Global South Aesthetics of Anxiety

In what ways does globalization affect, and what effects does it have on the aesthetic formation—content and form—of narration and representation? Using as a theoretical frame the ideas articulated by Anthony Appiah and more specifically, looking at how cosmopolitanism manifests itself in the form of an “aesthetics of anxiety” regarding nation, self-identity, and family, this essay is a comparative analysis of national identity and urban cosmopolitan space in the psychological novel El sueño del retorno (2013) by the Salvadoran writer Horacio Castellanos Moya and the total novel The Ministry of Utmost Happiness (2017) by the Indian author Arundhati Roy. This essay contrasts the embittered, unrooted brand of cosmopolitanism espoused by Castellanos Moya with the rooted, hopeful cosmopolitanism (or “cosmopolitan patriotism”), envisioned in Arundhati Roy’s two novels. Whereas resignation and fatalism pervade El sueño del retorno , Roy infuses her novels with a persevering hope in the triumph of a truly democratic regime. Anxieties about national identities transcend geographical boundaries. Establishing a fruitful South-South dialogue between these works can teach us to respect legitimate differences. Becoming receptive to other lives, worldviews, literature, art, and culture may provide potential informed solutions for us and help us develop improved habits of coexistence.