Theses and Dissertations from UMD
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Item PUNTOS CIEGOS EN LA RECIENTE NARRATIVA DE ECUADOR Y COLOMBIA: NUEVO REALISMO EN EL CAMBIO DE SIGLO (1990-2006)(2011) EGUEZ, MARIA RENATA; Sosnowski, Saúl; Spanish Language and Literature; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This dissertation examines Ecuadorean and Colombian novels written by authors born in the late 1950s or after, and written between 1990 and 2006, who challenge conventional and totalizing perceptions that used to be the trend of their respective literary traditions. Instead, in hard-boiled novels they focus on topics such as nomadism in the postmodern city, the figure of the writer and the role of literature in society through metafictional techniques, and the search for meaning in a particularly violent and convulsed environment. Far from adopting canonical versions of a socially committed realism prevalent in previous generations, the recent novels from Ecuador and Colombia look upon the blind spots hidden in sociopolitical, historical and current contexts. The concept of "blind spots" that I introduce in this dissertation depicts the marginalized realities that have been deliberately obscured by the univocal gaze whose presence affects the way of conceiving the world and, therefore, to write it. This concept addresses a possible aesthetic defined by the connection between the act of writing and the gaze in order to register the hidden and opaque cracks of everyday reality; namely, the vicious circle of violence, social inequality, the fissures of a corrupt system, the lack of social and democratic projects, and the indifference of the establishment, the media, and the institutions. This dissertation shows how writing returns to the partiality of the real, unveiling gaps and fragments instead of a supposed totality, while establishing literary links, thus far unexplored, between the narratives of both Andean countries.Item PLIEGUES SUBLIMES: LO EXTRAÑO, LO RARO Y LO PERTURBADOR EN SIMÓN BOLÍVAR, JUANA MANUELA GORRITI Y RICARDO PALMA(2010) Munoz, Maria Veronica; Aguilar Mora, Jorge; Spanish Language and Literature; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This dissertation is about nineteenth-century Latin American fantastic narratives interestingly packed with dream sequences and ghostly apparitions. It works how Simón Bolívar, Juana Manuela Gorriti and Ricardo Palma delve into the uncanny dimensions of reality to subvert the national, hegemonic discourses by challenging and transgressing the boundaries of the epistemological status quo. In chapter 1, the conflicts inherent in the conception of Modernity are read vis-à-vis the critical lenses of the Kantian sublime, the allegory, and the fold. Gilles Deleuze ’ s fold serves to explore how intellectuals have constructed what they call reality, as their texts fold into their own narratives, or the writings of their generation, in order to unfold the cracking surface of their discursive agendas. Thus, the role of letrados is reconsidered as voices coming from the elites who envision themselves as that Other they themselves reject. Finally, Walter Benjamin ’ s allegory links ghosts and spirits directly to their historical background, establishing a consistent relationship between culture and politics, the impact of literary texts on social thought, and the dynamics of cultural transfer. In chapter 2, Bolívar ’ s poetic delirium acknowledges the risk of his dream for a unified Latin America turning into a delirious nightmare if it is solely founded on his strong leadership. On chapter 3, even though Gorriti ’ s short stories count with the support of her peers from the Generation of 37, I focus on how she exposes the abjection and ugliness that lies beneath the main debates of her times: civilization and barbarism, and the role of women in the new republics. Her poetics from behind the fog enables her to participate in these debates while being widely accepted in literary circles. Similarly on chapter 4, the narratives of Ricardo Palma and his miraculous poetic defy the core structure of a modern Peruvian state through an acknowledgement of popular voices, which he seems to perceive as the real builders of the nation. All these writers recognize the need to find alternative models for the challenges inherent in a postcolonial Latin America.Item El águila y la serpiente de Martín Luis Guzmán: Una mea culpa revolucionaria(2010) Huntington, Tanya Glee; Messenger Cypess, Sandra; Spanish Language and Literature; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The effectiveness of the 1910 Revolution in bringing about social change continues to be fiercely debated one hundred years after the fact. The genre called "narrative of the Mexican Revolution" has acted as a literary compass in this regard. One outstanding example is El águila y la serpiente by Martín Luis Guzmán. Written during the author's second exile in Spain, it quickly became a bestseller. Since then, however, it has been criticized as lacking in genre or as an elitist series of portraits of "los de arriba," or those on top. In order to vindicate Guzmán's fictionalized memoirs, I take a different approach based on a key character ignored by 20th-century critics: the narrator. First, the ways in which moral judgment has been wielded against Guzmán by critics such as Fernando Curiel, prevented a clear vision of his literary "I." Despite his contributions in the political and literary arena, he became in essence the Cortez of the Mexican literary canon, one whose faults eclipsed not only his name--notable for its absence within the arena of celebratory public manifestations--but also his major cultural and literary contributions. These contributions include: editing newspapers such as El sol and La voz under the 2nd Republic of Spain as a trusted collaborator of President Azaña's, spearheading the independence of Latin American academies of language from the Royal Academy, and founding the National Commission of Free Textbooks in Mexico. Through an analysis of his intellectual agenda and the previous critical readings of El águila y la serpiente I offer new readings of his work, contrasting Guzmán's vision of the Revolution with that of his contemporary, José Vasconcelos, in La tormenta (1935). Finally, I conclude that El águila y la serpiente is a superbly written, sui generis vision unlike any others found in the genre, delving into the relationship between memory and guilt at a time that defined both Mexico and its literature. This book stands as a mea culpa from a member of the criollo intellectual elite, who courageously revealed his social class as a failure and the Revolution itself as a paradoxical wheel of fortune.Item EL PROCESO SEMIÓTICO DE UN HÉROE DECIMONÓNICO: UN ESTUDIO EN TORNO A LOS "TEXTOS-TUMBAS" DE ANDRÉS BELLO(2010) DeLutis-Eichenberger, Angela Nicole; Aguilar Mora, Jorge; Spanish Language and Literature; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)In October of 1865, the body of one of the most prominent figures of the 19th century, Andrés Bello, was laid to rest in Chile, the country that had been deemed by various authors and, on occasion, by Bello himself, as his adopted homeland. However, the initial burial site did not remain a fixed one of corporal exhibition. By the turn of the century, the remains were exhumed and placed in a more splendid mausoleum that prompted a re-valuation of his signifier, as an array of discourses exemplify. In this analysis of Bello, the physical transition serves as a metaphor for the shifts in his textual re-presentations that were fashioned in a series of 19th century archives, and that culminate in his re-production as cultural and international hero (a signification that is generally accepted in current criticism and in his contemporary biographical sketches). Therefore, by tracing the displacements of his various signifiers created in archives that, based on the aforementioned metaphor, we denominate as "text-tombs", this study illustrates how several (unfavorable) representations of Bello were manipulated by authors, including Bello, to textually exhume and entomb him once and again as an international figure acclaimed for his many achievements. Bello's participation in politics during a time marked by hegemonic shifts, coupled with trends in historiography, leads to his re-production as a traitor of the patriots and of the Spanish government, signifiers that are subsequently exhumed and re-written to postulate him as a victim wrongfully accused of treason against the patriots. Through self-inscriptions created during his first exile in London, Bello builds his own image as a nostalgic exile in suffering and a self-conscious writer who anticipates a textual and personal improvement. These inscriptions ultimately lead to his re-configuration as a formidable scholar of Cidian studies and an illustrious composer of nationalistic poems. Finally, his representations as a foreigner in Chile were also utilized to later posit him as a cultural hero of many nations. From these semiotic shifts we arrive at a final inquiry: Who really was Andrés Bello, the self-inscriber who seemingly invited his own textual revisions by others?Item Ukhu Mankakuna: Culinary Representations in Quechua Cultural Texts(2006-04-28) Krogel, Alison Marie; Harrison, Regina; Comparative Literature; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This dissertation explores culinary representations within colonial and contemporary Quechua texts selected from the genres of oral narrative, photography, painting, historical chronicle, song, poetry and the novel. The first chapter presents a cultural history of Andean foodstuffs, as well as an ethnographic narrative based on interviews with vendors and cooks in the Cuzco Central Market. The ensuing analysis reveals some of the conflicts and negotiations associated with the market's hierarchy of profits and prestige. Chapter two focuses on pre-colonial and colonial culinary representations as portrayed in various Incaic Quechua hymns, the Comentarios reales and religious canvases, while the third chapter explores contemporary representations of Quechua female cooks in Los ríos profundos, Asunta Quispe Huamán's Autobiografia and the photographs of Martín Chambi. Chapter four discusses the representation of the malevolent layqa wayk'uq ('witch cook') in a number of Quechua willakuy (oral narrations) which I recorded, transcribed and translated in highland villages of Southern Perú. In analyzing the nuances and levels of meaning contained within examples of Quechua expressive art, I offer semantic and syntactic readings of the texts while also considering the socio-economic, historical and political contexts in which they were created. I also explore the ways in which Quechua artists manipulate the representation of Andean foodstuffs and cooks as an oppositional tactic for evading and manipulating the repressive tendencies of powerful political, economic and social discourses. I argue that in these texts, the 'everyday practice' of cooking allows Quechua women to take an active role in shaping their society and the lives of their families and community. In addition to exploring some of the unique aspects of Quechua aesthetic expression in both colonial and contemporary texts, this dissertation concludes with a discussion of food politics and policies in contemporary Perú. Scholars studying food's role in society have long provided important insights in disciplines such as history, philosophy, anthropology, literature and sociology. By strategically crossing over these disciplinary boundaries in choosing theoretical and methodological tools, this dissertation creates a dialogue with the fields of Andean Studies, Latin American Studies, Native American Studies, Comparative Literature, Anthropology and Food Studies.