Confronting History and Modernity in Mexican Narrative

ISBN-13: 9780230606371 / Angielski / Twarda / 2008 / 180 str.

Opis

Two motifs of an angel of history, one European and one Mexican, provide a theoretical framework for this book. The first is Walter Benjamin's interpretation of the Klee painting angelus novus, a figure that gazes upon the ruins of the past, powerless to repair the broken pieces as it keels into the future. Although Benjamin envisions history as catastrophe piled upon catastrophe, he also sees in this angel the possibility for redemption in divine destruction. Mexico City's key monument, the Angel of Independence, also embodies redemption and destruction through history, marking moments of staggering transformation beyond the conquest. Drawing from these two theoretical angels, the study delineates three major narrative tendencies in contemporary historical novels from Mexico. First, these novels humanize canonized heroes and bring them down to earth. Secondly, they demonumentalize the European legacy, renegotiating Europe's five hundred year bequest of conquest and colonialism. Thirdly, the novels have begun to recover secondary figures previously lost to history, particularly women and people of color. While these three tendencies apply throughout Latin America, they are particularly pronounced in Mexican literary production.

Recenzje

"The analysis is lucid, insightful, and far-reaching, covering themes of memory, inquisition, conquest, power, syncretism, transculturation, biopolitics, and ecology... Recommended." - CHOICE

Spis treści

Introduction Humanizing the Hero Highlighting Women in History Mourning the European Legacy Redemption of the Present Conclusion

O autorze

ELISABETH GUERRERO is Associate Professor of Spanish at Bucknell University, USA.