Although the term modernismo means many things to many people, it is generally agreed upon that as a literary period it gave a legitimacy to Spanish-American letters and that it was the coming of age of that continent's literature. In addition to modernista works themselves, this period has also generated an unprecedented body of criticism, both of which have been studied with a unique intensity in Latin American letters. However, in spite of this vast body of criticism, certain aspects of the modernista sensibility have never been addressed by critics. This study begins by questioning the absence of women writers of this generation (in spite of the fact that women were living and writing before, during, and after modernismo). The most celebrated female protagonist of the modernista novel, the femme fatale, contrary to her reputation as destroyer of men, frequently suffers a premature and often violent death at the hands of the male artist/protagonist/poet. While examining the turn-of-the-century ideal of womanhood, using both literary and extra-literary sources, this study postulates that because modernistas considered themselves to be a literary men's club, a fraternity, in their own words, the female writer may have purposely eschewed becoming a part of an aesthetic which destroyed women. Through the analysis of three representative modernista novels, El triunfo del ideal (Pedro César Domínici, Venezuela, 1901), Juana Lucero (Augusto d'Halmar, Chile, 1902), and La gloria de don Ramiro (Enrique Larreta, Argentina, 1908), parallels can be drawn between the modernista aesthetic and the pornographic one. While modernismo has been called the "effeminate" literature of a group of dandies, it is, in fact, profoundly misogynist. The rape, torture, murder and burning at the stake and otherwise objectification of the female protagonists tends to confirm this reading. The Latin American dichotomy of civilización/barbarie can also be expressed in the pornographic one of culture versus nature. Rather than a tragedy, the deaths of beautiful young women are perceived as a requisite for the artist's source of inspiration. If the death of a beautiful woman produces poetry, the turn-of-the-century female writer's reluctance to join this club becomes more understandable.

Thesis (M.A.)--Miami University, Dept. of Spanish and Portuguese, 2003. / Title from first page of PDF document. Includes bibliographical references (p. 121-122).

My thesis begins with the rapid tracking down of a word that demands the acknowledgment of a territory in its own right: Aztlan. I trace this term from prehispanic times up to the present in order to formulate the mythical, historical, cultural, and literary characteristics of a conglomerate that is currently identifiable and recognizable as the Chicano people of Aztlan. The main hypothesis of this work, which is to establish a coherent starting point for the study of the Aztlanese novel written in Spanish, is set within a historical-literary context. As a consequence, this thesis cannot encompass all the Aztlanese narratives written in Spanish; instead, it focuses specifically on two works--from the 19th and 20th centuries, respectively--that I consider the first and foremost historical-literary links. El hijo de la tempestad (1892), by Eusebio Chacon, and Peregrinos de Aztlan (1974), by Miguel Mendez, are the first texts that exhibit a clear literary awareness. I have what such concepts imply within an artistic framework. I am fully convinced that these two narrative texts are the first and foremost links in the Aztlanese novel as it currently exists, particularly in those novels written in Spanish. In some fashion, these two trail blazing novels constitute concrete examples that can help to establish and systematize, on the basis of specifically literary formulations, the literary tradition of the complex and heterogenous literary phenomenon which is Aztlan. My approach is restricted to a method that recognizes a literary work as a semi-autonomous structure--that is, one which exhibits structural relations with other facts and phenomena outside itself. The second chapter traces the meaning and location of the concept Aztlan, and it notes that the said concept is a myth and a spiritual rallying point among Chicanos. The chapter also comments on the principal aspects of the history of people of Mexican origin in the United States, as well as the so-called "Chicano Movement". The third chapter discusses the principal literary tendencies with regard to esthetic phenomena. It delimits the concept of the novel, the parameters of Aztlanese expression--particularly of works written in Spanish--and, of course, my approach. Each of the two following chapters is devoted to one of the two novels at issue. Each chapter studies the concept and function of literature held by its novel’s author, as well as the structural process exemplified by each of the texts. Significantly, both novels display characteristics that allow them to be classified with modern and contemporary Latinamerican novels, respectively: El hijo de la tempestad clearly fits in with Naturalism, Peregrinos de Aztlan in with Superrealism.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Florida State University, 2003. / Advisor: Dr. Roberto Fernández, Florida State University, College of Arts and Sciences, Dept. of Modern Languages and Linguistics. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed Feb. 25, 2004). Includes bibliographical references.

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No description available.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Georgetown University, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis--Basel. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 15-17).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2006. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Despite the great popularity and increased prestige of classic detective fiction, as well as the American hard-boiled novel, since their introduction in the nineteenth century many readers and authors have perceived them as genres incompatible with Latin American realities. The inherent conventions of the whodunit, the presence of a detective whose legitimacy is never in doubt, and its conservative ideology, which presupposed the punishment of criminality and the reestablishment of the status quo, were incongruous in societies in which people had no faith in justice. The genre, then, was regarded as unrealistic for third world countries. In this way, in order to be plausible, the detective novel in Latin America needed a different approach. In broad terms, these pages propose the emergence of a new genre that can be observed in the works of contemporary authors such as Vicente Leñero's Los albañiles (1963), Ricardo Piglia's Nombre falso (1975), Jorge Ibargüengoitia's Las muertas (1977) and, most notably, in Roberto Bolaño's Los detectives salvajes (1998), which I consider the most prominent and complex example of this type. The present study examines how this innovative Spanish American detective fiction incorporates and restates some of the structures and conventions of the hard-boiled novel and shares some features of contemporary Spanish American fiction, while developing its own characteristics in contrast with both detective fiction schools. Due to the necessity of the native writers to adopt, formally and thematically, alternative approaches when creating credible detective stories, I have named this emergent genre: Spanish American alternative detective fiction. / text