LATIN AMERICAN COMING OF AGE NARRATIVES: A SYMBOLIC AND PHYSOANALITICAL READING

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dc.contributor.advisorAguilar-Mora, Jorgeen_US
dc.contributor.authorRoman, Ruthen_US
dc.contributor.departmentSpanish Language and Literatureen_US
dc.contributor.publisherDigital Repository at the University of Marylanden_US
dc.contributor.publisherUniversity of Maryland (College Park, Md.)en_US
dc.date.accessioned2009-07-02T05:39:56Z
dc.date.available2009-07-02T05:39:56Z
dc.date.issued2009en_US
dc.description.abstractChildhood is a disquieting age subsequent to the inexorable exile from love. After being banned from the only boundless union of love it will ever experience, the child sets upon a relentless journey to invent her/himself. Thus, the child surmounts its first creative challenge by transposing feelings of sorrow and loss; its first self silhouette is forged from the hardships of grief. The child assimilates its loss through symbolization, and in doing so, s/he begins her/his irreversible pursuit of identity and self-definition. This dissertation explores eight Latin American childhood narratives. The child protagonists of these stories reconstruct their world, so as to insert themselves in it. In order to achieve this, they must construct a first identity or façade through which they access their own narratives. The initial chapter focuses on three Andean boys who trial test schoolboy demeanors in and out of the school's enclosure: Timoleón Coloma (Ecuador, 1888) by Carlos Tobar; Gran Señor y Rajadiablos (Chile, 1948) by Eduardo Barrios; Los Ríos Profundos (Perú, 1957) by José María Arguedas. The second chapter explores the paternal home where three girls rehearse appearances and social behaviors: Ifigenia (Venezuela, 1924) by Teresa De la Parra; Balún Canán (México, 1967) by Rosario Castellanos; La Madriguera (Argentina, 1996) by Tununa Mercado. The third and last chapter visits the fictional childhood of two Cuban poets. We witness the dawn of imagery creativity in the poetic identity of two Caribbean boys: Paradiso (Cuba, 1966) by José Lezama Lima and Celestino antes del Alma (Cuba, 1967) by Reinaldo Arenas. Furthermore, each of these initial attempts at cohesive identity thrive in transition, not only because of the nature of their childhood passage but also because of the volatile social and historical landscapes these eight novels depict. After examining the different identity constructions in childhood, the following questions can be answered: with what symbolic resources do Latin American children elaborate their first identities? Who are their role models? What symbolic processes activate when confronted with threatening events? In order to answer these questions this dissertation draws insights from the disciplines of psychoanalysis and symbolic anthropology, especially from the assertions of Jacques Lacan, Melanie Klein, Gilbert Durand and Gastón Bachelard.en_US
dc.format.extent1044256 bytes
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdf
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/9142
dc.language.isoSpanish
dc.subject.pqcontrolledLiterature, Latin Americanen_US
dc.subject.pqcontrolledEducation, Early Childhooden_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledChildhooden_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledComing of ageen_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledLatin Americaen_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledLatin american literatureen_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledPsychoanalysisen_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledSymbolizationen_US
dc.titleLATIN AMERICAN COMING OF AGE NARRATIVES: A SYMBOLIC AND PHYSOANALITICAL READINGen_US
dc.typeDissertationen_US

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