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. ^

Gender, identity, and the security state: The politics of international drug trafficking

This dissertation examined how United States illicit drug control policy, often commonly referred to as the "war on drugs," contributes to the reproduction of gendered and racialized social relations. Specifically, it analyzed the identity producing practices of United States illicit drug control policy as it relates to the construction of U.S. identities. ^ Drawing on the theoretical contributions of feminist postpositivists, three cases of illicit drug policy practice were discussed. In the first case, discourse analysis was employed to examine recent debates (1986-2005) in U.S. Congressional Hearings about the proper understanding of the illicit drug "threat." The analysis showed how competing policy positions are tied to differing understandings of proper masculinity and the role of policymakers as protectors of the national interest. Utilizing critical visual methodologies, the second case examined a public service media campaign circulated by the Office of National Drug Control Policy that tied the "war on drugs" with another security concern in the U.S., the "war on terror." This case demonstrated how the media campaign uses messages about race, masculinity, and femininity to produce privileged notions of state identity and proper citizenship. The third case examined the gendered politics of drug interdiction at the U.S. border. Using qualitative research methodologies including semi-structured interviews and participant observation, it examined how gender is produced through drug interdiction at border sites like Miami International Airport. By paying attention to the discourse that circulates about women drug couriers, it showed how gender is normalized in a national security setting. ^ What this dissertation found is that illicit drug control policy takes the form it does because of the politics of gender and racial identity and that, as a result, illicit drug policy is implicated in the reproduction of gender and racial inequities. It concluded that a more socially conscious and successful illicit drug policy requires an awareness of the gendered and racialized assumptions that inform and shape policy practices.^

Post-revolutionary post-modernism: Central American detective fiction by the turn of the 21st century

Contemporary Central American fiction has become a vital project of revision of the tragic events and the social conditions in the recent history of the countries from which they emerge. The literary projects of Sergio Ramirez (Nicaragua), Dante Liano (Guatemala), Horacio Castellanos Moya (El Salvador), and Ramon Fonseca Mora (Panama), are representative of the latest trends in Central American narrative. These trends conform to a new literary paradigm that consists of an amalgam of styles and discourses, which combine the testimonial, the historical, and the political with the mystery and suspense of noir thrillers. Contemporary Central American noir narrative depicts the persistent war against social injustice, violence, criminal activities, as well as the new technological advances and economic challenges of the post-war neo-liberal order that still prevails throughout the region. ^ Drawing on postmodernism theory proposed by Ihab Hassan, Linda Hutcheon and Brian MacHale, I argued that the new Central American literary paradigm exemplified by Sergio Ramirez's El cielo llora por mí, Dante Liano's El hombre de Montserrat, Horacio Castellanos Moya's El arma en el hombre and La diabla en el espejo , and Ramon Fonseca Mora's El desenterrador, are highly structured novels that display the characteristic marks of postmodern cultural expression through their ambivalence, which results from the coexistence of multiple styles and conflicting ideologies and narrative trends. The novels analyzed in this dissertation make use of a noir sensitivity in which corruption, decay and disillusionment are at their core to portray the events that shaped the modern history of the countries from which they emerge. The revolutionary armed struggle, the state of terror imposed by military regimes and the fight against drug trafficking and organized crime, are among the major themes of these contemporary works of fiction, which I have categorized as perfect examples of the post-revolutionary post-modernism Central American detective fiction at the turn of the 21st century.^

La tentacion del abismo en armonia Somers: Entre el expresionismo de vanguardia y el gotico postmoderno

Armonía Somers (Uruguay 1917 - 1994) ha sido clasificada dentro de la llamada Generación del 45 de Uruguay, sin embargo, muchos críticos aseguran que su obra difiere de la estética del período en que escribió. Mientras Ángel Rama sugiere que la narrativa de Somers pertenece a la tradición de los raros y malditos, que desciende del extraño linaje del Conde franco-uruguayo y poeta Lautréamont, otros la colocan en el ámbito de la narrativa imaginativa y de lo fantástico. La crítica contemporánea se aproxima a la obra de Somers a partir del concepto de lo extraño o "Unheimlich", abordando las novelas de la autora desde una perspectiva freudiana, lacaniana o heideggeriana. No obstante, ninguna de estas investigaciones ha determinado a qué género u orientación literaria se aviene, ni han indagado en profundidad sobre su contribución a los estudios metaficcionales. ^ En esta tesis propongo que las novelas de Armonía Somers, "La mujer desnuda" (1950), "De miedo en miedo. Los manuscritos del río" (1965), "Un retrato para Dickens" (1969), "Viaje al corazón del día. Elegía por un amor secreto" (1986), y "Solo los elefantes encuentran mandrágora" (1986), transgreden los géneros y tendencias literarias dominantes en su época por medio de una imaginación excesiva y de una trama anti-dramática, asociada primordialmente con la experiencia del terror sublime y la representación de lo inexpresable o irrepresentable, ambas nociones correspondientes a la poética expresionista de vanguardia y al gótico postmoderno. Las novelas analizadas en este trabajo presentan en su estructura una amplia gama de formas ambiguas e inorgánicas, cuya función desestabiliza los aspectos formales del realismo y subvierte los postulados epistemológicos e ideológicos en que se apoyan las culturas afirmativas, las cuales legitiman solo cierto concepto de realidad, desentendiéndose del resto de las experiencia humanas que no encajan en sus esquemas. La desacralización, la disolución moral, la muerte simbólica y la naturaleza fluida de la identidad junto con una marcada autorreflexividad, son algunos de los temas más relevantes de este conjunto de obras, que he categorizado como un ejemplo del expresionismo gótico postmoderno del siglo XX.^

La tentación del abismo en Armonía Somers: entre el expresionismo de vanguardia y el gótico postmoderno

Armonía Somers (Uruguay 1917 – 1994) ha sido clasificada dentro de la llamada Generación del 45 de Uruguay, sin embargo, muchos críticos aseguran que su obra difiere de la estética del período en que escribió. Mientras Ángel Rama sugiere que la narrativa de Somers pertenece a la tradición de los raros y malditos, que desciende del extraño linaje del Conde franco-uruguayo y poeta Lautréamont, otros la colocan en el ámbito de la narrativa imaginativa y de lo fantástico. La crítica contemporánea se aproxima a la obra de Somers a partir del concepto de lo extraño o “Unheimlich”, abordando las novelas de la autora desde una perspectiva freudiana, lacaniana o heideggeriana. No obstante, ninguna de estas investigaciones ha determinado a qué género u orientación literaria se aviene, ni han indagado en profundidad sobre su contribución a los estudios metaficcionales. En esta tesis propongo que las novelas de Armonía Somers, “La mujer desnuda” (1950), “De miedo en miedo. Los manuscritos del río” (1965), “Un retrato para Dickens” (1969), “Viaje al corazón del día. Elegía por un amor secreto” (1986), y “Solo los elefantes encuentran mandrágora” (1986), transgreden los géneros y tendencias literarias dominantes en su época por medio de una imaginación excesiva y de una trama anti-dramática, asociada primordialmente con la experiencia del terror sublime y la representación de lo inexpresable o irrepresentable, ambas nociones correspondientes a la poética expresionista de vanguardia y al gótico postmoderno. Las novelas analizadas en este trabajo presentan en su estructura una amplia gama de formas ambiguas e inorgánicas, cuya función desestabiliza los aspectos formales del realismo y subvierte los postulados epistemológicos e ideológicos en que se apoyan las culturas afirmativas, las cuales legitiman solo cierto concepto de realidad, desentendiéndose del resto de las experiencia humanas que no encajan en sus esquemas. La desacralización, la disolución moral, la muerte simbólica y la naturaleza fluida de la identidad junto con una marcada autorreflexividad, son algunos de los temas más relevantes de este conjunto de obras, que he categorizado como un ejemplo del expresionismo gótico postmoderno del siglo XX.

Ronald Reagan Rain

RONALD REAGAN RAIN is a collection of poems that explore the wildness and terror lurking beneath the surface of contemporary suburban landscapes in a largely imagined America. Images of menacing policemen, bears, fast food restaurants, and dead film stars appear as substantive figures that embody loss and a preoccupation with aging, money woes, and a failed national confidence. Influenced by Russel Edson and Georg Trakl, poets whose work is characterized by Hermeticism and Expressionism, the poems in RONALD REAGAN RAIN suggest a similar dual need for autonomy and compromise in both highly charged poetic fragments and longer prose passages that examine issues of civil and personal estrangement as the outside world calls for constant introspection and reassessments of identity.

Post-Revolutionary Post-Modernism: Central American Detective Fiction by the Turn of the 21st Century

Contemporary Central American fiction has become a vital project of revision of the tragic events and the social conditions in the recent history of the countries from which they emerge. The literary projects of Sergio Ramirez (Nicaragua), Dante Liano (Guatemala), Horacio Castellanos Moya (El Salvador), and Ramon Fonseca Mora (Panama), are representative of the latest trends in Central American narrative. These trends conform to a new literary paradigm that consists of an amalgam of styles and discourses, which combine the testimonial, the historical, and the political with the mystery and suspense of noir thrillers. Contemporary Central American noir narrative depicts the persistent war against social injustice, violence, criminal activities, as well as the new technological advances and economic challenges of the post-war neo-liberal order that still prevails throughout the region. Drawing on postmodernism theory proposed by Ihab Hassan, Linda Hutcheon and Brian MacHale, I argued that the new Central American literary paradigm exemplified by Sergio Ramirez’s El cielo llora por mí, Dante Liano’s El hombre de Montserrat, Horacio Castellanos Moya’s El arma en el hombre and La diabla en el espejo, and Ramon Fonseca Mora’s El desenterrador, are highly structured novels that display the characteristic marks of postmodern cultural expression through their ambivalence, which results from the coexistence of multiple styles and conflicting ideologies and narrative trends. The novels analyzed in this dissertation make use of a noir sensitivity in which corruption, decay and disillusionment are at their core to portray the events that shaped the modern history of the countries from which they emerge. The revolutionary armed struggle, the state of terror imposed by military regimes and the fight against drug trafficking and organized crime, are among the major themes of these contemporary works of fiction, which I have categorized as perfect examples of the post-revolutionary post-modernism Central American detective fiction at the turn of the 21st century.