This project focuses on science fiction literature of Spain and Argentina produced in the last twenty years (1990-2010). It hypothesizes that in this period a change of perspective substantially modified science fiction productions in both countries and converges into a new model of narrative. As a consequence of this reformulated vision, a new narrative perspective immerses readers in an era of simulation, hyperreality, and post-humanism. When advanced technology is able to modify the basic human anatomy, and persons are trapped between virtual and real universes, simulacra facilitate control of people in an effective and impersonal manner. Simultaneously, fictional scenarios show new post-human beings sharing future worlds with humans. In this regard, the new literary production leads the reader to a redefinition of what it means to be human. With a theoretical framework centered on simulacrum, hyperreality and post-humanism, this study places the use of new technologies and the critique of postmodern society at the epicenter of the discussion as proposed by selected novels.

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.

The most common approaches to arranged Poetic Collection are the chronological and the bibliographical orders, that is, the ones that privileges a book that normally would be called an anthology: the arrangements of poems following the order of the compositions of the poems (chronological), or the order of previous publications (bibliographical). "El corazón del instante" (The Heart of the Instant, 1998) by the Mexican poet Alberto Blanco (Mexico City, 1951) is a collection of twelve books of poems in one volume. The books in the collection --or the “chapters”, as Alberto Blanco call them in his “Introductory Note” of the book --are presented not in a bibliographical or chronological order, but in accordance to an order that the poet imposed to the book himself. The structural proposal of the book contradicts the definition of any “normal” anthology. In order to approach a book of such nature, we would use and apply the concept of “contextural poetics”, introduced by Neil Fraistat in his book "Poems in Their Place (The Intertextuality and Order of Poetic Collections)", published in 1986. This approach suggest that a PoetryCollection or a simple Book of Poems should be able to be read as one long and single poem. Some of the key concepts of my investigation are already listed in the subtitle of the book: “Intertextuality” and “Order”, and we would like to add “Context”. The concept of “contextural poetics” is explain by Fraistat as the resultant of the context of the book where the poems are reunited, the interaction among poems, and the “contexture” that derives from that interaction. Many critics claim that in every long poem has to exist some kind of narrative, idea that brings other important concepts that we have to approach, like long poem, poetic sequences and poetic series that would complement our study. We believe that the book "Libertad bajo Palabra [1935-1957]" by Octavio Paz, in the critical edition of Enrico Mario Santí, is the implicit model of "El corazón del instante". Our goal is to try to determine what is "El corazón del instante", because in the “Introductory Note” the poets claim that the book is not an anthology, but a “complete cycle of poems”. That is what we would try to find out: what is “a complete cycle of poems”.

This dissertation considers the intersection of aurality and visuality in seventeenth-century New Spanish poet Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz’s (1648/1651-95) acoustico-poetic discourse. Prior scholarship has focused either on the author’s engagement with Western music theory and compositional practices or else the role of musical references in her works. This has resulted in the marginalization of Sor Juana’s engagement with sound through disciplines that are not strictly musical or poetic, including: acoustics, cognitive theory and visual art. I address these lacunae by considering such concepts as echo, reflection, Ear, Voice, musica poetica (links between music and rhetoric) and musical pathos within the poet’s canon. Throughout my readings, Athanasius Kircher’s encyclopedic musical treatises— Musurgia universalis (1650) and Phonurgia nova (1673), both of which circulated within New Spain during Sor Juana’s lifetime—stand out as important sources by which such ideas were transmitted. My approach sharpens extant scholarship on these topics and identifies two new influences within Sor Juana’s poetic world: Aristotelian theories of cognition and Kircher’s unique position on musica poetica. More generally, this dissertation engages emerging scholarship on Ear in the early modern world and thus responds to the critical limits of ocularcentrism.

La tesis doctoral „Ficcionalizar el referente. Violencia, Saber, Ficcion y Utopía en El Primer Nueva Corónica y Buen Gobierno de Felipe Guamán Poma de Ayala“ tiene como objetivo explicar la violencia, el saber, la ficción y la utopía en El Primer Nueva Corónica y Buen Gobierno. Este estudio se inicia con la Historia de la Recepción de El Primer Nueva Corónica y Buen Gobierno en el siglo XX. El criterio principal en la elaboración de este registro ha sido analizar estudios destacados sobre la crónica peruana y que han abierto nuevos significados desde diferentes disciplinas. De esta manera la Historia de la Recepción de El Primer Nueva Corónica y Buen Gobierno se inicia a partir de un "Ensayo de Interpretación" desde la arqueología hasta arribar a la ciencia filológica que amparada por el fortalecimiento de los estudios culturales y el cuestionamiento de los "metarrelatos" en las tres últimas décadas del siglo XX desarrolló un "acto de descolonización" desde la crítica histórica y literaria. Los conceptos de violencia, saber, ficción y utopía han sido constantes a lo largo del proceso de lectura y reflexión de la crónica peruana. De esta manera este estudio responde a interrogantes sobre las dimensiones y los espacios de la violencia en la crónica peruana. Este estudio reconoce además que los relatos del fin del mundo andino y su recomposición corresponden a la confluencia de saberes y a su ubicidad. En El Primer Nueva Coronica y Buen Gobierno se hallan escenas de "experiencia límite" que puede tener un desenlace trágico con la desaparición y la muerte del autor o el abandono y perdida de esperanza de sus ideales. Sin embargo la crónica de Felipe Guamán Poma de Ayala concluye por una apuesta por la vida y por tanto participa de un "saber de vida" o un "saber vivir" debido a que se halla el registro sobre la vida y de un saber que tiene la vida como objetivo central en el relato histórico. De esta manera la crónica peruana contiene una lógica narrativa que "socava la estática de un destino irrevocable" y elabora una denuncia del mundo desolador con el anhelo de transformarlo. Esta escena produce fricción entre lo que afirma el cronista y la representación ficcional del dibujo, de esta manera se halla un espacio entre lo vivido e inventado que abarcaran todo un campo de experimentación que oscilan entre una dicción plena y la fórmula ficcional. La tesis doctoral „Ficcionalizar el referente. Violencia, Saber, Ficcion y Utopía en El Primer Nueva Corónica y Buen Gobierno de Felipe Guamán Poma de Ayala“ identificó una eclosiva fuga de la referencialidad textual de la crónica peruana para crear sus propias referencialidades bajo un sentido utópico. El testimonio dramático, la denuncia en voz e imagen no estarán distanciados del elemento fantástico y legendario propio de los primeros escritos latinoamericanos. Los artificios narrativos de El Primer Nueva Corónica y Buen Gobierno crea territorialidades textuales aptas para la imaginación y la leyenda, cercano a lo real maravilloso. La crónica indígena fue concebida cuando se organizaba el "Buen gobierno y justicia", en un ambiente confrontacional, pero también en un mundo que era nuevo, naciente en un momento que América aparecía como idealización del ansiado proyecto platónico de nación feliz, de un buen gobierno, una mejor nación, una utopía. / The dissertation "Ficcionalizar el referente. Violencia, Saber, Ficcion y Utopía en El Primer Nueva Coronica y Buen Gobierno de Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala" aims to explain violence, knowledge, fiction and utopia in El Primer Nueva Coronica y Buen Gobierno. This study begins with the history of the reception of the El Primer Nueva Coronica y Buen Gobierno in the twentieth century. The main criterion in making this record was to analyze outstanding studies on Peruvian chronic and have opened new meanings from different disciplines. The history of the reception of the El Primer Nueva Coronica y Buen Gobierno starts from a "ensayo de intrepretación" from archeology to arrive at the philological science covered by the strengthening of cultural studies and questioning the "metarrelatos" in the last three decades of the twentieth century developed an "acto de descolonización" from the historical and literary criticism. The concepts of violence, knowledge, fiction and utopia have been constant throughout the process of reading and reflection of Peruvian chronic. Thus, this study answers questions about the dimensions and spaces of violence in Peruvian chronic. This study also recognizes that the stories of the end of the Andean world and its reorganization correspond to the confluence of knowledge and its "ubicidad". El Primer Nueva Coronica y Buen Gobierno hat scenes of the "experiencia límite" that can have a tragic "desenlace" with the disappearance and death of the author or the abandonment and loss of hope for his ideals. However chronicle Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala concludes with a commitment to life and therefore part of "saber de vida" or "saber vivir" because the record is about life and knowledge that has life as a central objective in the historical narrative. Therefore the chronic Peruvian contains a narrative logic that "undermines the static of an irrevocable destiny" and prepares a report of the bleak world with the desire to change it. This scene produces friction between the claims of the writer and the fictional representation of the design, thus is a space between experience and invented that would cover a whole field of experimentation ranging from full diction and fictional formula. The dissertation "Ficcionalizar el referente. Violencia, Saber, Ficcion y Utopía en El Primer Nueva Coronica y Buen Gobierno de Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala" identified an "eclosiva fuga de la referencialidad textual" of Peruvian chronic to create their own "referencialidades" under a utopia. The dramatic testimony, the complaint in voice and image will not be alienated from himself and legendary fantasy element of the early Latin American writings. The narrative artifices of the El Primer Nueva Coronica y Buen Gobierno creates "territorialidades textuales aptas para la imaginación y la leyenda, cercano a lo real maravilloso". The Indian chronicle was conceived when organizing the "Buen Gobierno y Justicia" in a confrontational environment, but also in a world that was new, rising at a time when America appeared as idealization of the Republic of Plato, a good government, a utopia.

The role of national cinema in shaping, reflecting and contesting a complex national identity that is the site of conflict and struggle is the central interest of this study of contemporary Peruvian cinema, 1988-2004. This project examines the relationship between cinema, state and identity in Peru, with a specific focus on the representation of the political violence between the state and Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) that began in 1980. It looks in particular at portrayals of important events, characters and consequences of the bloody conflict that for a time threatened to destabilize the nation entirely. It considers these representations in the context of a time of great change for Peruvian society and of transition for Peruvian national cinema, and addresses the relationship between developments in film policy and the formation of Peruvian national identity in cinema. As such, it draws on debates about the nature and function of national cinemas, as well as on discussions between artists, cultural theorists and sociologists about the evolution of peruanidad since the declaration of independence from Spain in the early nineteenth century. Once the main elements of the cinematic and social crises have been explored and established in Chapters Two and Three, the remainder of the project consists of three sets of chronologically ordered analyses of individual films that somehow defied the national cinema crisis, and that provoked debate on both the conflict itself, and on broader questions pertaining to the relationship between national identity and violence. The conclusion considers these films as an interlinked body of cinematic works that share similar themes and concerns. It summarises the issues they tackle, the ideological and formal approaches they take to those issues, the potential social and cultural impact, and their contribution to the crystallization of a Peruvian national identity at the start of the twenty-first century.

“Collective Bodies and Collective Change: Blindness, Pilgrimage, Motherhood and Miracles in Twentieth Century Mexican Literature” examines Mexican literature from 1940 to 1980. It analyzes representations of collective bodies and suggests that these bodies illustrate oppression and resistance in their historical context, which coincides with the beginning of a period of massive modernization in Mexico. I aim to develop a reading that interprets this imagery of collectives, unusual bodies, and blindness as more than symbols of oppression. By examining this imagery alongside representations of pilgrimage, alternative modes of motherhood, and experiences such as miracles that figuratively connect bodies, I propose that these images challenge their historical context, and can be read as a gesture towards resistance. Novels and short stories by José Revueltas, Juan Rulfo, Rosario Castellanos and Vicente Leñero present collectives, blindness and unusual bodies. My reading of their works connects these textual bodies to oppression within their historical context, in particular, by the government, intellectuals, the medical system, the Catholic Church, family structure, the landholding system, and the land’s heat, wind and drought. These representations de-individualize characters, and, as such, destroy the ideal of the modern subject who would effect change through individual agency. Thus, when I argue that these same bodies act as a metaphorical collective subject whose actions, such as mass murder, and participation in religious revival and radical political movements, can point out social change, they challenge the ideal of an individual subject. By reflecting on the connection between literature that represents unusual bodies, a historical situation of oppression, and the potential for resistance, this analysis of literary texts provides a lens through which we can examine the stories’ historical context and ideas of individual and collective agency.

“Collective Bodies and Collective Change: Blindness, Pilgrimage, Motherhood and Miracles in Twentieth Century Mexican Literature” examines Mexican literature from 1940 to 1980. It analyzes representations of collective bodies and suggests that these bodies illustrate oppression and resistance in their historical context, which coincides with the beginning of a period of massive modernization in Mexico. I aim to develop a reading that interprets this imagery of collectives, unusual bodies, and blindness as more than symbols of oppression. By examining this imagery alongside representations of pilgrimage, alternative modes of motherhood, and experiences such as miracles that figuratively connect bodies, I propose that these images challenge their historical context, and can be read as a gesture towards resistance. Novels and short stories by José Revueltas, Juan Rulfo, Rosario Castellanos and Vicente Leñero present collectives, blindness and unusual bodies. My reading of their works connects these textual bodies to oppression within their historical context, in particular, by the government, intellectuals, the medical system, the Catholic Church, family structure, the landholding system, and the land’s heat, wind and drought. These representations de-individualize characters, and, as such, destroy the ideal of the modern subject who would effect change through individual agency. Thus, when I argue that these same bodies act as a metaphorical collective subject whose actions, such as mass murder, and participation in religious revival and radical political movements, can point out social change, they challenge the ideal of an individual subject. By reflecting on the connection between literature that represents unusual bodies, a historical situation of oppression, and the potential for resistance, this analysis of literary texts provides a lens through which we can examine the stories’ historical context and ideas of individual and collective agency.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oklahoma, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 281-296).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2000. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 165-171).