The thesis deals with the influence of the Mesoamerican indigenous cultures on the work of the Guatemalan writer Miguel Ángel Asturias. The main focus is put on the ancient Maya culture as the author had the opportunity to get very close to their cultural heritage. The studied books are Legends of Guatemala (Leyendas de Guatemala), The President (El Señor Presidente) and Men of Maize (Hombres de maíz). The first part of the thesis outlines the author's life and highlights his connection with the Maya culture. The second part of the thesis briefly presents the native cultures of Guatemala whilst the final, third part of the work is dedicated to the analysis of the influence of these cultures on Asturias' literary creation itself. Key words: Miguel Ángel Asturias, Hispanic-American literature, the Maya, cultural influence, nature

My dissertation analyzes the way in which Latin American novelists use the Faustian tradition to symbolize the inclusion of marginal groups into mainstream cultures. The establishment of a national culture that holds citizens together depends on its ability to subsume different cultural sources and to assign to each one of them a space within the nation. This stratification of culture is the result of the negotiation of authority within hegemonic groups. In my dissertation I trace the negotiation of authority in the aesthetic choices that authors make when it comes to compose a new rendition of the myth of Faust. The study of works produced between 1956 and 1967 allows me to focus on the height of the internationalization of Latin American literature. The works that constitute the main corpus of my study are: João Guimarães Rosa's Grande Sertão: Veredas (1956) from Brazil, Miguel Ángel Asturias's Mulata de tal (1963) from Guatemala, and José Donoso's El lugar sin límites (1957) from Chile. As a way to trace the issues at stake in these works back to the nineteenth century, I also include a chapter on the Argentine poem entitled Fausto (1867), composed by Estanislao del Campo. This enables me to present early stages of the Faustian tradition in Latin America, and how it relates to the conflict between city and rural regions. My dissertation not only interprets Latin American texts within their context, but also explores the way in which lettered urban groups integrate an international tradition in the evaluation of these contexts. My dissertation presents the way in which authors from this part of the world intervene in well-established Western literary traditions and not only read their reality from this stand point, but their realities modify the reach of traditions such as that of the man who sells his soul to devil.

The diploma thesis "The Return of the Baroque in Hispano-American Novel of the 20th Century - Asturias, Carpentier, Roa Bastos" examines Baroque motifs and principles in the modern 20th century Hispanic-American novel. It explains how these traits alter in contrast to the historical Baroque, how they are modified or what other functions they acquire. An attempt was made to critically rethink and re-evaluate the literary theories dealing with the reappearance of the Baroque in Hispanic America, as we consider their approach to be generalising and reductive. The interpretative method is based on Josef Vojvodík's Povrch, skrytost a ambivalence and namely how it addresses the manner in which the Baroque, Mannerism and avant-garde relate to one another. A characterisation of the American Baroque as such has been drafted and an attempt to capture the differences between the European Baroque has been made. The essayistic work of Alejo Carpentier is treated with an emphasis on the relationship of the (Neo)Baroque and magic realism. Carpentier wrongly attributes to the continent what he installs through his own optics without realising that such an approach might be itself described as being Baroque. The interpretative part provides a linguistic, thematic and motivic analysis of Baroque traits in a choice...