Baroque, neo-baroque and neo-baroque: extreme and the Far West

Abstract

This article examines the theories of baroque and neobaroque in 20th-century Latin America, focusing particularly on the discourse of the extreme aesthetics they subtend and support. The extremosidad (extremeness) is here analyzed as a cultural topic in relation with the old definition of Latin America as an Extreme West. Studying the link between these two notions from a post-western point of view allows today new perspectives that help to understand in a different way the theories of José Lezama Lima, Severo Sarduy, Haroldo de Campos and Néstor Perlongher. It also helps to explain the persistence of the neobaroque in Latin American culture in the 21st century.