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- All Subjects: Latin American Studies
- Creators: Volek, Emil
Description
The subject of this study is the work of Spanish novelist J. Á. González Sainz, comprised of Los encuentros (1989), Un mundo exasperado (1995), Volver al mundo (2003) y Ojos que no ven (2010). His work, which is structurally demanding, treats themes such as morality, terrorism, the nostos or return to one's homeland, and nature. He has been connected to the "dehumanized novel" of Juan Benet, though his career demonstrates an attempt to make clear references to historical reality. González Sainz has acquired a measure of prestige in the estimation of important critics. With his latest book, he has furthermore gained recognition for his moral commitment in opposing the terrorism of ETA, and his work has entered debates on current events. In my study I argue that this formally rigorous narrative has a singular capacity for political engagement. I argue that González Sainz is an example of the integration of ethics in a narrative discourse whose semantic density allows a commitment with moral conflicts. To situate it in the context of contemporary Spanish fiction, I relate Pierre Bourdieu's notion of the literary field to the proposals concerning the history of literature of Pablo Gil Casado, Gonzalo Sobejano, Ramón Buckley, Ignacio Soldevila Durante and others. I follow three lines of investigation: terrorism in literature; ethics; and the political engagement of the writer. Ethics, whose relation to literature has been studied by Zachary Newton, Wolfgang Hallet or Nina Rosenstand, has allowed the author a political engagement in opposition to terrorism in general and in particular in opposition to ETA. González Sainz exhibits an equilibrium between aesthetic and ethical values of literature. In the plural context of the latest fiction in Spain, his novels have found a place in the tradition that since the middle of the twentieth century has been characterized by a dialectic between political engagement and the autonomy of literature. The theme of ETA terrorism and his structural rigor situate González Sainz's work in a position that maintains the validity of this dialectic.
ContributorsMartín de Marcos, Gonzalo (Author) / García-Fernández, Carlos Javier (Thesis advisor) / Volek, Emil (Committee member) / Acereda, Alberto (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
After the implementation of the racial laws sanctioned by Mussolini in 1938, many Italians Jews looked for safe haven in Argentina and Uruguay. This research study aims to investigate the transnational cultural space that emerges as result of the Italian Jewish diaspora to the La Plata River during fascism. This phenomenon has not been fully addressed by contemporary Jewish Latin American Studies conducted in the US and in Latin America. This study attempts to illustrate how this particular diaspora is closely linked to the specific nature of the host countries, in particular, to the fact that these are countries with a strong immigration tradition and with a significant representation of Italians. This research emphasizes the transnational dimension of the experience, the phenomenon is approached from a regional perspective, encompassing two countries that share common cultural and historical roots, Argentina and Uruguay. The study is also rooted in a global perspective, linking the region with Italy in the context of the Europe of the time. On this basis, the study is guided by the following main assumption: The specific Italian diaspora generated original spaces of transnational cultural production that had an impact in the River Plate region and in Italy. This is done by studying some of the cultural manifestations of this multifaceted experience. This work is theoretically guided by an integration of perspectives emerging from cosmopolitanism, diasporic criticism and Bakhtinian dialogism. More specifically, when studying autobiographical texts, the research focused on critical essays on life narratives in general and on studies linking this discursive typology to the narratives of the Shoah, including the human capacity for resilience and adaptation in the face of adversity and trauma. The diaspora has created a prolific and unique body of transnational cultural expressions and, moreover, this particular diaspora has proved to be closely linked to the specific nature of the host countries. The findings make contributions to the field of Jewish Latin American Studies and Transatlantic Studies.
ContributorsMarsiglia, Edith (Author) / Volek, Emil (Thesis advisor) / Rosales, Jesus (Committee member) / García-Fernández, Carlos (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
Description
ABSTRACT
The analytical sensitivity of Nellie Campobello allows her to perceive and draw several contexts into her fiction. Her work offers the reader a glimpse of the subtle connections between the individual experience and the social milieu that make up history. In the two editions of Cartucho (1931 and 1940) the reader encounters the Mexican Revolution as a plausible setting. By transferring this context into fiction, the author deals with core social matters that fostered the disfunctionality of Mexican society, at the time the novel was written. Furthermore, her intuition allows her to depict in her literary work many aspects of dehumanization that are timeless and universal. This depth of social cognition is expressed freely, producing a literary style that communicates a modern worldview.
Therefore, a critical analysis of the book should supersede historical facts to discern the expression of an object of ethical appreciation. The active reading of Cartucho forces us to appreciate the precise aesthetic form that communicates, through a plurality of voices, history to reconfigure -through discourse- diverse social contexts that are accessible, identifiable and pertinent to readers from different epochs. This is perhaps the value of the book for the social sciences. However, our study seeks to understand the social and historic minutiae of the text to better equip the reader to achieve an ethical catharsis through the reading of fiction. We believe that it is only when the reader surpasses the historic level of discourse that he or she can fully identify himself or herself with the characters, thus restoring their humanity and at the same time becoming more fully human.
SÍNTESIS
El temperamento analítico y sensible de Nellie Campobello le permite abordar aspectos sociológicos de múltiples contextos; derivando además los puntos de contacto entre el desarrollo social y la experiencia individual. Cartucho nos presenta, en sus dos versiones (1931 y 1940), la Revolución Mexicana como un contexto verosímil que permite expresar los temas que preocupan a la autora. A partir de esta ambientación ficcional, ella expone las causas del estado en el que se encuentra la nación en el momento en el que escribe la obra. Además, su intuición la lleva a trazar procesos de deshumanización inherentemente humanos con los que se puede identificar un lector universal. Esta profundidad de pensamiento se formula libremente dando lugar a un estilo propio que comunica una cosmovisión moderna.
Una lectura crítica de la obra debe partir del contexto de la Revolución Mexicana. Pero debe también rebasarlo para observar que Cartucho no es un receptáculo de voces rescatadas del pasado, sino la expresión de un objeto de apreciación ética formulado mediante una estética precisa que complementa y enuncia el discurso de la autora con la pluralidad de voces que reconstituyen, discursivamente, contextos sociales con los que el lector de cualquier época se puede identificar. En esta observación recae el valor de la obra camposiana para las ciencias sociales. Sin embargo, nuestro trabajo busca alcanzar una mejor apreciación del discurso histórico y sociológico para que el mensaje de la obra surta un efecto ético. Consideramos que es mediante este tipo de análisis que el lector logra identificarse con los personajes de Cartucho humanizándolos y humanizándose mediante la lectura de un texto de ficción.
The analytical sensitivity of Nellie Campobello allows her to perceive and draw several contexts into her fiction. Her work offers the reader a glimpse of the subtle connections between the individual experience and the social milieu that make up history. In the two editions of Cartucho (1931 and 1940) the reader encounters the Mexican Revolution as a plausible setting. By transferring this context into fiction, the author deals with core social matters that fostered the disfunctionality of Mexican society, at the time the novel was written. Furthermore, her intuition allows her to depict in her literary work many aspects of dehumanization that are timeless and universal. This depth of social cognition is expressed freely, producing a literary style that communicates a modern worldview.
Therefore, a critical analysis of the book should supersede historical facts to discern the expression of an object of ethical appreciation. The active reading of Cartucho forces us to appreciate the precise aesthetic form that communicates, through a plurality of voices, history to reconfigure -through discourse- diverse social contexts that are accessible, identifiable and pertinent to readers from different epochs. This is perhaps the value of the book for the social sciences. However, our study seeks to understand the social and historic minutiae of the text to better equip the reader to achieve an ethical catharsis through the reading of fiction. We believe that it is only when the reader surpasses the historic level of discourse that he or she can fully identify himself or herself with the characters, thus restoring their humanity and at the same time becoming more fully human.
SÍNTESIS
El temperamento analítico y sensible de Nellie Campobello le permite abordar aspectos sociológicos de múltiples contextos; derivando además los puntos de contacto entre el desarrollo social y la experiencia individual. Cartucho nos presenta, en sus dos versiones (1931 y 1940), la Revolución Mexicana como un contexto verosímil que permite expresar los temas que preocupan a la autora. A partir de esta ambientación ficcional, ella expone las causas del estado en el que se encuentra la nación en el momento en el que escribe la obra. Además, su intuición la lleva a trazar procesos de deshumanización inherentemente humanos con los que se puede identificar un lector universal. Esta profundidad de pensamiento se formula libremente dando lugar a un estilo propio que comunica una cosmovisión moderna.
Una lectura crítica de la obra debe partir del contexto de la Revolución Mexicana. Pero debe también rebasarlo para observar que Cartucho no es un receptáculo de voces rescatadas del pasado, sino la expresión de un objeto de apreciación ética formulado mediante una estética precisa que complementa y enuncia el discurso de la autora con la pluralidad de voces que reconstituyen, discursivamente, contextos sociales con los que el lector de cualquier época se puede identificar. En esta observación recae el valor de la obra camposiana para las ciencias sociales. Sin embargo, nuestro trabajo busca alcanzar una mejor apreciación del discurso histórico y sociológico para que el mensaje de la obra surta un efecto ético. Consideramos que es mediante este tipo de análisis que el lector logra identificarse con los personajes de Cartucho humanizándolos y humanizándose mediante la lectura de un texto de ficción.
ContributorsEstevez, Dulce (Author) / Volek, Emil (Thesis advisor) / García-Fernández, Carlos (Committee member) / Keller, Garry (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
Desde los textos más tempranos, la literatura de Latinoamérica ha sido marcada por la presencia de sus comunidades indígenas, la representación de las cuales siempre está cambiando. A lo largo del siglo XIX vemos que esos textos tienden a dar una perspectiva de esas culturas desde afuera. No es hasta después de la emergencia del realismo mágico en el siglo XX que conseguimos una mirada a esas culturas desde adentro. De los tempranos mágicorrealistas, tal vez ninguno de ellos haya captado la realidad social del indígena mejor que el guatemalteco Miguel Ángel Asturias. Sin embargo, a pesar de sus buenas intenciones de representar la realidad indígena, sacar a luz los desafíos que enfrentan y mejorar las condiciones en que viven, muchos críticos han cuestionado la representación asturiana de las culturas indígenas, acusándole a Asturias hasta de ser racista. En aquellas criticas, el modelo teórico que ha sido aplicado a la relectura de las obras de Asturias ha sido sin duda el de los estudios poscoloniales. Pero, ¿se presta esa literatura a aquel tipo de análisis? ¿Son aplicables esas teorías a las realidades sociales de Guatemala? Otros investigadores creen que hacer eso es una simplificación y tomar las cosas fuera de su contexto histórico. Es a base de este último argumento que esta tesina se inicia. Los objetivos de este estudio son de examinar la propiedad de aplicar esas teorías a las obras de Asturias y también de analizar la imagen del indígena creada en su literatura a través del uso de la imaginación, mitología y lenguaje maya. Este estudio se centra en algunos de los textos más tempranos de Asturias tales como su tesis de abogado, producción periodística y obras de ficción para analizar cómo él ha representado la población indígena de Guatemala. Este análisis concluye que lejos del racismo de que Asturias ha sido acusado, él está completamente comprometido con el proyecto de mejorar las condiciones en las que los indígenas de Guatemala viven. Además, concluye que Asturias ha representado esas comunidades de una manera positiva a través del uso del imaginario, mitología, sintaxis, léxico y organización literaria maya.
ContributorsEngelbrecht, Jexson (Author) / Volek, Emil (Thesis advisor) / Acereda, Alberto (Committee member) / García-Fernández, Carlos (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
La frontera entre México y Estados Unidos es un territorio que se ha conceptualizado y construido por el centralismo mexicano y por el discurso chicano dominante: el de Borderlands. Estos dos focos equidistantes establecen sus perspectivas a partir del contacto que la región fronteriza tiene con los Estados Unidos en términos de intercambios económicos y culturales. La tradición de definir la zona fronteriza se inicia a partir de 1848 con el Tratado de Guadalupe Hidalgo. Más tarde, dicha región estaría en indiferencia por su distancia geográfica con el centro mexicano, excepto durante la Revolución mexicana. Sin embargo, la región fronteriza empieza a recibir gran atención hacia finales del Siglo XX, cuando nuevas formas de intercambio económico entre México y Estados Unidos se empiezan a desarrollar. La frontera, entonces experimenta un crecimiento económico que se refleja, a su vez, en el resurgimiento y crecimiento de la cultura fronteriza. El antropólogo cultural, Nestor García Canclini intentó definir la cultura fronteriza al analizar el uso del idioma inglés en Tijuana. En sus estudios, tanto Tijuana: la casa de toda la gente (1989) como Culturas híbridas: Cómo entrar y salir de la modernidad (1992), García Canclini sostiene que la frontera es un espacio de hibridación cultural. Por otro lado, las teorías dominantes dentro del campo chicano definen la frontera en términos metafísicos. Para Gloria Anzaldúa, el espacio fronterizo es el Borderlands: un área geográfica en donde los paradigmas de la psicología del individuo están en constante conflicto. Considerando estos antecedentes como punto de partida, esta investigación se enfoca en el estudio de la cultura fronteriza como múltiples universos de signos que entran en contacto unos con otros. Tal como lo establece Iury Lotman en su estudio teórico La semiosfera (1996), una semiosfera es un espacio delimitado por una frontera que, a su vez, tiene la función de traducir información de otras semiosferas. De manera que dicho concepto se muestra adecuado para analizar El gran preténder (1992) de Luis Humberto Crosthwaite y Berlín 77 (y otros relatos) (2003) de Carlos Adolfo Gutiérrez Vidal. En última instancia, al establecer los espacios fronterizos como universos culturales (semiosferas) se devela el nivel de contacto entre éstas, especialmente entre las semiosferas mexicana/americana y la fronteriza.
ContributorsEncinas, Diana (Author) / Volek, Emil (Committee member) / Hernández-G., Manuel De Jesús (Committee member) / Acereda, Alberto (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
The revolution that took place in Nicaragua during the 70's led the country into misery; this war was a consequence of the Somoza dictatorship that had been in power for forty-five years. The Nicaraguan people were hoping to recover their peace and freedom by rising in arms against the dictatorship. Augusto Cesar Sandino is known to be the most significant patriotic figure for the Sandinista revolutionaries. His legacy inspired the foundation of the revolutionary party Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional (FSLN). The FSLN was able to overthrow the Anastasio Somoza regime and declared their victory on July 19, 1979. The memories of the Sandinista Revolution are portrayed in the autobiographies of two Nicaraguan writers: Gioconda Belli and Sergio Ramirez. El país bajo mi piel (2001) y Adiós muchachos. Una memoria de la revolución sandinista (1999) are the texts analyzed in this study as part of those remembrances that revive the most significant events of the revolution from very unique perspectives. In order to develop this analysis we have consider the theoretical work of Phillip Lejeune. We have based our research in his definition of autobiography, his concept of autobiographical pact and the idea of contract between author and reader. Also, we have incorporated Evelyne Ender´s research on memory as the principal element in the literary construction of reminiscences. Ender explains the role of the rememberer, who is responsible of constructing their memories based on a subjective, cognitive, emotional and esthetic performance. At the same time, we have included the concept of biographical space explained by Leonor Arfuch, which is perceived as multi-faced space where different tendencies coexist. The purpose of this study is to explore the autobiographies of these Nicaraguan writers as an esthetical process where remembrances of the Sandinista Revolution come to live in a prose reflective narrative. Analyzing Belli and Ramirez's memoirs, we perceived their private and public stories of life that depict the most significant events of their lives and nation. The Sandinista Revolution is part of the Nicaraguan history and it cannot be forgotten that's the purpose behind this autobiographies to document these transcendental happenings.
ContributorsMorales, Nallely (Author) / Volek, Emil (Thesis advisor) / Acereda, Alberto (Committee member) / García-Fernández, Carlos J. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
ABSTRACT
In the 19th and 20th centuries, many Latin American intellectuals began to question why their countries had failed to modernize and produce the type of economic prosperity and democratic societies that they desired. Influenced by the scientific theories of their time, many of the explanations offered by these intellectuals centered on a single issue—race. Yet scientific and historical definitions regarding “race” have varied greatly ranging from a conceptualization of race as a cultural to a biological construct. This same time period also saw the emergence of two new literary genres which addressed “racial” conflict in their own right—indigenismo and neo-indigenismo. In the last thirty years, postmodernist and postcolonialist readings of these texts have tended to articulate these interethnic conflicts in highly racialized terms which diminish the importance of any cultural differentiation that may exist (i.e. attitudes, aptitudes, norms, religions, expectations) while simultaneously augmenting perceived racial discord between groups—even where racial difference barely exists.
This dissertation is an analysis of Pueblo enfermo (1909) and Raza de bronce (1919) by Alcides Arguedas, as well as Sociología guatemalteca: el problema social del indio (1923) and Hombres de maíz (1949) by Miguel Ángel Asturias. By taking an interdisciplinary approach and drawing on texts from history, anthropology, economics and literature I challenge many of the commonly held notions regarding the issues of race in these texts. I argue that, despite tinges of what social scientists have termed “scientific racism” that these works should be interpreted as criticisms of what the authors understood as cultural problems and deficiencies within their societies. Additionally, I argue that this highly politicized cultural criticism of their countries by Arguedas and Asturias was meant to challenge the mestizo and Ladino hegemony of their times as a means of making their countries more democratic, and that the strident postmodernist and would-be postcolonial readings reveal actually hidden anachronistic and ahistorical bias of their authors.
In the 19th and 20th centuries, many Latin American intellectuals began to question why their countries had failed to modernize and produce the type of economic prosperity and democratic societies that they desired. Influenced by the scientific theories of their time, many of the explanations offered by these intellectuals centered on a single issue—race. Yet scientific and historical definitions regarding “race” have varied greatly ranging from a conceptualization of race as a cultural to a biological construct. This same time period also saw the emergence of two new literary genres which addressed “racial” conflict in their own right—indigenismo and neo-indigenismo. In the last thirty years, postmodernist and postcolonialist readings of these texts have tended to articulate these interethnic conflicts in highly racialized terms which diminish the importance of any cultural differentiation that may exist (i.e. attitudes, aptitudes, norms, religions, expectations) while simultaneously augmenting perceived racial discord between groups—even where racial difference barely exists.
This dissertation is an analysis of Pueblo enfermo (1909) and Raza de bronce (1919) by Alcides Arguedas, as well as Sociología guatemalteca: el problema social del indio (1923) and Hombres de maíz (1949) by Miguel Ángel Asturias. By taking an interdisciplinary approach and drawing on texts from history, anthropology, economics and literature I challenge many of the commonly held notions regarding the issues of race in these texts. I argue that, despite tinges of what social scientists have termed “scientific racism” that these works should be interpreted as criticisms of what the authors understood as cultural problems and deficiencies within their societies. Additionally, I argue that this highly politicized cultural criticism of their countries by Arguedas and Asturias was meant to challenge the mestizo and Ladino hegemony of their times as a means of making their countries more democratic, and that the strident postmodernist and would-be postcolonial readings reveal actually hidden anachronistic and ahistorical bias of their authors.
ContributorsEngelbrecht, Jexson Ashley (Author) / Volek, Emil (Thesis advisor) / García Fernández, Carlos J (Committee member) / Hernández Gutiérrez, Manuel J (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
Description
Every act of communication, and therefore, reading, are in themselves acts of translation and interpretation, as the reader creates a mental representation or reconstruction of the text, extrapolating meaning from it. Interlinguistic translation adds another dimension to these hermeneutic processes, and in the movement through space and time, constant re-interpretation, new translations, and, often, modern theories and perspectives, can interfere with or bring clarity to the meaning of the original text, as well as add to the myth-creation of the writers themselves.
This study centers on some of the great literary figures in poetic and essayistic production in the world of Spanish-speaking letters: Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, José Martí, and Octavio Paz. These figures represent not only important literary movements going from the baroque to modernismo, to the vanguardia and to the creation of the self-conscious “modern” poet, but also are among the most well known Spanish-language writers in the English-speaking world. They are all self-aware creators, who, in distinct ways, join poetry, critical essays and theory that are at once an extension of and revolve around their personal poetics, projected toward the currents of their respective epochs.
Finding problematic moments in translation theory and practice, and studying them in the context of the analysis of these great literary figures, at the same time contributes to a new understanding of translation theory itself. These ‘case studies’ expose certain key moments of existing translations, moments that later contribute to critical and interpretive dialogue in a type of hermeneutic spiral of influence. They also show the importance of translation as a contribution to cultural changes and literary movements. This ultimately aids in the understanding of the important points of contact between the many worlds occupied by these great writers and the ways in which they, and in turn, their translators, recreate the contexts in which they were produced.
This study centers on some of the great literary figures in poetic and essayistic production in the world of Spanish-speaking letters: Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, José Martí, and Octavio Paz. These figures represent not only important literary movements going from the baroque to modernismo, to the vanguardia and to the creation of the self-conscious “modern” poet, but also are among the most well known Spanish-language writers in the English-speaking world. They are all self-aware creators, who, in distinct ways, join poetry, critical essays and theory that are at once an extension of and revolve around their personal poetics, projected toward the currents of their respective epochs.
Finding problematic moments in translation theory and practice, and studying them in the context of the analysis of these great literary figures, at the same time contributes to a new understanding of translation theory itself. These ‘case studies’ expose certain key moments of existing translations, moments that later contribute to critical and interpretive dialogue in a type of hermeneutic spiral of influence. They also show the importance of translation as a contribution to cultural changes and literary movements. This ultimately aids in the understanding of the important points of contact between the many worlds occupied by these great writers and the ways in which they, and in turn, their translators, recreate the contexts in which they were produced.
ContributorsBrown, Katherine (Author) / Volek, Emil (Thesis advisor) / García Fernández, Carlos Javier (Committee member) / Rosales, Jeús (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
Description
This research aims to develop a narration theory based on Argentinian writer Juan José Saer’s (1937-2005) four collections of essays: El río sin orillas (The River Without Banks) (1991) —which is thought by critics to be the Facundo of the 20th century—, El concepto de ficción (The Concept of Fiction) (1995), La narración-objeto (The Narrative Object) (1999) and Trabajos (Works) (2005). His essays examine the Latin American novel from 1960 to 2000, in other words, from the founding of the modern novel during the Latin American boom to its establishment as the most commercial genre upon the arrival of neoliberalism in Latin America in the 1990’s. Saer not only questions the novel in literary terms, but also contextually: from its relationship to politics and the Cuban Revolution and the years of literary compromise à la Sarte and the historical novel’s insurgency as the favored genre that settled the region’s past and present in the 1980’s to the conception of the genre as a commodity as large transnational entertainment consortia purchased all publishers. Within this context, Saer simultaneously critiques and formulates a theory on narration to oppose the novel. He presents narration as a continuation of a wasted and formulaic genre such as the historical novel. He juxtaposes the “real” to realism, ponders the impossibility of the historical novel, defends and rehabilitates the French noveau roman, which was much vilified by authors of the boom, demystifies Borges’ reading of the Argentinian tradition and at the same time confronts it with Witold Gombrowicz. He removes literature from the bonds of nationalism and Latin Americanism and contrasts Sartre’s ideas with German philosopher Theodore W. Adorno’s proposals about the novel during the cultural industry era.
ContributorsArellano Serratos, José Francisco (Author) / Foster, David W (Thesis advisor) / Tompkins, Cynthia (Committee member) / Volek, Emil (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015