanish at Harvard University. Among her books are Proceed with Caution, When Engaged by Minority Writing in the Americas; Foundational Fictions: The National Romances of Latin America; Bilingual Games: Some Literary Investigations; and The Places of History: Regionalism Revisited in Latin America, published by Duke University Press.

• Thanks vii Invitation xi 1 Choose and Lose 32 Aesthetics is a Joke 293 Irritate the State 714 The Common Sense Sublime 1155 Let’s Play Games 157 Notes 193Index of Proper Names 251

“Doris Sommer’s book is the most thorough exploration of the possibilities that bilingualism opens to public life in contemporary societies. Written in a rigorous way, it is also punctuated by witticisms, insightful historical and sociological comments, and a cultural richness which makes its reading both pleasurable and eye-opening. It is a major contribution to an insufficiently explored field in contemporary scholarship.”-Ernesto Laclau, State University of New York, Buffalo “This is a tour de force-a brilliantly conceived and executed performance of scholarly seduction.”-Diana Taylor, author of The Archive and the Repertoire: Performing Cultural Memory in the Americas

Doris Sommer is Professor of Romance Languages and Literature and Director of Graduate Studies in Spanish at Harvard University. Among her books are Proceed with Caution, When Engaged by Minority Writing in the Americas; Foundational Fictions: The National Romances of Latin America; Bilingual Games: Some Literary Investigations; and The Places of History: Regionalism Revisited in Latin America, published by Duke University Press.

• Thanks vii Invitation xi 1 Choose and Lose 32 Aesthetics is a Joke 293 Irritate the State 714 The Common Sense Sublime 1155 Let’s Play Games 157 Notes 193Index of Proper Names 251

“Doris Sommer’s book is the most thorough exploration of the possibilities that bilingualism opens to public life in contemporary societies. Written in a rigorous way, it is also punctuated by witticisms, insightful historical and sociological comments, and a cultural richness which makes its reading both pleasurable and eye-opening. It is a major contribution to an insufficiently explored field in contemporary scholarship.”-Ernesto Laclau, State University of New York, Buffalo “This is a tour de force-a brilliantly conceived and executed performance of scholarly seduction.”-Diana Taylor, author of The Archive and the Repertoire: Performing Cultural Memory in the Americas