La novela del burdel: Hacia una poetica del espacio prostibulario en la narrativa hispanoamericana

The brothel, as a ‘symbolic location’ was the object of analysis in this dissertation, ascribable to its unusual and recurrent presence in Latin American narrative. The brothel was presented as a scenario, with polyvalent implications of both the space itself, as well as the different archetypes of the characters who occupy it. ^ Our analysis showed how the brothel functions as a cultural entity, social archetype, power center, mythical place and symbolic space, where man plays out his utmost dominant self. To achieve this, the analysis focused on sifting through the concepts of machismo, economic and political power, and the configuration of the ‘house’ as emblematic elements of Latin American culture. ^ The four novels chosen to underwrite this analysis were representative of the historical time frame, from Colonial times to the present, highlighting all the most distinctive features. These, in turn, led the reader to the inescapable fact that owing to certain characteristics of Latin American culture, the brothel maintains its raison d'être as a space that represents existential situations, and that far from converting itself into an anachronism, it will continue to thrive in the most significant achievements of Latin American prose. ^

Hacia una poetica del Neobarroco: La vision de la historia en Jose Lezama Lima, Reinaldo Arenas y Severo Sarduy

Most of the critical studies of Baroque novels written in Spanish America during the 1960s and 1970s are characterized by a limited examination of their formal and stylistic representations. This dissertation explored the way in which certain writers developed a new Baroque tendency, the so-called Neobarroco, that presented a particular vision of history. José Lezama Lima, Reinaldo Arenas and Severo Sarduy developed innovative fictional and historiographic perceptions as alternative discourses to understand and perceive the cultural intricacies of Cuba and the New World. Their novels posited an elaborated poetic theory of history that can be summarized by the principle of supratemporal analogies, interweaved by a "metaphoric subject" that makes possible the conception of "imaginary eras". Since this poetry arises from a network of metaphoric correspondences, the image is conceived as a cultural creation that acts upon reality. ^ Although this study traced the trajectory of their writings from the point of view of their own essays, our focus was on the act of recovering the past as reshaped forms that are present in the memory. Paradiso, El mundo alucinante and De donde son los cantantes exemplified the attempt to place Americanness within the realm of poetics and history as one single discourse constructed by a combination of self-consciousness and historiographic meditation. ^ Basing my thesis on postmodernist theory (Ihab Hassan, Brian McHale, Linda Hutcheon) and philosophies of history (Michel Foucault, Hayden White, Keith Jenkins, Dominick LaCapra), I argued that the antagonistic paradoxes faced by postmodernism were reconcilable tendencies of the Neobarroco prior to the actual debate on the postmodern condition. The aesthetic trend initiated by these writers and their reading of history confronted the official historiographic discourse, thus empowering a contemporary voice in the current debate on historical skepticism. ^

Poetica de la brevedad en Borges

Although he did not write copious novels, endless essays, or long poems, Jorge Luis Borges is considered one of today's best modern writers. His works have never been more than ten pages long. The purpose of this dissertation is to demonstrate that the willing use of concise expression in Borges's writings is inscribed in a poetic worldview of great implications. This view is based on the synthesis of philosophical, literary, and cultural issues that Borges interprets, discusses, refutes, and re-elaborates with a new conjectural approach. ^ This dissertation is based on a methodological review of all his current scholarly work and on a thorough examination of the four volumes of his Complete Works, edited by Emece, in 2002. His pantheistic vision, the epiphanic moments, and his love/hate relationship with language, conform an aesthetic of resounding silence that enlightens the hidden aspects of his brief masterpieces. ^ Even though Borgesian studies flood the library he once imagined, they have been presented in an isolated manner. This dissertation establishes a link among the various aforementioned aspects as studied by Borges scholars, and demonstrates the powerful influence of Borges's illuminating and precise vision. ^ Paradoxically, the poetry of brevity in Borges's works is filled with allusions to the things that Borges silences, because, from a panoramic pantheism, his words almost reach an epiphanic enlightenment that flashes between preterit and future nothingness. ^ By replacing extension with intensity, and mastering the art of omission, Borges's laborious work reaches power and concentration that only the very greatest talents can achieve. His delicate verbal conciseness provides his readers with a virtually infinite freedom of imagination because it exposes them to the chaotic world of mythical probabilities, where an instant encompasses eternity. ^

Entre el terror y la irrealidad: La narrativa poetica postmoderna de Reinaldo Arenas

This study focuses on the works of Cuban writer Reinaldo Arenas, one of the most prolific and controversial Latin American authors in the second half of the twentieth century. First, I propose Arenas as the creator of the Cuban revolutionary novel (a term coined by critics when referring to the narrative written after the revolution), within the scope of postmodern historiographic metafiction and against the trend of the official revolutionary novel promoted by the political establishment. Through the analysis of the five novels of the pentagony and other texts, my study follows the tragic journey of the antihero protagonist, from adolescence into adulthood, registering the correlation between his existential crisis and the narrative historical discourse. Contemporary Cuba from 1959 onwards—the historical-political circumstances that afflicted and overwhelmed him the most—becomes the point of reference to deconstruct reality and reaffirm the existence of a “self” threatened by the violence of a totalitarian discourse. Out of the fragments of this reality, Arenas undertook a radical reconstruction in which he inverted and questioned every inherited cultural value, as well as the power structures. Within this context, Arenas projects what I call “the Cuban hideous unreal”, an ontological and literary vision antagonistic to the carpentirean concept of the American “marvelous real”. ^ Despite the ostracism Reinaldo Arenas suffered for ten years, this study shows how he established through his work a meditative dialogue with himself and the common man. This perspective formulates a permanent literary and philosophic reflection with thinkers and writers of his country and the West, as the basis for a rejection of the Cuban reality. The resultant interdisciplinary and postmodern dialogue constitutes one of the most significant and distinctive contributions of his work. ^

Poetica de la brevedad en Borges

Although he did not write copious novels, endless essays, or long poems, Jorge Luis Borges is considered one of today's best modem writers. His works have never been more than ten pages long. The purpose of this dissertation is to demonstrate that the willing use of concise expression in Borges's writings is inscribed in a poetic worldview of great implications. This view is based on the synthesis of philosophical, literary, and cultural issues that Borges interprets, discusses, refutes, and re-elaborates with a new conjectural approach. This dissertation is based on a methodological review of all his current scholarly work and on a thorough examination of the four volumes of his Complete Works, edited by Emece, in 2002. His pantheistic vision, the epiphanic moments, and his love/hate relationship with language, conform an aesthetic of resounding silence that enlightens the hidden aspects of his brief masterpieces. Even though Borgesian studies flood the library he once imagined, they have been presented in an isolated manner. This dissertation establishes a link among the various aforementioned aspects as studied by Borges scholars, and demonstrates the powerful influence of Borges's illuminating and precise vision. Paradoxically, the poetry of brevity in Borges's works is filled with allusions to the things that Borges silences, because, from a panoramic pantheism, his words almost reach an epiphanic enlightenment that flashes between preterit and future nothingness. By replacing extension with intensity, and mastering the art of omission, Borges's laborious work reaches power and concentration that only the very greatest talents can achieve. His delicate verbal conciseness provides his readers with a virtually infinite freedom of imagination because it exposes them to the chaotic world of mythical probabilities, where an instant encompasses etemity.