“Critical Passions is undoubtedly the best place to turn in order to sample a vast array of previously dispersed works by one of the most influential, tireless, original and engaged scholars of Latin American literature. . . . Critical Passions is that rare sort of book that pays homage to a brilliant critic without obliterating the multiple registers of her own voice. . . . Franco writes briliantly without need for deciphering, which makes the five hundred pages of Critical Passions a joy to read and reread.” — Elzbieta Sklodowska, MLN
“Not only a crowning achievement to a spectacular career but also provides a vivisectional view of the field of Latin American studies as it has developed over the past three decades. . . . This collection of essays provides a distinctive contribution to the field because it allows us not only to see where we have been, but to look critically through Franco’s unflinching eyes at where we are today.” — Kate Jenckes, Nepantla
“Franco’s scholarly efforts prove as subversive as the unruly maps of the western hemisphere that invert south and north, confronting observers with a geographical looking glass that contests parochial explanations.” — V. Daniel Rogers, American Quarterly
“Jean Franco is one of the most important American scholars to devote an entire career to disseminating Latin American literatures among readers of English. Her work has also been recognized as essential reading by many Latin American scholars. Thus, a collection of essays could not be more welcome than Critical Passions. . . . [A] landmark of Latin American criticism, and ought to be read by everyone who is interested in cultural matters, even those outside this field.” — Marcus Vinicius Freitas, World Literature Today
“Recognized for her feminist critique of Latin American writing, Jean Franco participated in major debates in Latin American studies—beginning with the ‘boom’ period of the 1960s and continuing through debates on ideology and discourse, Marxism, mass culture, and postmodernism. These essays demonstrate Franco’s ability to reflect on and judge with equal seriousness all spheres of expression.” — Hispanic Outlook in Higher Education
“The essays in Critical Passions represent the impressive range and analytical depth of Jean Franco’s work; at the same time they demonstrate the extent to which she employs history as a basis for her analysis and criticism of literature, art, politics, and popular culture. They are uniformly well written and copiously documented with notes. The editors have made a most valuable contribution to the field of Latin American studies by making these articles readily accessible, and the book would make a significant addition to the library of any Latin Americanist.” — Joseph R. Farrell, Hispanic American Historical Review
"Jean Franco's contribution to the field of Latin American studies cannot be underestimated. With three decades of scholarship she has become one of the most respected voices both inside and outside Latin America. Yet somewhat surprisingly this work is the first attempt to bring together her most important essays. . . It is a fitting tribute to the work of someone who has devoted thirty years of study to the field whose literature, history, and culture have indeed become her 'critical passions'." — British Bulletin of Publications on Latin America
“A formidable compendium of Franco’s critical thought, attesting to the evolution of a brilliant avant-garde intellectual who has set the pace for serious inquiry in the Latin American field as we know it today. Critical Passions is not simply a tribute to Franco but an urgent recounting of the progression of a field of study that she has helped shape.” — Francine Masiello, author of Between Civilization and Barbarism: Women, Nation, and Literary Culture in Modern Argentina
“Pratt and Newman have done the critical readership an immense service by collecting these far-flung essays by one of our foremost critics. This learned feminist touches upon issues of history and identity, of cultural politics and the study of globality, from a political perspective that remains resolutely focused on social justice.” — Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, author of A Critique of Postcolonial Reason: Toward a History of the Vanishing Present
“The essays collected in this volume reflect the range, innovativeness, theoretical clarity, and analytical power that have made Jean Franco’s work a beacon of light in the study of Latin American culture.” — Susan Kirkpatrick, author of Las Romanticas: Women Writers and Subjectivity in Spain