Literature and Philosophy

Alberto Castelli is a writer and a well-established scholar at Hainan University, China. He is known for his extensive work on modernism, postmodern dynamics, and cross-cultural studies. Some of his notable publications include Eros and Thanatos: Love across Civilizations (2023), Love, Beauty or Morality (Springer 2024), A Love for Nothingness, A Love for Death: The Metaphysics of Desire (2024), The Labyrinth of Love: A Tale of Latin American Romance (2024), and Romance in the Time of Modernism: A Literature of Silence (2024).

• Preface vi Acknowledgments xiii 1 Recalling metanarrative: Darwinism in literature 1 2 A love that kills: The Idiot 18 3 Philosophical and textual strands of Il deserto dei tartari 39 4 Shades of love in Love in the Time of Cholera 56 5 Camus, the absurd Meursault, and Alexandros Panagoulis 72 6 Prisoners of life: Dostoevsky’s hero and anti-hero 87 7 The bad faith of the nonexistent knight 101 8 Neo-platonic love in fictional obsession 120 Epilogue 138 Bibliography 141 Index 153

"Probing into the entrenched bond between love, sexuality, and violence and its function of state-building in twentieth century Latin America, this book is a fascinating re-interpretation of the literature within the context of the political and social tumults. Rethinking history in an age when authoritative history is mistrusted, its clarification on the “structure of feeling” of Latin American geo-cultural reality points to a cartographic imagination and re-enchantment of the complex reality. A must read for students of literature, sociology and cultural studies."Xiaoping Wang, Distinguished Professor of Comparative Literature at Tongji University, China. "In Labyrinths of Love, Alberto Castelli offers sensitive and perceptive new investigations of some of the major voices in Latin American literature. In so doing, he examines various conceptions of love and how they both intersect with and subvert larger sociopolitical concerns. Castelli's volume delivers a strong combination of theoretical understanding and close reading."James M. Decker (Ph.D.), Co-Editor, Interdisciplinary Literary Studies.