Getting from Buenos Aires to Mexico City Without Passing Through Madrid: Latin American Publishing Topographies

Abstract

Why do some literary works gain recognition only where they are written while others travel around the globe? We answer these questions through a case study of Argentina where we identify two main pathways to international recognition. The first involves a powerful, well-established route that passes through Spain to get to other parts of Latin America. A second path scales up by de-centring Spain as the capital of Spanish-language publishing and creating alternative, independent trajectories of circulation through partnerships with independent publishers throughout Latin America and beyond. These challenge traditional power brokers but also run a high risk of being recolonised by them, thereby calling into question how long it is possible to remain “independent” for long.