Entre fronteiras: a escrita imigrante de Julia Alvarez em How the García girls lost their Accents

This master s thesis aims at investigating the way in which diasporic subjects in the novel How the García Girls Lost their Accents (1992) cope with the clash of two cultures the Caribbean one, from the Dominican Republic, and the North-American one, from the U.S., as well as the implications of such negotiations in the lives of immigrants, once it apparently depicts the plight of those who are torn between mother-lands and mother-tongues (IYER, 1993, 46). At the same time, the implications of such negotiations in the lives of immigrants are relevant issues in the writing of Julia Alvarez. For this, there is the analysis of the uses of family memories as one of the main strategies immigrant writers possess to recall their identities. Moreover, this thesis will also consider the language issue for the construction of the immigrant identity insofar as bilingualism is a key factor in the negotiation the García girls must effect between their Caribbean and their American halves in order to understand where they stand in the contemporary world. In order to build a theoretical framework that supports this master s thesis, we list the works of Homi K. Bhabha (1990, 1996, 2003, 2005), Stuart Hall (2001, 2003), Julia Kristeva (1994), Salman Rushdie (1990, 1994), Sonia Torres (2001, 2003) among other contributions that were crucial to the completion of this academic research

Traces de terre, traces d'encre... La rappresentazione dello spazio nella letteratura caraibica. (Francofona e Anglofona)

This study concerns the representation of space in Caribbean literature, both francophone and Anglophone and, in particular, but not only, in the martinican literature, in the works of the authors born in the island. The analysis focus on the second half of the last century, a period in which the martinican production of novels and romances increased considerably, and where the representation and the rule of space had a relevant place. So, the thesis explores the literary modalities of this representation. The work is constituted of 5 chapters and the critical and methodological approaches are both of an analytical and comparative type. The first chapter “The caribbean space: geography, history and society” presents the geographic context, through an analysis of the historical and political major events occurred in the Caribbean archipelago, in particular of the French Antilles, from the first colonization until the départementalisation. The first paragraph “The colonized space: historical-political excursus” the explores the history of the European colonization that marked forever the theatre of the relationship between Europe, Africa and the New World. This social situation take a long and complex process of “Re-appropriation and renegotiation of the space”, (second paragraph) always the space of the Other, that interest both the Antillean society and the writers’ universe. So, a series of questions take place in the third paragraph “Landscape and identity”: what is the function of space in the process of identity construction? What are the literary forms and representations of space in the Caribbean context? Could the writing be a tool of cultural identity definition, both individual and collective? The second chapter “The literary representation of the Antillean space” is a methodological analysis of the notions of literary space and descriptive gender. The first paragraph “The literary space of and in the novel” is an excursus of the theory of such critics like Blanchot, Bachelard, Genette and Greimas, and in particular the recent innovation of the 20th century; the second one “Space of the Antilles, space of the writing” is an attempt to apply this theory to the Antillean literary space. Finally the last paragraph “Signs on the page: the symbolic places of the antillean novel landscape” presents an inventory of the most recurrent antillean places (mornes, ravines, traces, cachots, En-ville,…), symbols of the history and the past, described in literary works, but according to new modalities of representation. The third chapter, the core of the thesis, “Re-drawing the map of the French Antilles” focused the study of space representation on francophone literature, in particular on a selected works of four martinican writers, like Roland Brival, Édouard Glissant, Patrick Chamoiseau and Raphaël Confiant. Through this section, a spatial evolution comes out step by step, from the first to the second paragraph, whose titles are linked together “The novel space evolution: from the forest of the morne… to the jungle of the ville”. The virgin and uncontaminated space of the Antilles, prior to the colonisation, where the Indios lived in harmony with the nature, find a representation in both works of Brival (Le sang du roucou, Le dernier des Aloukous) and of Glissant (Le Quatrième siècle, Ormerod). The arrival of the European colonizer brings a violent and sudden metamorphosis of the originary space and landscape, together with the traditions and culture of the Caraïbes population. These radical changes are visible in the works of Chamoiseau (Chronique des sept misères, Texaco, L’esclave vieil homme et le molosse, Livret des villes du deuxième monde, Un dimanche au cachot) and Confiant (Le Nègre et l’Amiral, Eau de Café, Ravines du devant-jour, Nègre marron) that explore the urban space of the creole En-ville. The fourth chapter represents the “2nd step: the Anglophone novel space” in the exploration of literary representation of space, through an analytical study of the works of three Anglophone writers, the 19th century Lafcadio Hearn (A Midsummer Trip To the West Indies, Two Years in the French West Indies, Youma) and the contemporary authors Derek Walcott (Omeros, Map of the New World, What the Twilight says) and Edward Kamau Brathwaite (The Arrivants: A New World Trilogy). The Anglophone voice of the Caribbean archipelago brings a very interesting contribution to the critical idea of a spatial evolution in the literary representation of space, started with francophone production: “The spatial evolution goes on: from the Martiniques Sketches of Hearn… to the modern bards of Caribbean archipelago” is the new linked title of the two paragraphs. The fifth chapter “Extended look, space shared: the Caribbean archipelago” is a comparative analysis of the results achieved in the prior sections, through a dialogue between all the texts in the first paragraph “Francophone and Anglophone representation of space compared: differences and analogies”. The last paragraph instead is an attempt of re-negotiate the conventional notions of space and place, from a geographical and physical meaning, to the new concept of “commonplace”, not synonym of prejudice, but “common place” of sharing and dialogue. The question sets in the last paragraph “The “commonplaces” of the physical and mental map of the Caribbean archipelago: toward a non-place?” contains the critical idea of the entire thesis.

Rupture du silence. L'écriture engagée de Gisèle Pineau

A writer by passion and a psychiatric nurse by profession, Gisèle Pineau is described as the new feminine voice of the literature from the French Antilles (Martinique and Guadeloupe). In all her novels, she explores the human condition and more specifically that of women. Breaking the silence that oppresses Antillean women, Gisèle Pineau delves into the destinies of women from Guadeloupe, scrutinizing the environment of her island and elsewhere, reinventing the French language, and giving voice and identity to all those women who have never had the possibility to express themselves. After having introduced the author in a postcolonial context linked with the theory of the feminine writing and its expressions in Caribbean literature, the plight of women is described through the experience of their bodies in Antillean society and elsewhere. The author focuses on physical and psychological violence denouncing the treatment of women. Escaping from oppression, women look for the space to rebuild a new life and a new identity.

Edouard Glissant e o legado de William Faulkner

Este trabajo se propone analizar el intertexto que une al escritor Edouard Glissant con William Faulkner a través de dos obras: el ensayo Faulkner, Mississipi (1996) y la novela Sartorius (1999). En el primer texto, el autor enfatiza cuestiones presentes en su propia obra novelesca: la genealogía, la relación con el espacio de la plantación, el mestizaje, la (i)legitimidad de derechos con respecto a la posesión de la tierra, la opacidad. En el segundo, traza una línea genealógica de un personaje perteneciente a una etnia africana imaginaria, haciéndolo llegar hasta las plantaciones del sur de los Estados Unidos; paralelamente, presenta la línea genealógica de los Sartoris. En esta dirección, busco mostrar cómo el proyecto literario de Glissant dialoga con la obra de Faulkner, indagando e inventariando las mismas problemáticas con respecto al transplante de poblaciones y su inserción en el espacio de las plantaciones, tanto en el sur de los Estados Unidos como en las islas del Caribe. En las obras de ambos escritores puede percibirse el mismo vértigo trágico que persigue a los personajes, conduciéndolos a la locura, el sufrimiento y la muerte

Edouard Glissant e o legado de William Faulkner

Este trabajo se propone analizar el intertexto que une al escritor Edouard Glissant con William Faulkner a través de dos obras: el ensayo Faulkner, Mississipi (1996) y la novela Sartorius (1999). En el primer texto, el autor enfatiza cuestiones presentes en su propia obra novelesca: la genealogía, la relación con el espacio de la plantación, el mestizaje, la (i)legitimidad de derechos con respecto a la posesión de la tierra, la opacidad. En el segundo, traza una línea genealógica de un personaje perteneciente a una etnia africana imaginaria, haciéndolo llegar hasta las plantaciones del sur de los Estados Unidos; paralelamente, presenta la línea genealógica de los Sartoris. En esta dirección, busco mostrar cómo el proyecto literario de Glissant dialoga con la obra de Faulkner, indagando e inventariando las mismas problemáticas con respecto al transplante de poblaciones y su inserción en el espacio de las plantaciones, tanto en el sur de los Estados Unidos como en las islas del Caribe. En las obras de ambos escritores puede percibirse el mismo vértigo trágico que persigue a los personajes, conduciéndolos a la locura, el sufrimiento y la muerte

Edouard Glissant e o legado de William Faulkner

Este trabajo se propone analizar el intertexto que une al escritor Edouard Glissant con William Faulkner a través de dos obras: el ensayo Faulkner, Mississipi (1996) y la novela Sartorius (1999). En el primer texto, el autor enfatiza cuestiones presentes en su propia obra novelesca: la genealogía, la relación con el espacio de la plantación, el mestizaje, la (i)legitimidad de derechos con respecto a la posesión de la tierra, la opacidad. En el segundo, traza una línea genealógica de un personaje perteneciente a una etnia africana imaginaria, haciéndolo llegar hasta las plantaciones del sur de los Estados Unidos; paralelamente, presenta la línea genealógica de los Sartoris. En esta dirección, busco mostrar cómo el proyecto literario de Glissant dialoga con la obra de Faulkner, indagando e inventariando las mismas problemáticas con respecto al transplante de poblaciones y su inserción en el espacio de las plantaciones, tanto en el sur de los Estados Unidos como en las islas del Caribe. En las obras de ambos escritores puede percibirse el mismo vértigo trágico que persigue a los personajes, conduciéndolos a la locura, el sufrimiento y la muerte

Representación de la mujer transgresora en la novelística de la Cuba republicana

This dissertation explored the subversive feminine discourse in the most representative novels of the first quarter of the twentieth century in the newly born republic of Cuba. Drawing on the feminist theories of Simone de Beauvoir, Toril Moi and Pierre Bourdieu, these women were analyzed in the context of their time, their class level and their race. Because it is oppressive and theoretically unsatisfactory to reduce women to their general "humanity" or to their "femininity", my purpose was to analyze them as human beings in a "specific situation" and show how they curtailed the laws that patriarchy has prepared for them. The novels studied were: Doña Guiomar, by Emilio Bacardí; A fuego lento, by Emilio Bobadilla; La manigua sentimental, by Jesús Castellanos; Las honradas, by Miguel de Carrión; Las impuras, by Miguel de Carrión, and Ecué-Yamba-O, by Alejo Carpentier. Women will obtain freedom and independence from patriarchal control, symbolic power, symbolic violence, and hypnotic power when they are educated and have obtained a working position in society similar to men or by joining the political struggle in their community, in their country, or in the global organizations.

La caída del hombre nuevo: Narrativa cubana del “Período Especial”

The purpose of this dissertation is to demonstrate that the societal changes that took place in Cuba during the last decade of the twentieth century, period know as The Special Period in Times of Peace, created the necessary conditions for the development of a new type of narrative. The first chapter constitutes an historical overview of the role of the State in the literary and artistic creation in revolutionary Cuba. The second, third, and fourth chapters analyze the major characteristics in the narrative of this period, creating a contrast with previous decades of the revolutionary era. With such purpose the study is divided into three categories: language, themes, and ideology. The usage of language as a means of transgression, the recurrence of the topic of need, and the rebirth of critical thinking, represent the principal characteristics of this literary period, and confirm the main idea of this dissertation: the fall of the ideal of the New Man. The final chapter summarizes the findings of the study and poses a question: If the ideal of the New Man has ceased to exist, what has replaced it? The question of whether or not a new ideal has replaced that of the New Man, and what that ideal might be, constitutes a stepping-stone for further studies in the area of Cuban narrative of the Special Period and beyond.

The ethical paradigm of Jose Marti's writings beyond Modernity

This dissertation explores the nature of Jose Marti's ethical ideas in relation to the rise of late Nineteenth Century Modernity and in tandem with the deconstruction and subversion of the principal constituencies of colonial and aesthetic discourses. Marti proposes a new paradigm that question the insatiable pursuit of novelty, the hostility towards tradition, the historical perspectivism and a critical stance with regard to social aesthetic Modernity. He also questions the cult of reason, the linear historicism, and the teleological progress framed in philosophical utilitarian pragmatism of bourgeois Modernity. His radical criticism of the structures and institutions of the hegemonic power of the modern state override the ontological and epistemological foundations of Modernity. Marti's deconstruction of the fundamental discourses of euro-centristic Occidental culture leads him, through his ethical writings, to an arqueology of Native American civilizations, thus reinserting, within the false premises of European universalism, his counter-discourse of tradition and the voice of the Other.

Incursión en el espacio ontológico de las novelas “La ninfa inconstante” de Guillermo Cabrera Infante y “Todos se van” de Wendy Guerra

This thesis examines the phenomenological projection of space in two Cuban novels: La ninfa inconstante (2008) by Guillermo Cabrera Infante (1929–2005), and Todos se van (2006) by Wendy Guerra (1970–). Both novels are paradigmatic of two generations of Cuban writers who portray the city of Havana as a backdrop against which to project socio-political and biographical narratives. To problematize ethical and political omissions in the novels, this work incorporates disciplines such as philosophy, urbanism, architecture, sociology and literary theory. Through the concepts of prominent phenomenologists, such as Gaston Bachelard, Martin Heidegger and Maurice Merleau-Ponty, amongst others, this study evaluates how space becomes a construction to ambivalent dynamics of truth telling within contrasting, suffocating sociopolitical contexts. In addition, it explores how these phenomenological spaces are defined in relation to power. For instance, the Cuban Revolution, and its aftermath of more than 52 years, brings forth a sense of displacement and placelessness. The novels present and develop both authors’ spatial consciousness (that we call “ontological space”), which is not necessarily a container of three-dimensional objects, but instead, fictional emergent constructions. This thesis concludes that literature can become a meaningful space to cope with unbearable realities.

Teoría y práctica del neobarroco en Severo Sarduy

This dissertation analyzes the theory and practice of the Cuban postmodern writer Severo Sarduy (1937–1993) from his early adult years in Cuba to his exile period in Paris, France, where he lived until his death. By studying his narrative through the light of his theoretical essays, this paper demonstrates that the author created his own type of reading model—from and for Sarduy. His literary work is influenced by three major elements: (post)structuralism, psychoanalysis, and Buddhism, which combined form what Sarduy himself called the Neobarroque style. The Sarduyan writing is a transgressive exercise expressed through his concept of simulación. This style breaks with the traditional art concept of mimesis (the representation of reality in the western world), and therefore with the correspondence between the signifier and the signified. Sarduy does not intend to represent reality but to go beyond it, achieving by his technique of signifying exhaustion to represent absence itself. The Neobarroque of Severo Sarduy is an aesthetic of the empty signifier based on the reckless expenditure, and ultimately exhaustion, of the artifices of language that precipitates in a signifier chain towards the infinite. His language does not transmit a message but it signifies itself, that is, a means without an end. Paradoxically, this signifier chain produces an excess of metaphors beyond the material limits of language and its support, the page. The space beyond language is the hipertelic technique inherited by Sarduy from his literary master, José Lezama Lima. This is also the empty space of no signification or nonsense in which occurs the depersonalization of the speaking subject; in Buddhist terminology this becomes the dissolution of the ego. The Sarduyan language is determined by a Lacanian psychoanalytic erotic drive (pulsion) known as the Barroquean desire, a death drive which directly relates to the exile condition of the author. But the genesis of this desire lies in a primordial desire of encounter with his origin: mother, maternal language, paradise, God. That is the reason why Sarduy not only poses an aesthetic question but also an ontological one. This other dimension of the Sarduyan writing is based on a liberating drive that permeates all his work—an ontological liberation expressed through language. The empty space created in the text provides the subject with the possibility of fusion with the all. Ultimately, Sarduy strives for a language that goes beyond the symbolic limits towards a place of constant dissolution, evanesce, and death-horror vacui. This corroborates the Sarduyan statement: “la simulación enuncia el vacío y la muerte.”

Commandeering Aesop’s Bamboo Canon: A 19th Century Confederacy of Creole Fugitive Fables

In my thesis, “Commandeering Aesop’s Bamboo Canon: A 19th Century Confederacy of Creole Fugitive Fables,” I ask and answer the ‘Who? What? Where? When? Why?” of Creole Literature using the 19th century production of Aesopian fables as clues to resolve a set of linguistic, historical, literary, and geographical enigmas pertaining the ‘birth-place(s)’ of Creolophone Literatures in the Caribbean Sea, North and South America, as well as the Indian Ocean. Focusing on the fables in Martinique (1846), Reunion Island (1826), and Mauritius (1822), my thesis should read be as an attempt capture the links between these islands through the creation of a particular archive defined as a cartulary-chronicle, a diplomatic codex, or simply a map in which I chart and trace the flight of the founding documents relating to the lives of the individual authors, editors, and printers in order to illustrate the articulation of a formal and informal confederation that enabled the global and local institutional promotion of Creole Literature. While I integrate various genres and multi-polar networks between the authors of this 19th century canon comprised of sacred and secular texts such as proclamations, catechisms, and proverbs, the principle literary genre charted in my thesis are collections of fables inspired by French 17th century French Classical fabulist, Jean de la Fontaine. Often described as the ‘matrix’ of Creolophone Literature, these blues and fables constitute the base of the canon, and are usually described as either ‘translated,’ ‘adapted,’ and even ‘cross-dressed’ into Creole in all of the French Creolophone spaces. My documentation of their transnational sprouting offers proof of an opaque canonical formation of Creole popular literature. By constituting this archive, I emphasize the fact that despite 200 years of critical reception and major developments and discoveries on behalf of Creole language pedagogues, literary scholars, linguists, historians, librarians, archivist, and museum curators, up until now not only have none have curated this literature as a formal canon. I also offer new empirical evidence in order to try and solve the enigma of “How?” the fables materially circulated between the islands, and seek to come to terms with the anonymous nature of the texts, some of which were published under pseudonyms. I argue that part of the confusion on the part of scholars has been the result of being willfully taken by surprise or defrauded by the authors, or ‘bamboozled’ as I put it. The major paradigmatic shift in my thesis is that while I acknowledge La Fontaine as the base of this literary canon, I ultimately bypass him to trace the ancient literary genealogy of fables to the infamous Aesop the Phrygian, whose biography – the first of a slave in the history of the world – and subsequent use of fables reflects a ‘hidden transcript’ of ‘masked political critique’ between ‘master and slave classes’ in the 4th Century B.C.E. Greece.

This archive draws on, connects and critiques the methodologies of several disciplinary fields. I use post-colonial literary studies to map the literary genealogies Aesop; use a comparative historical approach to the abolitions of slavery in both the 19th century Caribbean and the Indian Ocean; and chart the early appearance of folk music in early colonial societies through Musicology and Performance Studies. Through the use of Sociolinguistics and theories of language revival, ecology, and change, I develop an approach of ‘reflexive Creolistics’ that I ultimately hope will offer new educational opportunities to Creole speakers. While it is my desire that this archive serves linguists, book collectors, and historians for further scientific inquiry into the innate international nature of Creole language, I also hope that this innovative material defense and illustration of Creole Literature will transform the consciousness of Creolophones (native and non-native) who too remain ‘bamboozled’ by the archive. My goal is to erase the ‘unthinkability’ of the existence of this ancient maritime creole literary canon from the collective cultural imaginary of readers around the globe.

The Drama of History: Representation and Revolutionaries in Haitian Theater, 1818-1907

Since the beginning of the Haitian theatrical tradition there has been an ineluctable dedication to the representation of Haitian history on stage. Given the rich theatrical archive about Haiti throughout the world, this study considers operas and plays written solely by Haitian playwrights. By delving into the works of Juste Chanlatte, Massillon Coicou, and Vendenesse Ducasse this study proposes a re-reading of Haitian theater that considers the stage as an innovative site for contesting negative and clichéd representations of the Haitian Revolution and its revolutionary leadership. A genre long mired in accusations of mimicking European literary forms, this study proposes a reevaluation of Haitian theater and its literary origins.

Interactions between drugs and drug-nutrient in enteral nutrition: a review based on evidences

Introduction: Enteral nutrition (EN) provides calories, macronutrients and micronutrients in adequate quantity and quality to meet the patient's needs. Some drugs when crushed and diluted may have their properties altered, including the reduction of bioavailability causing the reduction of the serum concentration of the drug; tube obstruction; drug-drug interaction or drug-nutrient interaction. Methods: The study was conducted through review of submitted articles in the databases of the Virtual Health Library (VHL): MEDLINE (National Library of Medicine, USA), Lilacs (Latin American and Caribbean Literature on Health Sciences) PUBMED - NCBI (National Center for Biotechnology Information) and COCHRANE. Results: For this survey, 42 articles were identified during database searching. After applying the inclusion and exclusion criteria, 08 articles were selected, obtained from the MEDLINE and Lilacs. Discussion: Some interactions were found such as the aluminium hydroxide and lactulose with the enteral nutrition, which may result in a precipitation and reduction of drug bioavailability. Mineral oil will alter the absorption of fat-soluble vitamins and reduces the tube light. Others results were found as phenytoin, warfarin, captopril and furosemide with enteral nutrition may reduce the maximum serum concentration. Conclusion: Drug interactions are more common in day-to-day activities than health professionals may suppose. Knowledge on the matter may also assist in reducing cases of obstruction of tubes, through which enteral nutrition and medications are administered. Thus, the multidisciplinary team, acting together, may have more beneficial effects to the patient.

Medicamentos tópicos comumente usados no tratamento de feridas

O presente estudo aborda o tema "Medicamentos Tópicos Comumente Usados no Tratamento de Feridas", que teve como objetivo realizar revisão de literatura acerca de técnicas comumente empregadas no tratamento tópico de feridas na rede básica de saúde. Foi realizada revisão bibliográfica de artigos indexados nas bases de dados LILACS (Latin American and Caribbean Literature in Health Sciences), PUBMED, Biblioteca Virtual em Saúde (BVS), SciELO (Scientific Electronic Library Online) e BDENF (Bases de Dados de Enfermagem) no período de 2006 a 2011. O estudo aponta a necessidade de fazer uso de todo conhecimento científico sobre a variedade de medicamentos tópicos existentes no mercado e seus benefícios para promoção de perfeita cicatrização de feridas. O trabalho aborda as características e indicação de uso dos produtos mais usados na prática clínica e a visão de diversos autores sobre estes. O trabalho confirma a necessidade de otimização do conhecimento acerca de todas as possibilidades de tratamento de feridas, de revisão do todo conteúdo teórico na prática de assistência para a melhora do cuidado a pacientes portadores de feridas.