The first attempts to subvert the erotic representation in Puerto Rican literature can be found in literary works produced in the middle of the twentieth century. These representations were at first timid, and then gradually they became more explicit in the seventies, but it was not until the eighties and nineties that erotic visions became more common. The purpose of this research is to analyze the erotic representation in the works of Mayra Santos Febres, especially in El cuerpo correcto . The intention is to bring forward a topic that ironically has had both a persistent presence and a relegated position in Puerto Rican literary tradition. By taking into account Puerto Rican Erotic Literature from the end of the nineteen century to the present, predominantly women's short stories, I attempt to trace the erotic patterns that are subveredt in Santos Febres' short stories. I also study the correlation between Santo Febres' fictional and nonfictional works to establish if it is possible to talk of an erotic poetics in her works. My final objective is to show how the writing of this contemporary author shifts the erotic tradition in Puerto Rican literature. Santos Febres achieves this objective when, in El cuerpo correcto , she includes some sexual practices that are considered as paraphilias or perversions and places emphasis on their human part. This approach to perversions makes this book unique in Puerto Rican Literature.

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This project will focus on four Latin American writers' autobiographies: Autobiography, by Alberto Gerchunoff; A cross and a Star. Memories of a Jewish Girl in Chile, by Marjorie Agosín; Memories, by Adolfo Bioy Casares; and Stories from Happy Times, by Osvaldo Soriano. The selection of these texts was based upon the underlying themes that they have in common. Three of them are texts written from the outskirts of the social fabric: Alberto Gerchunoff is a Jewish immigrant in Argentina at the turn of the century, struggling to find a place in which to create his own roots. Marjorie Agosín, daughter of European immigrants in Chile fleeing Russian pogroms first and Nazism later, and an immigrant herself to the United States, writes about the difficulties of finding roots in the Latin America she loves so much. Osvaldo Soriano, a native of Argentina, recreates his childhood by stressing the significance of belonging to a lower middle class family involved in the political and social struggles of the 40's and early 50's in his country. Finally, Adolfo Bioy Casares, also Argentine born, is the only one writing from the center: he belongs to one of the very few old, affluent landowner families in the Province of Buenos Aires, and represents the feelings and the political skepticism that characterize the members of his class. This study will attempt to explore the purposes that these writers set for themselves in the creation of their texts. My thesis is that autobiographies are a particular case of discourse in which the writer's feelings of belonging to a group, be it ethnic, national, ideological, gender or class related, set the stage for the elaboration of autobiographical texts. The personal story embodies others, and politics, history, and ideology come together and justify the very existence of writing itself. The personal becomes a literary strategy utilized to render the ideological background visible and to assure the text's impact on the reader. This study will show that autobiography as a genre questions the assumption by which there is a clear-cut difference between reality as opposed to fiction.

Latin American writers have seldom limited themselves to monogeneric expression, both by taste and by necessity. Modern examples can be found on the foremost 'Boom' writers: Julio Cortazar, Carlos Fuentes, Mario Vargas Llosa and Gabriel Garcia Marquez who, while being known mostly for narrative fiction, where they have produced important and enduring works, have essayed other genres. They have shown interest in various forms of visual and aural arts: drama, film and radio scripts, as demonstrated by Cortazar's Los reyes, Nada a Pehuajo and Adios, Robinson; Fuentes' Todos los gatos son pardos, El tuerto es rey and Orquideas a la luz de la luna; Vargas Llosa's La senorita de Tacna, Kathie y el hipopotamo and La Chunga; and Garcia Marquez' El secuestro. As they have acknowledged an influence of cinematic and dramatic techniques on their narrative, adopting the genres themselves is a natural development and for some a return to their first works. The generic differences lying between the perception of the visual and auditive images of drama and film and the concept of the mental image of narration is one of the subjects focused on, covering ways in which they adapted technical and thematically to the change. The approach to the scripts has followed an eclectic methodology, basically semiotic, that takes into account thirteen sign systems in the written text and its intrinsic performance. As it studies the script, not its final production, only those aspects of staging revealed through the directions included and the text itself are covered. I have also focused on other traditional subjects: Title, Structure, Time, Space, Language, Characters and Themes, considering them as part of the meaningful substance of the whole system forming the work. The thematic aspects covered were isotopies, subjects that are developed through various systems, allowing the text to function as a whole. Coincidences between each author's works have been found, proving the theory that they have prevailed between generic distinctions, creating according to their own rules not those imposed by traditional definitions.

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Thesis (Ph. D.)--UCLA, 2007. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 254-270).

Thesis (doctoral)--Université de la Sorbonne Nouvelle Paris III, 1992. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 1999. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 257-267). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.