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.

A dissertação propõe uma leitura crítica do romance Albedrío, do mexicano Daniel Sada (1953-2011). O trabalho se inicia com uma apresentação sobre a literatura do Norte do México, para discutir as especificidades do autor, seu afastamento do realismo tradicional e o tom de fábula que se perfila em suas obras. Uma categoria forte na leitura é a do estilo, a partir de autores como Antoine Compagnon, Susan Sontag e Roger Fowler, a fim de amparar uma análise sobre a construção formal, mas sem se limitar a ela. São avaliados também antecedentes da obra, seja na cultura popular, como os poemas romances e os corridos, seja no diálogo com outros escritores latino-americanos, como Juan Rulfo e Guimarães Rosa. Além de aspectos formais, como a pontuação, a escolha lexical, os pontos de vista e aspectos da instância narrativa, é importante a revisão da questão espacial, o que leva a indagações sobre o nomadismo e a importância de certos motivos específicos recorrentes ao longo da narrativa. / This thesis proposes a critical reading of Daniel Sadas novel Albedrío. It initiates with a presentation of North Mexican literature, in order to discuss some of the authors particularities, his distance from traditional Realism and the fable tone that pulses throughout his work. A strong category is the notion of Style, discussed in the perspective of authors such as Antoine Compagnon, Susan Sontag and Roger Fowler, to support a formal study of its construction, although not limited to it. The background of the novel is also our subject here, both upon popular culture (as in the romance poems and the corridos), and dialogues with other Latin American writers, such as Juan Rulfo and Guimarães Rosa. Besides formal aspects like punctuation, lexical choices, points of view and the narrators characteristics, the spatial component is also examined, leading us to subjects like nomadism and specific structural motives that can be found along the novel.

À partir d’un corpus constitué de neuf romans mexicains publiés entre 2000 et 2010 par Guillermo Arreola, Mario Bellatin, Patricia Laurent Kullick, Guadalupe Nettel, Cristina Rivera Garza et Jorge Volpi, ce travail explore les spécificités et les convergences de l’écriture fictionnelle à la première personne à l’aube du XXIe siècle. Qu’il s’agisse de récits ouvertement romanesques, prétendument autobiographiques ou autofictionnels, ils s’éloignent tous du modèle canonique de l’autobiographie et transgressent la frontière entre le référentiel et la fiction. Cette thèse cherche à mettre en évidence les caractéristiques les plus significatives de ces écritures qui accordent une large place à l’introspection, que le je narrateur se livre à l’exercice mémoriel de la convocation de souvenirs d’enfance ou qu’il s’interroge sur son identité et sa relation au monde et à l’altérité. Dans quelle mesure ces romans reflètent-ils les questionnements et les inquiétudes contemporaines sur l’écriture du je ? Quels regards, concordants ou divergents, posent-ils sur le sujet lorsque celui-ci est au centre de l’énonciation et de l’univers narratif ?Dans un premier temps, ce travail propose une partie rétrospective qui s’attache à rappeler les écueils et les principales évolutions qu’ont connus les écritures du je depuis l’avènement de l’autobiographie traditionnelle basée sur le modèle rousseauiste. L’époque contemporaine s’emploie à trouver des alternatives à ce modèle canonique, au point d’abandonner bien souvent l’exigence d’authenticité référentielle.La seconde partie s’attache en effet à observer les nombreuses failles de la mémoire des différents narrateurs. Il en résulte une absence de pacte autobiographique au profit de textes qui revendiquent la place capitale de l’invention dans l’écriture de soi. L’opposition entre fiction et authenticité se fissure : l’activité mémorielle passe en partie par une (ré)invention de soi et, ce faisant, n’en est que plus « authentique ».Il apparaît également une récurrence du thème du double en tant qu’alter ego intérieur, lorsque les narrateurs subissent métamorphoses ou dédoublements. Ce devenir autre est parfois synonyme de dissolution menaçante du sujet ou signe, au contraire, d’une revendication de sa nature changeante, évolutive et inconstante, essentiellement schizo.Enfin, ce travail s’intéresse au rôle déterminant de l’altérité à la fois dans le processus de construction identitaire subjective et dans sa mise en récit. Le je se configure à travers les rapports qu’il tisse avec l’autre. Cela vaut tant pour les protagonistes que pour les romans, qui étendent les pratiques introspectives et autoréflexives au texte lui-même, faisant la part belle à la métatextualité et à la transtextualité.À travers l’étude de la thématique introspective, cette thèse s’interroge en somme sur le regard que posent ces représentants de la jeune génération de la littérature mexicaine sur la place du sujet dans un monde désenchanté ou désarticulé, et sur les possibilités de renouveau de l’écriture créative. / Based on a corpus that includes nine Mexican novels, published between 2000 and 2010 by Guillermo Arreola, Mario Bellatin, Patricia Laurent Kullick, Guadalupe Nettel, Cristina Rivera Garza and Jorge Volpi, this work investigates the specificities and convergences of fictional writing in first person at the beginning of the 21st century. Whether the tales happen to be frankly fictional, supposedly autobiographical or autofictional, they all get away from the canonical example of autobiography and they infringe the border between authenticity and fiction. This thesis seeks to evidence the most significant characteristics of these writings which grant much importance to introspection, when the first-person narrator seeks into childhood memories or wonders about the own identity and relationship towards the around world and alterity. How do these novels reflect the contemporary concerns about the writing of the self? Which converging or diverging looks do they take at the self, as it is the main figure of narrative enunciation and universe?This work opens with a retrospective chapter about the main changes and pitfalls that the self-narratives have encountered since the success of traditional autobiography, based on Rousseau’s example. The past decades have been looking for alternatives to this canonical example and many writers often get away from the absolute requirement of authenticity.The second part endeavours to observe the many breaches in the narrators’ memory. In result, the autobiographical pact disappears in favour of texts which claim the prime importance of invention in the self-writing. Opposition between fiction and authenticity seems to be cracking apart: memorial activity includes a process of self-(re)invention which does not make it less “real”, quite the opposite.It is also clear that the topic of the double as an inside alter ego is recurrent, when the narrators go through metamorphosis and split personalities. This becoming other may be a synonym of a threatening dissolution of the self or, on the contrary, a sign of a claim of its changing, inconstant and essentially schizo nature.Finally, this work focuses on the determining role of alterity both in the process of identity and subjective construction, and in the story of it. The self gets to build itself up through the relationships with otherness. This stands both for the characters and for the novels, in which the introspective and auto-reflexive practices extend to the text itself, meaning a solid presence of metatextuality and transtextuality.By studying the introspective topic, this thesis actually wonders about the look these young Mexican writers take at the place of the self in a disillusioned or dislocated world, and at the possibilities of a renewal for the creative writing.

A dissertação propõe uma leitura crítica do romance Albedrío, do mexicano Daniel Sada (1953-2011). O trabalho se inicia com uma apresentação sobre a literatura do Norte do México, para discutir as especificidades do autor, seu afastamento do realismo tradicional e o tom de fábula que se perfila em suas obras. Uma categoria forte na leitura é a do estilo, a partir de autores como Antoine Compagnon, Susan Sontag e Roger Fowler, a fim de amparar uma análise sobre a construção formal, mas sem se limitar a ela. São avaliados também antecedentes da obra, seja na cultura popular, como os poemas romances e os corridos, seja no diálogo com outros escritores latino-americanos, como Juan Rulfo e Guimarães Rosa. Além de aspectos formais, como a pontuação, a escolha lexical, os pontos de vista e aspectos da instância narrativa, é importante a revisão da questão espacial, o que leva a indagações sobre o nomadismo e a importância de certos motivos específicos recorrentes ao longo da narrativa. / This thesis proposes a critical reading of Daniel Sadas novel Albedrío. It initiates with a presentation of North Mexican literature, in order to discuss some of the authors particularities, his distance from traditional Realism and the fable tone that pulses throughout his work. A strong category is the notion of Style, discussed in the perspective of authors such as Antoine Compagnon, Susan Sontag and Roger Fowler, to support a formal study of its construction, although not limited to it. The background of the novel is also our subject here, both upon popular culture (as in the romance poems and the corridos), and dialogues with other Latin American writers, such as Juan Rulfo and Guimarães Rosa. Besides formal aspects like punctuation, lexical choices, points of view and the narrators characteristics, the spatial component is also examined, leading us to subjects like nomadism and specific structural motives that can be found along the novel.

La construction des personnages et de représentations du pouvoir, ainsi que la mise en place d’une écriture métafictionnelle dans sept romans mexicains publiés dans les années 90 sont les thèmes centraux de cette étude. Pour notre analyse de El disparo de argón, Huatulqueños, La lotería de San Jorge, Una de dos, Salón de belleza, Un asesino solitario et En busca de Klingsor, nous nous sommes inspiré des théories de Roland Barthes et de Philippe Hamon concernant l’étude sémiologique des personnages, ainsi que des modes de représentation narrative décrits par Gérard Genette. Nous sommes également parti des idées ce même auteur sur l’écriture métafictionnelle, ainsi que des travaux de Linda Hutcheon et de Patricia Waugh sur la question. Notre analyse montre que narrateurs, personnages et décors sont construits à l’aide de figures telles que l’hyperbole ou la comparaison. Le paysage peut agir comme un personnage de plus, et engendrer des espaces métaphysiques reflétant l’histoire. Pour ce qui est du rapport au pouvoir, l’on distinguera deux types de personnages : des êtres vulnérables, d’une part, possédant le pouvoir de manière éphémère ; et des puissances invisibles et inhumaines, de l’autre, surveillant et régissant les destinées des personnages. Tandis que les premiers partagent des caractéristiques physiques et des comportements plus ou moins similaires, les puissances invisibles correspondent à des figures telles que le Destin, le Hasard, Dieu ou encore le Diable. Les représentations du pouvoir remplissent toutes une même série de fonctions. Chacun des sept romans envisagés par cette étude déploie des moyens visant à souligner la nature réflexive de l’écriture chez le narrateur. L’analyse des mises en abyme, des métalepses et de la transtextualité au sein du récit permet de mettre au jour et d’évaluer de manière systématique la présence effective de la métafiction. / This essay presents an analysis of the construction of characters, the representations of power and the development of metafictional writing through a discussion of seven Mexican novels published in the nineties. The essay utilizes the theoretical advances of Roland Barthes and Philippe Hamon in regards to semiological analysis of characters and Gérard Genette’s modes of narrative representation to analyze El disparo de argón, Huatulqueños, La lotería de San Jorge, Una de dos, Salón de belleza, Un asesino solitario y En busca de Klingsor. Metafictional writing was looked at using the theoretical lens of not only Genette, but also Linda Hutcheon and Patricia Waugh. In conclusion, narrators, characters and setting are constructed by means of techniques like hyperbole or comparison. In addition, landscape comes to function as another character in the story, creating a metaphysical space that reflects history. When speaking of power, there are two identifiable types of characters: vulnerable creatures with an ephemeral authority and invisible, inhumane powers that patrol and decide characters’ destinies. The first group eventually acquires the same physical characteristics and attitudes, while the invisible powers correspond to figures like Fate, Chance, God or the Devil. The representations of power fulfill a series of similar roles. Each of the seven novels studied in this essay uses techniques which emphasize the narrator’s own awareness of the act of writing. The analysis of the mise en abyme, metalepsis and transtextuality in the narrative allows for a systematic determination and evaluation of the effectiveness of metafiction.

The theme of the dissertation submitted is the novel Devil Guardian, whose author is a Mexican writer Xavier Velasco. This dissertation is the very first theoretical work in the Czech environment, devoted to the above-mentioned piece of literature published in 2004. In a sense, Devil Guardian represents a characteristic Mexican novel of the early 21st century, combining tradition and novelty in a surprising and original manner. A significant feature of the contemporary Mexican literature is a departure from the theme of Mexicanity, generally from a programmatic indulging in so-called national literature. Velasco's novel is an exemplary, however, not only piece of literature proving that the literary break-up with Mexico is neither an exclusive nor a dominant attribute of the contemporary Mexican fiction. In Devil Guardian Velasco focuses his mind on the theme of personal and national identity, which he treats in a considerably nontraditional manner, giving an ironical turn to speak to a hypermodern girl moving in the globalized world. The dissertation is divided into six parts. The first part "Originality Rooted in Tradition" refers to Devil Guardian ensuing the tradition of Mexican novel and innovating it. The second part "Xavier Velasco" briefly introduces the author's life and work. The issues...