Rodrigo Lichtle Ventosa

Rodrigo Lichtle Ventosa

First Name: 
Rodrigo
Last Name: 
Lichtle Ventosa
Title: 
PhD Student
Biography : 

Rodrigo Lichtle Ventosa is a PhD Candidate in Hispanic Literatures and Cultures with a specialization in Book History and Print Culture at the University of Toronto. His dissertation focuses on thematic, formal, and theoretical returns of the seventies in contemporary Latin American experimental cultural objects. He has a forthcoming article, La Cleta Cartonera: Limits and Potentialities of the Expendable in Puebla’s Publishing Market, and served as co-editor of the volume, Para leer la eugenesia en América Latina.

Education: 
Lic, Universidad de las Américas Puebla
MA, University of Toronto
Personal Website: 
https://www.rodrigolichtle.com/

People Type:

Areas of Interest: 
  • Experimental literature;
  • Latin American literature of the late 20th and 21st Century;
  • New formalism;
  • Late Avant-Garde; 
  • Critiques of Fascisim;
  • Creative writing.

Program:

Cohort:

Dissertation Title: 
Seventies Aesthetics: A Thematic, Formal, and Theoretical Return of the 1970s in Contemporary Latin American Experimental Cultural Production
Dissertation Supervisors: 
Prof. Susan Antebi
Dissertation Description: 

My project analyzes the thematic, formal, and theoretical connections that 21st-century experimental Latin American cultural products have created with the seventies. I argue that the seventies hold, on the one hand, a nostalgic return for writers that also points towards the future, and on the other hand, the formal potentiality to criticize late capitalist and neoliberal logic.  Thus, I propose a new reading of formal elements from the seventies that have resurfaced in contemporary cultural products, which still carry their disruptive potential against consumer culture, violence, and fascism.

Presentations: 
“‘La civilización final volverá al trópico’: la valencia de la utopía en La raza cósmica”. 2022 Congress of the Canadian Association of Latin American and Caribbean Studies. University of Toronto. August 2022.
"'Un perro que se traga sus propios ojos': El canibalismo del poder totalitario en Matadero seis de Carlos A. Aguilera". Asociación Canadiense de Hispanistas 2023. Ottawa. June 2023.
"Sujetos espectaculares y espacios queer en La estatua de sal, de Salvador Novo". XXVII annual Juan Brice-Novoa Mexican Studies Conference. University of California, Irvine. February 2023.
"Espacios y temporalidades inescapables: La compañía, de Verónica Gerber Bicecci, y La tierra y la sombra, dirigada por César Augusto Acevedo". LIV Congreso del Instituto Internacional de Literatura Iberoamericana. 2023.
“Violencia lúdica en Óptica sanguínea (2014), de Daniela Bojórquez Vértiz, y Restauración (2019), de Ave Barrera”. XXVIII Congreso Anual de Mexicanistas Juan Bruce-Novoa. University of California, Irvine. April 18-20, 2024.
“Mirada activa en La estatua de sal de Salvador Novo”. MexicanEast. Cornell University. September 20-21, 2025.
“De vampiros y compañías: Una lectura de «La tierra y la sombra» y «La compañía»”. LASA 2025. San Francisco. May 23-26, 2025.
“Poesía Valium: una lectura de Sastrerías.” MLA 2026. Toronto. January 6-11, 2026.
“La construcción de una estética perversa en Sebregondi retrocede”. LASA 2026. Paris. May 26-30, 2026. Forthcoming.