Orientador: Antônio Roberto Esteves / Banca: Livia Maria de Freitas Reis Teixeira / Banca: Fernanda Aparecida Ribeiro / Banca: Cleide Antonia Rapucci / Banca: Maria de Fatima Alves de Oliveira Marcari / Resumo: O presente trabalho consiste numa leitura comparada dos romances mexicanos Pedro Páramo (1955), de Juan Rulfo (1917-1986), e Como água para chocolate (1989), de Laura Esquivel (1950-), partindo da constatação de que essas narrativas são ambientadas na época da Revolução Mexicana (1910-1940), um dos movimentos sociais mais complexos e importantes da história latino-americana. Em Pedro Páramo, o personagem que dá nome ao romance é um cacique que domina toda uma região à custa de muita violência. Seu fim corresponde ao desmoronamento de uma estrutura social para a qual não havia mais lugar no novo país que estava surgindo com a Revolução. Em Como água para chocolate, impulsionada pelo desejo de romper com uma tradição familiar castradora, que a obrigava a ficar solteira para cuidar da mãe, a protagonista empreende uma trajetória de luta contra a submissão e o silenciamento impostos à mulher pela sociedade patriarcal. Sua luta tem êxito, simbolizando o movimento de conquista da mulher por um maior espaço de atuação social e emissão de sua voz. Dedicamos, em nossa leitura, especial atenção ao contorno dado à figura feminina e à rica simbologia evocada por elementos recorrentes nas narrativas, cuja exploração nos parece de grande importância na conformação do ponto de vista dos autores. Em síntese, nosso objetivo é examinar alguns pontos de aproximação e contraste entre os romances selecionados, a fim de refletir sobre as especificidades da leitura que cada um apresenta do México que emerge de suas páginas. Como resultado da análise, em linhas gerais, é possível constatar que Juan Rulfo configura um ponto de vista mais universalizante e pessimista, e Laura Esquivel, uma visão particularizadora e otimista / Abstract: The present work consists of a comparative reading of the Mexican novels Pedro Páramo (1955), by Juan Rulfo (1917-1986), and Like water for chocolate (1989), by Laura Esquivel (1950-), starting from the ascertainment that these narratives are situated at the time of the Mexican Revolution (1910-1940), one of the most complex and important social movements of the Latin America history. In Pedro Páramo, the character that names the novel after himself is a chieftain who dominates an entire region at the expense of much violence. His death corresponds to the collapse of a social structure to which there was no place in the country that was arising with the Revolution. In Like water for chocolate, impelled by the desire of breaking with an emasculating familiar tradition that forced her to remain unmarried to take care of her mother, the female protagonist undertakes a trajectory of struggle against the submission and the silence imposed on the women by the patriarchal society. Her struggle is successful, symbolizing the women's movement for the conquest of a larger space for social actuation and emission of their voices. In our reading we dedicated special attention to the outline of the female figure and the rich symbology evoked by recurrent elements in the narratives, the exploration of those seems to us to be of great importance in the conformation of the authors' point of view. In short, our objective is to examine some points of approach and contrast between the selected novels in order to reflect on the specificities of the reading that each one of them shows about the Mexico that emerges from their pages. As the result of the analysis, in broad outline it is possible to ascertain that Juan Rulfo portrays a more universalizing and pessimistic point view and Laura Esquivel, a particularizing and optimistic view / Doutor

The subaltern is a recurrent literary figure in Mexican narrative. The objective of this thesis is to investigate three ethnic groups – indeed, subalterns – in Mexico which include: Afro-Mexicans, indigenous groups, and Filipino colonial subjects from the perspectives of the Mexican Revolution, post-revolutionary Mexico, and the conquest of the Philippines in the sixteenth century. The principal characters play crucial roles in events shaping the history and culture of Mexico and thus demonstrate their importance to the country's development while also revealing the reality of subalterns. The literary research shows that trying circumstances or a lack of self-identity were the main causes for a character to be or become a subaltern in addition to their inherent ethnic disadvantages. However, the characters who overcame their subaltern state often changed personality traits or adapted to their surroundings in order to be assimilated into the majority culture.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Nevada, Reno, 2008. / "December, 2008." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 64-67). Library also has microfilm. Ann Arbor, Mich. : ProQuest Information and Learning Company, [2009]. 1 microfilm reel ; 35 mm. Online version available on the World Wide Web.

The purpose of this study is to examine literary representations of religiosity and the spiritual realm in late nineteenth-century Mexico, in prose works by Manuel Gutiérrez Nájera (1859-1895), Federico Gamboa (1864-1939), and Amado Nervo (1870-1919). Through an analysis of selected texts by these authors, I will explore how they articulated the Roman Catholicism that permeated their cultural context, amid the processes of modernization. I will also show how they expressed subjective spiritual experiences, independent of the doctrinal precepts of the Church. All three of these writers devoted attention to the pervasive religiosity of their milieu, and wrestled with the question regarding the relevance of the Church in modernity. However, each one presents a distinct vision for the role that institutional religion should play. Each of these authors also portrays his own individual experiences of the metaphysical realm. Part One is based on an analysis of selected articles, chronicles, and short stories by Manuel Gutiérrez Nájera. This author utilizes the modernista aesthetic of the era to transform the religious impulse into subjective expressions of the Divine. In this regard, he presents a secular form of spirituality, although his texts often contain undertones of a lingering Catholicism. Part Two addresses the tension between religious orthodoxy and modernity in three novels by Federico Gamboa, narratives that reflect the author’s close adherence to Church dictates. In these stories the protagonists often come into conflict with the prevailing religious discourse that attempts to thwart their autonomy. Yet the narratives ultimately reaffirm and uphold Catholic values. In Part Three of this study I turn my attention to a selection of articles, chronicles, short stories, and novellas by Amado Nervo, the most spiritually inclined of the three authors. His early novellas present similar themes as Gamboa’s novels regarding the interference of the Church in the lives of the characters. However, Nervo’s later texts reveal that he did not feel compelled to remain within the limits of Church doctrine. Instead, he follows Nájera’s lead in exploring alternative perspectives of the Divine, such as spiritualist practices and the other religious traditions. / text

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“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 Wisconsin--Madison, 2004. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 315-351).

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