An Enchanting Exchange
An Enchanting Exchange
The Gift Economy of Vigía Books
The publications of Ediciones Vigía have intense emotional lives that provoke surprise and enchantment among reader-viewers. This chapter explores how and why Vigía books have become such prized possessions by highlighting their circulation through both the market economy of collectors, consumers, and tourists and the affective economy of gift exchange. It theorizes that the emotional intimacy and aesthetic experience engendered by the handcrafted books draw reader-viewers into the press’s community of writers, artists, artisans, and admirers. This investment, in turn, provides a symbolic antidote to the spiritual deprivation of a utilitarian state and re-inspires the liberating idealism once promised by twentieth-century Latin American revolutionary movements.
Keywords: Aesthetic experience, Ediciones Vigía, Gift economy, Idealism, Revolutionary movement
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