Since the late 1980s, there has been a steady production of Latin American narrative fiction in Spanish concerning China and the Chinese. Despite the work written about China and its relation to Latin America, no comprehensive examination of the representation of China in literature has been produced thus far. This thesis analyses nine novels in which China is the main theme, exploring how China has been represented in Latin American narrative fiction in recent decades. Using 'China' as a multidimensional term informed by Sara Ahmed's understanding of 'strangerness' (2000), this thesis first explores how the novels studied here both highlight and undermine assumptions about China that have long shaped Latin America's understanding of 'China'. Secondly, using theories of the fetish, it shows 'China' to be a kind of literary/imaginary 'third' term which reframes Latin American discourses of alterity. On one level, it is argued that these texts play with the way that 'China' stands in as a wandering signifier and as a metonym for Asia, a gesture that essentialises it as an unchanging other. On another level, it argues that the novels' employment of 'China' resists essentialist constructions of Latin American identity. 'China' is thus shown here to be a symbolic figure in Latin America, serving as a concept through which criticism of the construction of fetishised otherness becomes possible, as well as criticism of the exclusion inherent in essentialist discourses of identity, such as those contained in mestizaje. These discourses of mestizaje have traditionally emphasised racial and cultural mixture, and have excluded the Chinese from discourses of Latin American identity. As a result, 'China' is used here to deconstruct bound identities, interrupting discourses of otherness within Latin America. From this perspective, it is argued that these novels tend to gesture towards an understanding of identity as 'being-with', and community as inoperative, as developed by Jean-Luc Nancy (1991, 2000), whilst taking a cosmopolitan stance, as developed by Berthold Schoene (2011). The novels have been divided between those that set their stories in China, such as Cesar Aira's 'Una novela china' (1987); those that explore Chinese communities in Latin America, such as Ariel Magnus' 'Un chino en bicicleta' (2007); and those that focus on Latin American travel to China, such as Ximena Sanchez Echenique's 'El ombligo del dragon' (2007). Indebted to Ahmed's, Nancy's and Schoene's theoretical perspectives, Chapter 1 explores how 'China', as both a physical space and a discursive context, foregrounds negotiations of power in the histories of both China and Latin America. Chapter 2 studies how 'China' is used to recall and interrogate the notion of an indistinct 'oriental'. The final chapter seeks to understand the ways in which the novels articulate travel to China as a means of challenging Eurocentric structures and 'national' epistemologies. Ultimately, by disclosing the complex operations through which 'China' is represented in Latin American literary discourses, this study explores possible further reconfigurations of Latin American notions of identity and community as non-essentialist and in constant development.

Les ressorts d’une crise de l’État-nation belge sont avant tout analysés comme la montée croissante des mouvements nationalistes, régionalistes flamands et wallons (Witte, 2011 ; Bitsch, 2004) Ici, la crise s’inscrit prioritairement dans une logique de fragmentation territoriale. D’un État-nation unitaire, centralisé et francophone, la Belgique est devenue officiellement au cours du XX e siècle un État fédéral, composé de trois Régions (Wallonie, Flandre, Bruxelles-Capitale) et de trois Communautés (Française, Flamande et Germanophone). Cette progressive fragmentation de l’État-nation territorial belge s’est doublée d’une logique de confrontation entre deux groupes politiques et identitaires : les Flamands (néerlandophones) et les Wallons (francophones). Dans cette logique de confrontation, c’est la capitale belge, Bruxelles, qui apparaît comme le terrain de jeu conflictuel et l’enjeu territorial entre Flamands et Francophones. Appréhender la crise de l’État-nation belge au prisme de l’enjeu territorial bruxellois nourrit la démarche d’ensemble de cette thèse. L’origine grecque du concept de crise, krisis, fournit des éléments d’analyse essentiels afin de dépasser une approche de l’ébranlement de l’État-nation centrée sur les effets et les situations de blocage. Le concept de crise met en œuvre le couple conceptuel de aporie/poros/kairos. Le poros signifie le passage, l’issue, le chemin. A contrario, l’aporie désigne des situations de blocage et l’absence d’issue. L’aporie, les situations de blocages de l’État-nation belge se matérialisant à Bruxelles, révèlent le paradoxe sur lequel se sont construits les États-nations territoriaux. Dans ce contexte, l’introduction du kairos – l’opportunité - dans cette situation d’aporie se réfère à l’émergence d’un paradigme concurrent au nationalisme méthodologique : le cosmopolitisme méthodologique. Celui-ci se nourrit de l’affirmation et de la reconnaissance de différents mécanismes globaux et urbains, distillant de la diversité au sein des sociétés, se jouant ainsi des paradigmes et des constructions nationales reconnues ou en devenir. Dans cette perspective, cette thèse étudie l’émergence de mouvements urbains comme porteurs de ce cosmopolitisme méthodologique dans un ensemble de pratiques politiques, sociales et spatiales. Plus spécifiquement, cette recherche porte sur le mouvement bruxellois, regroupant aujourd’hui une partie de la société civile et des partis politiques à Bruxelles, et dont l’objectif est de proposer une alternative à la montée croissante des nationalismes en Belgique, mis en concurrence au sein de l’espace bruxellois. / This work analyzes the patterns of the crisis of the Belgian Nation-state and its territorial fragmentation in the light of the rise of nationalist movements (Witte, 2011 ; Bitsch, 2004). From a centralized, French-speaking and unitary Nation-State, Belgium became, during the 20th century, a federal state. The Belgian federal state gathers three Regions (Wallonia, Flanders, Brussels Capital-Region) and three Communities (French-speaking, Flemish and German-Speaking). This progressive territorial fragmentation was coupled with a confrontation between political groups with strong identity claims: the Flemish (Dutch speaking) and Walloon (French speaking). Amidst this confrontation Brussels appears as a conflicting territorial issue between the Flemish and the French-Speaking Community. This work aims precisely to understand the crisis of the Belgian Nation-State through the role of and issues at stake with Brussels. The Greek origin of the concept of crisis, krisis, provides cornerstone elements to overcome an approach centered on the nation-state ‘blocking effects’. The relations among aporia/kairos/poros structure the concept of krisis. The poros means the outcome, the way out. In contrast, aporia reflects a deadlock situation and the lack of solutions. In the context of our study, the introduction of kairos – i.e. opportunity – refers to the emergence of a methodological cosmopolitan paradigm (Beck, 2003). It refers to the affirmation and recognition of urban and global mechanisms, distilling diversity within societies. In this perspective, this thesis focuses on the emergence of urban movements who are supporting methodological cosmopolitanism in a set of political, social and spatial practices. More specifically, it researches how the Brussels’ urban movement brings together the civil society and political parties to offer an alternative to the increasing rise of nationalism in Belgium