This study analyzes Virgilio Piñera’s concept of performance in relation to his representation of mass media products and technologies. The central argument is that Piñera’s notion of theatrical representation connects fiction with politics in subversive ways, challenging assumptions of naturalness at different levels, from that of the gendered self, to the family and the nation. To support this argument, the study focuses on Piñera’s representation of a variety of mass media genres as these inspire everyday life performances, mainly in Cuba but also in Argentina. While fictional models and sentimental narratives from the mass media most often convey oppressive conceptions of gender, family, and nation, the author’s representation of the media’s pervasive influence questions and denaturalizes those conceptions. Piñera stresses the disruptive potential of individual performance against the repetitive character of both the mass media industry and the social reenactments of its sentimental myths. His references to mass culture thus destabilize structures of power, including stereotypes of both sexuality and gender. The analysis shows that Piñera’s fictions exhibit important characteristics of queer aesthetics. The study comprises a time span of almost three decades, from the early 1940s to the late 1960s, and focuses on a selection of Piñera’s criticism, drama, poetry, and narrative. Within those texts, special attention is given to references to photography, radio programs, romance novels, movies, and popular music. The organization of Piñera’s texts in this study answers to both thematic and chronological considerations. Chapter 1 outlines the study’s objectives and methodology, also providing a background on critical studies about Piñera. Chapters 2 and 3 deal with plays and short-stories written before the 1959 Cuban Revolution. Chapter 2 examines texts that represent both family and nation in relation to a variety of mass media genres, from Cuban “radionovelas” to Hollywood gangster films. Chapter 3 focuses on two narratives, written in Buenos Aires, that address posing and self-representation in relation to issues of sexuality, masculinity, and power. Chapter 4 deals with a selection of poems written, for the most part, after 1959. In these poems, the literary use of photography stresses theatrical self-representation, often in direct resistance to revolutionary reformulations of masculinity in the figure of the “New Man.” / text

Il est très délicat de parler « d’identité » cubaine sans la problématiser, la nuancer ou la circonstancier. Cuba est pourtant une île fouettée par des courants venus de tous les horizons, un creuset où se sont mêlées les cultures qui semblent définir son caractère propre. Le cas du théâtre est un exemple incontestable. Le théâtre cubain est un art plus ou moins sinistré à l’intérieur même de ses frontières. Mais après la révolution il commence à renaître. Le théâtre cubain a accompagné l’histoire de la révolution cubaine au milieu d’un siècle de grandes guerres et de mouvement de libération nationale. L’éclosion des années 1960 paraît ainsi être l’apogée de l’écriture dramatique cubaine, et la représentation dans le pays, de ce fait, le théâtre cubain rencontre une spécificité propre à l’intérieur et en dehors de l’île. Les dramaturges cubains représentent dans leurs œuvres la thématique cubaine dans et en dehors de l’île, intimement lié à la circonstance politique révolutionnaire et à ses conséquences dans la famille cubaine et l’individu. Tout ceci participe du « cubain », autant d’exemples qui montrent la difficulté de parler d’un théâtre cubain. Il n’y pas qu’une seule façon de faire du cubain, car chaque auteur, chaque histoire est différente et implique différentes manières de percevoir « la cubania », que ce soit dans l’aspect comique, tragique, réaliste, « absurdiste » ou politique, la spécificité de l’île est bien là. / It is difficult to talk about Cuban "identity" without making an issue of, qualifying or detailing it. Yet Cuba is an island lashed by currents from every direction, a melting pot of cultures which seem to define its own character. Theatre is a case in point. Cuban theatre is an art which is more less confined to the interior of its borders. But after the revolution, it has begun to be reborn. Cuban theatre has gone hand in hand with the story of the Cuban revolution in the middle of a century of great wars and the national liberation movement. The dawn of the 60s thus seems to be the peak of dramatic Cuban literature and, because of this, Cuban theatre, in the way that it is performed, encounters a specificity both on as well as off the island.". Cuban playwrights represent in their work the Cuban theme in and outside the island, intimately linked to the revolutionary political circumstances and to their consequences on Cuban families and individuals. All of this makes up what it is to be "Cuban", so many examples which demonstrate the difficulty of talking about Cuban theatre. There is not only one way to 'do' Cuban, since every author, every story is different and requires different ways to perceive "la cubania", whether it is in a comic, tragic, realist, "absurdist" or political way, the specificity of the island is always there.

This dissertation investigates the narrative practice of Latin American Existentialism. My project tracks the structures, themes, and interpretations of Existentialism across national borders in the belief that a common expression exists which is distinctly Latin American. I begin this philosophical cartography, with four Existential(ist) novels produced in Latin America during the 1930s. Specifically, I will examine the Existentialist quality of Enrique Labrador Ruiz's El laberinto de si­ mismo (1933), Mari­a Luisa Bombal's La ultima niebla (1934) and La amortajada (1938), and Graciliano Ramos's Angustia (1936). These narratives are analyzed in relation to the core thematic of Existential philosophy. I read these narratives as Existential(ist) because they are of, relating to and characterized by a philosophy of existence, and because they simultaneously produce an Existential discourse. My study is, at one level, comparative in that I pursue the points of emergence of Existentialism's prominent categories not only across national borders, but also across disciplines. I relate the tradition of Latin American thought in the first half of the 20th century and Existential philosophy from Europe to collectivize the thematic points of contact. These I contrast with our literary production of the 1930s. By emphasizing the particularities and continuations of Latin America's contribution to the Existential canon I, in effect, periodize an era which is foundational in the history of Latin American literature. Furthermore, by acknowledging the literary presence of Latin American Existentialism we can appreciate the explicit narrative interrogation of the Self through aesthetic, ethical, and ontological parameters.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2004. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 157-168).

This study attempts to organize the conglomerate of writing on Africans within Republican Cuba. Starting with an examination of the scientific stages of such writing, we will trace the assorted work of Fernando Ortiz (1881-1969), whose anthropological study of Afrocuba produced myriad readings of the heritage. The multiplicity of renderings of Cuba s Africans from the scientific arena including condemning, racially charged treatises and spiritual conceptualizations of the richness of Cuba s African heritage generated an air of inconstancy. Indeed, the contradictions generated by the discipline s scientific course were incredibly polarized, representative of an ambiguity that became emblematic of Afrocuban Studies. Regardless of such blatant ideological opposition, tracing Ortiz s anthropological reading of the place of Cuba s Africans among the nation provides a telling insight into the racialized circumstances surrounding Republican nation-building. Whether scientific research scorned Cuba s Africans or applauded their inclusion in the national imaginary, Ortiz s writing and his invitations to Cuba s younger scholars to partake of folk study outlines a succinct treatment of Cuban nation-building between 1902 and 1959. If scientific research on Afrocuba promulgated studies that both cherished and demonized Cuba s Africanness, so too did Afrocuba s artistic invocations bear contradiction. After the vogue of the African swept the 1920s Parisian art scene, Africanized artistic currents infiltrated Cuba and mingled with its scientific counterpart. The ensuing readings of Afrocuba, contradictory and complex, spurred both research-art overlaps and the rejection of scientific tenets for a so-called artistically authentic rendering of Afrocuba that is, a reading from the inside, from within Afrocuba. It is along these lines that fiction writers (including Alejo Carpentier, Lydia Cabrera, and Rmulo Lachataer) posted renderings of Afrocuba that partook of various degrees of science, research, and artistic vogue. The resultant narrative system portrayed three different sorts of Afrocuban literature; none of the writers aligned succinctly in their portrayal. Afrocuba s poetic front was even more varied in its evocation of the nation, the academy, and popular art. In this way, Nicols Guilln, Ramn Guirao, Juan Marinello, and Emilio Ballagas encapsulated unique poetic visions on two fronts: through offerings to Afrocuban poetics and through essays on the Afrocuban poetic mode. We shall examine such pieces in the hopes of understanding the balanced interplay that academic research and artistic invocation absorbed in the nation-building process, in the fashioning of Afrocuba.

My thesis grows out of a reflection on Cuban literature, race, and national identity within the broader framework of the canon and its marginal literature. It explores the dynamics of the Cuban canon and specific visions of race and nation, and studies one play, two novels, a book of poems and a radio script from four different moments in Cuban history. Fernández Vilarós´s play Los negros catedráticos (1868) sets for the first time the topic of race at the center of the national debate, immediately before the first and longest Cuban independence war. The play contrasts with Cecilia Valdés (1882), arguably the most canonical Cuban novel, with its subversive remake, Sofía (1891) and analyzes how the former seeks to conceal the nation’s racially-mixed character and present the mulata condition as a mere border-line. Sofía, however, erases this line and expands the mulata condition to everyone. Following this reading, it seeks to identify a set of markers that configures a mulato discourse in Regino Boti´s Arabescos mentales (1913). It proposes that the characteristic tendency toward elitism in Latin American Modernismo is actually a racial device to accomplish racial equality. And so language (and poetry) emerges in Boti as the most efficient vehicle to resolve racial deficiency. Finally, the thesis studies the script of the most successful Latino American soap opera ever, El derecho de nacer (1948), by Félix B. Caignet. Here Caignet converges the Villaverde´s idea of race as an objective value with Boti’s White idealization. He also proposes symbolic or cultural whitening as the only vehicle of social improvement. In conclusion, the common denominator of all four works is the representation of mulatez as an absolute and objective fact, as opposed to the marginal Sofía, which presents it as relative and subjective. Therefore, despite the traditional national discourse of Cuba as a racially-mixed country, the canon has banned those works that actually support this postulate.

Tesis (Doctor en Filología)--Universidad de Valladolid, España, 2007. / Digitized and made available on the World Wide Web by Interamerican University of Puerto Rico, 2007.

Essa tese ilumina as relações entre tradição, ensaio e história na obra de Alejo Carpentier, entre 1928 e 1980, com o intuito de compreender seu caminho para o antigo. O estudo recoloca a discussão sobre a proposta estética de escritores e movimentos de vanguarda europeus e latino-americanos. Minha principal consideração é de que a visão negativa de Carpentier acerca das vanguardas foi produto de uma estratégia de sagração de seu nome como intelectual e da separação de sua obra dos bens culturais da modernidade, como o rádio. Duas faces de uma mesma moeda colocou no esquecimento uma obra fundamentalmente vinculada à legitimidade moderna, especialmente por uma experiência do tempo vinculada ao presente e a constituição de uma rede intelectual latino-americana da qual Carpentier era partícipe. Por meio da análise de sua obra e do contexto europeu e latino-americano, este estudo realça que o conceito de formação é apropriado pelo autor para valorizar uma trajetória intelectual coesa que rejeitou os padrões de percepção e representação legados pelo surrealismo. Ao mesmo tempo, as múltiplas formas de leitura da tradição clássica inclusive utilizando os mitos de Sísifo e Adão valorizam o lugar autêntico de sua escrita, porém não deixam de ressaltar a presença da artificialidade do surrealismo. / The issue of this thesis is the relation amid tradition, political culture and history in the work of Alejo Carpentier (1928-1980) to understand his way to ancient. This proposal reassesses the dialogue between the aesthetic avant-garde European writers and Latin American manifestations. My main assertation is that Carpentiers negative appraisals by the avant-garde were the product of Rite of his name as intellectual and the distance of his work on the belongings of modernity, like a radio. Two faces on the same coin have been left behind a work linked to the modernity mainly connected to the present and the constitution of an intellectual latin-american web. By the annalisys of the work and the European and latin-american context, this work underlines that the concept of formation emphatizes an intellectual path that was opposed to the patterns of perception and representation legacy by the surrealism. Meanwhile, the different forms of lecture of classical tradition with the myths of Sisifo and Adam who praised the authentic writing on its own, although it maintains the artificiality of surrealism.

O presente trabalho visa explorar a forma do romance na periferia do capitalismo no século XX e XXI, tendo como paradigmas dois de seus mais destacados escritores, Alejo Carpentier e Mia Couto. Para tanto, analisa-se aqui as obras Los Pasos Perdidos (Carpentier) e O Outro Pé da Sereia (Couto) à luz da teoria do realismo de György Lukács. O que se deseja demonstrar é: visto que o romance é a epopéia do mundo burguês, autores como Carpentier se valeram do período de desenvolvimentismo industrial no continente latino-americano inserido no crescimento mundial do capitalismo pós-Segunda Guerra (1945-1975) para lançar o conflito entre a afirmação definitiva da modernidade e seu universo pré-moderno: a isto muitos deram o nome de realismo maravilhoso. Por sua vez, em Moçambique, o histórico colonial e a independência tardia na época da crise estrutural do capital (a partir de 1975) determinaram uma frágil afirmação dos padrões sociais burgueses. Tal condição tem conseqüências na produção romanesca de autores como Mia Couto. Entre elas: o maravilhoso aparece como princípio formal, elidindo tensões necessárias ao romance e restringindo assim o alcance de sua ficção. / The present work aims to explore the form of the novel in capitalisms periphery in the XX and XXI centuries, using as paradigms two of its most illustrious writers, Alejo Carpentier and Mia Couto. To do so, Los Pasos Perdidos (Carpentier) and O Outro Pé da Sereia (Couto) are studied from the perspective of György Lukácss realism theory. The intent is to demonstrate the following: since the novel is the bourgeois worlds epopee, authors such as Carpentier made use of the industrial development period in Latin America in the context of post-Second World War capitalisms growth in the world (1945-1975) to draw the conflict between modernitys definitive affirmation and its pre-modern universe: which many have named magical realism. In turn, in Mozambique, the colonial past and the late independence by the time of capitalisms structural crisis (starting in 1975) have defined a fragile affirmation of bourgeois social patterns. Such situation has consequences in the novel production of authors such as Mia Couto. Amongst which: the magical element appears as formal principle, suppressing necessary tensions to the novel, thus restricting its fictional reach.

My purpose in writing this dissertation is to re-evaluate the works of three influential Spanish-Caribbean authors who seem to be remembered more as exceptional historical characters rather than for their literature itself. Although often considered to be important contributors to the Spanish-Caribbean literary canon, these writers have also suffered a measure of marginalization as scholars have relegated them to the status of discursive subjects rather than evaluate them as authorial agents. As a consequence, the majority of their works have not been fully recognized as important factors in nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty first century literary production. I show how in their writings – many of which have been misunderstood, under-evaluated, and/or forgotten altogether – these writers narrated their own precarious situations and lifted their voice in protest against slavery, racism and economic oppression at a time when the dominant discourses and heavy-handed controls of the Spanish colonial government strictly forbid them to do so. These authors are Juan Francisco Manzano, Gabriel de la Concepción Valdés (Plácido) and Eleuterio Derkes. Because these authors lived in Cuba (Manzano and Plácido) and Puerto Rico (Derkes) as colonial subjects underneath the oppressive structures of their respective plantation and hacienda economies based on sugar production and slave labor, they experienced difficult colonial conditions and as such are able to narrate this life through a unique perspective that other writers associated with the dominant discourses of the time could not. While these brands of hegemony were indeed forced upon them as writers and artists, it did not stop them from narrating and communicating their unique Spanish Caribbean perspective. I show how these authors, as marginalized figures of nineteenth century plantation society, engineered their own discourses around these hegemonic institutions – writing between the lines of hegemony and concurrent with it at the same time – in order to create an alternative image of nineteenth century Spanish Caribbean society that requires further critical consideration and perspective. / text