This dissertation studies the cultural concept of “decadence” in Latin America during the nineteenth and twentieth century. It focuses on the reception of Cuban writer Julián del Casal (1863-1893) as an emblematic case. It approaches “decadence” in literary, sociological and historical terms, and relates its emergence (as cultural concept) to the legitimation crisis of colonialism brought about by the advent of industrial capitalism in the nineteenth century. The dissertation presents a comparative study of the relationship between fin de siècle and the twentieth century categorizations of the "decadent" and "degenerate" artist. Julián del Casal is analyzed as a cornerstone for such debates in three interrelated spheres: literary criticism in pre-Independence Cuba, including discussions on nationhood, art, culture, and literature; Latin American modernismo criticism, in particular the debates among writers and critics on the role of literature in fin-de-siècle Latin America; and twentieth-century literary reformulations of “decadence” among writers associated with the journal Orígenes. The dissertation combines theoretical approaches on the sociology of literature, cultural and Transatlantic theories of “decadence”, and close readings of archival material. This dissertation makes a contribution to bridging the gap between literary and cultural approaches to “decadence” as both a literary strategy and a cultural and political phenomenon. It asserts that, in order to understand the significance of “decadence” in Cuba and in the rest of Latin America, it is important to go beyond traditional approaches, which have circumscribed the study of “decadence” to the nineteenth-century, and have treated it merely as an aesthetic phenomenon. Instead, the dissertation highlights the significance of this concept, in the study of twentieth-century literature and politics, as a tool to revisit the impact of colonialism and nation-formation in Latin America.

This work brings an anti-colonial reading to the production and maintenance of racial logic in Cuban schooling, through conversations with, and surveys of Cuban teachers, as well as through analysis of secondary and primary documents. The study undertaken seeks to contribute to the limited existent research on race relations in Cuba, with a research focus on the Cuban educational context. Teasing and staking out a middle ground between the blinding and often hollow pro-Cuba fanaticism and the deafening anti -Cuban rhetoric from the left and right respectively, this project seeks a more nuanced, complete and dialogical understanding of race and race relations in Cuba, with a specific focus on the educational context. With this in mind, the learning objectives of this study are to investigate the following: 1) What role does racism play in Cuba currently and historically? 2) What is the role of education in the life of race and racism on the island? 3) What new questions and insights emerge from the Cuban example that might be of use to integrated anti-racism, anti-colonialism and class-oriented scholarship and activism? On a more specific level, the guiding research objectives of the study are to investigate the following: 1) How do teachers support and/or challenge dominant ideas of race and racism, and to what degree to do they construct their own meanings on these topics? 2) How do teachers understand the relevance of race and racism for teaching and learning? 3) How and why do teachers address race and racism in the classroom? The data reveal a complex process of meaning making by teachers who are at once produced by and producers of dominant race discourse on the island. Teachers are the front line race workers of the racial project, doing much of the heavy lifting in the ongoing struggle against racism, but are at the same time custodians of an approach to race relations which has on the whole failed to eliminate racism. This work investigates and explicates this apparent contradiction inherent in teachers’ work and discourse on the island, revealing a flawed and complex form of Cuban anti-racism.

This work brings an anti-colonial reading to the production and maintenance of racial logic in Cuban schooling, through conversations with, and surveys of Cuban teachers, as well as through analysis of secondary and primary documents. The study undertaken seeks to contribute to the limited existent research on race relations in Cuba, with a research focus on the Cuban educational context. Teasing and staking out a middle ground between the blinding and often hollow pro-Cuba fanaticism and the deafening anti -Cuban rhetoric from the left and right respectively, this project seeks a more nuanced, complete and dialogical understanding of race and race relations in Cuba, with a specific focus on the educational context. With this in mind, the learning objectives of this study are to investigate the following: 1) What role does racism play in Cuba currently and historically? 2) What is the role of education in the life of race and racism on the island? 3) What new questions and insights emerge from the Cuban example that might be of use to integrated anti-racism, anti-colonialism and class-oriented scholarship and activism? On a more specific level, the guiding research objectives of the study are to investigate the following: 1) How do teachers support and/or challenge dominant ideas of race and racism, and to what degree to do they construct their own meanings on these topics? 2) How do teachers understand the relevance of race and racism for teaching and learning? 3) How and why do teachers address race and racism in the classroom? The data reveal a complex process of meaning making by teachers who are at once produced by and producers of dominant race discourse on the island. Teachers are the front line race workers of the racial project, doing much of the heavy lifting in the ongoing struggle against racism, but are at the same time custodians of an approach to race relations which has on the whole failed to eliminate racism. This work investigates and explicates this apparent contradiction inherent in teachers’ work and discourse on the island, revealing a flawed and complex form of Cuban anti-racism.