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This dissertation focuses on the analysis of Costa Rican literature from 1885 to 1930 in order to explore the problematic configuration of national heroes in the construction of the modern Costa Rican social imaginary. Costa Rica was unique among Central American nations in that its participation in the regional campaign against William Walker (1856-1857) served as a foundational moment for its national project in the 1880s. Two major figures emerged as potential symbols of national heroism: Juan Rafael Mora Porras and Juan Santamaría. Authors Carlos Gagini, Manuel Argüello Mora and Ricardo Fernández Guardia were the only writers who tried to narrate Mora Porras and Juan Santamaría's lives and legacies between 1885 and 1931. In addition, as intellectuals of the liberal elite, their works had to address the consolidation of a national discourse characterized by a desire to highlight distance from, and superiority to, the other Central American nations. According to that vision, Costa Rica could be singled out as racially white and politically peaceful, both attractive traits for enticing foreign investment. Interestingly the paradox of writing on war heroes in this context has not been explored in academia. In fact, publications and academic writing about Costa Rica's military conflicts and heroes are scarce. Within the field of literary criticism, which may have considered these topics taboo, I propose to begin filling this void by analyzing the liberal elite's literary writings on heroism within the context of constructing modern nationhood. My intention is to demonstrate how the literary representations of heroes fracture Costa Rican national discourse, thus explaining the intellectual's resistance to writing on the topic and giving voice to Santamaría and Mora Porras, regardless of the importance of their roles for the foundational "social drama". If we avoid studying how national discourse suppressed violence from its origins and cut short the narrative representations of heroic figures, we deny the possibility of understanding and embracing the need for reinventing traditions and heroes in the 21st century. / text

This dissertation presents an historical overview of the interdependent representations of gender, class, ethnicity, race, nationality, sexuality, and (dis)ability in a selection of films and first-person written autobiographical texts from the 1940s to the early twenty-first century. Cinematic and written autobiographical representations of “mental illness” reflect and shape various models of psychological trauma and wellness. I explore the ways that these two genres of representation underscore, exert influence upon, and interrogate socio-cultural understandings and interpretations of deviance and normalcy, madness and sanity, and pathology and health. Some models of health and illness carry more ideological weight than others, and thus differentially contour public policy formation and the materiality of people’s daily lives. My project is distinct from other kinds of scholarship on the subject of women’s “madness.” Whereas scholarship has been written on “madness” and cinema, and on “madness” and autobiography, this related academic work has not consistently drawn linkages between multiple genres or utilized interdisciplinary methodologies to critically explore texts. Feminist scholars who address the interconnections between autobiographies and cinematic representations often pay only limited attention to psychiatric survivors. I draw parallels and distinctions between these genres, based upon my training in social work, cultural studies, film and autobiography theory, medical and linguistic anthropology, and disability studies. My perspective hinges upon my longstanding involvement with and commitment to the subject of women’s “madness” in both personal and professional arenas.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Miami University, Dept. of Educational Leadership, 2008. / Title from second page of PDF document. Includes bibliographical references (p. 189-199).

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Marta Traba (1923-1983), écrivaine et critique d’art argentino-colombienne, est principalement connue en Amérique latine pour ses écrits critiques, son engagement pour le développement de l’art moderne en Colombie, et plus largement pour sa « théorie de la résistance » qui prône dans les arts plastiques une défense des identités culturelles latino-américaines. Son œuvre littéraire, en revanche, est beaucoup moins connue. Or, elle est non seulement très riche, mais elle forme le pendant narratif à son œuvre critique, un ensemble de récits innervés, de manière plus ou moins profonde, des conceptions et de la culture trabiennes sur l’art. Il s’agit dès lors de reconsidérer ces deux pans de sa production écrite comme un tout cohérent, et de montrer les influences et les interactions entre sa critique d’art et sa littérature, mais également entre les arts plastiques qui forment sa culture artistique et ses écrits fictionnels. Il apparaît alors que Marta Traba conçoit et pratique son écriture critique comme une écriture « littérarisée » et, réciproquement et surtout, sa littérature comme une littérature « artialisée » : la valorisation constante du regard esthétique sur le monde et d’une sensorialité exacerbée dessine un idéal de contemplation tout au long de son œuvre littéraire ; les insertions continues d’une terminologie critique et de références aux œuvres d’art, sur un mode tantôt clairement didactique, tantôt subtilement ludique, invitent le lecteur à lire ses fictions et poèmes au prisme du sous-texte artistique qui enrichit leur sens ; enfin, le récit devient le lieu d’expérimentation des théories trabiennes de la « résistance », entre réaffirmation de la place de l’Amérique latine sur la carte de l’art mondial, mise à distance défensive des influences nord-américaines et réappropriation locale, par « transculturation », des modèles artistiques étrangers. L’étude de l’artialisation de la littérature trabienne est donc loin d’être l’analyse d’un simple procédé formel : elle dégage, nous semble-t-il, un véritable style trabien, miroir de l’écrivaine et de ses convictions. / Marta Traba (1923-1983), an Argentinian-Colombian writer and art critic, is most famous in Latin America for her critiques, her commitment to develop modern art in Colombia, and, more generally, for her “theory of resistance” which advocates the defence of the many cultural Latin-American identities in fine arts. Her literary work, however, is far less well-known. And yet, not only is it very rich, but it also constitutes the narrative counterpart to her critiques – a collection of tales innervated, to different degrees, with Traba’s notions on and knowledge of art. It is consequently about reconsidering these two sides of her written production as a consistent whole, and identifying the influences and interactions between her art critiques and her literary work, as well as between the fine arts which make up her artistic culture and her fictional writings.It then appears that Marta Traba devises and practices her critical writing “literarily” as she does, above all, her literary work “artistically”: the constant enhancement of the aesthetic eye on the world and of an intensified sensory experience shape an ideal of contemplation throughout her literary work; the continuous inserts of a critical terminology and of references to art works, sometimes in a clearly didactic mode, sometimes in a subtly playful manner, invite the reader to read her fiction stories and poems in the light of the artistic subtext which enriches their meaning; finally, the tale becomes the place where Traba’s theories of “resistance” are tested, at the crossroads of the re-affirmation of the place of Latin America on the map of international art, of the defensive distancing from North American influences, and of the local re-appropriation, by “transculturation”, of the foreign artistic models. The study of the artistic mutation of Traba’s literary work is therefore far from boiling down to the analysis of a mere formal process: from our point of view, it reveals an authentic style, Traba’s style, which is the mirror of the writer and her convictions.