This thesis proposes a new perspective and critical reflection on two contemporary Latin American novels, Insensatez (2004) by Honduran-Salvadorean author Horacio Castellanos Moya and La dimensión desconocida (2016) by Chilean author Nona Fernández. Situating each novel within its respective historical context of political transition following years of violent national conflict, the politics of memory and the concomitant concern for human rights directly informs the argument. The theoretical framework which directs the analysis of each work centers on the intertextual relationship between the narrative and the novel's foundational document. In Insensatez, the intertext of interest is the official report of the Recovery of Historical Memory Project (REMHI) titled Guatemala: Nunca Más (1998) and in La dimensión desconocida the intertext is the interview with the former Chilean intelligence agent, Andrés Valenzuela, published in the magazine Cauce (1985). This thesis first reveals how Castellanos Moya utilizes various literary strategies in combination with the libreta as a narrative element to question the privileged position of testimonio in the memory works that have proliferated in postwar Central America. This thesis also demonstrates how Nona Fernández constructs a complex intertextual dialogue with the testimony of the victimizer Valenzuela to interrogate the ethical binaries that have sustained Chilean literary production on historical memory since the dictatorship. The combined analyses of these two novels enable new perceptions of how contemporary Latin American fictions can creatively employ intertextuality as a narrative tool to problematize the cultural and literary representation of a traumatic past. / Master of Arts / This thesis proposes new critical perspectives on two contemporary Latin American novels, Insensatez (2004) by Honduran-Salvadorean author Horacio Castellanos Moya and La dimensión desconocida (2016) by Chilean author Nona Fernández. Situating each novel within its respective historical context of political transition following years of violent national conflict, the analysis centers on the textual relationship between the narrative and the novel's foundational document. In Insensatez, the document of interest is the official report of the Recovery of Historical Memory Project (REMHI) titled Guatemala: Nunca Más (1998) and in La dimensión desconocida the essential document is the interview with the former Chilean intelligence agent, Andrés Valenzuela, published in the magazine Cauce (1985). This thesis first reveals how Castellanos Moya utilizes various literary strategies in combination with the libreta as a narrative element to question the favored position of testimonio in the memory works that have proliferated in postwar Central America. This thesis then demonstrates how Nona Fernández constructs a complex dialogue with the confession of the victimizer Valenzuela to challenge the ethical oppositions that have sustained Chilean literary production on historical memory since the dictatorship. The combined analyses of these two novels enable new perceptions of how contemporary Latin American fictions can creatively use textual relationships as a tool to interrogate the cultural and literary representation of a traumatic past.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VTETD/oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/115585 |
| Date | 04 May 2023 |
| Creators | Miller, Jennifer Freeman |
| Contributors | Foreign Languages, Cana Jimenez, Maria D., Austin, Elisabeth L., Venkatesh, Vinodh |
| Publisher | Virginia Tech |
| Source Sets | Virginia Tech Theses and Dissertation |
| Language | Spanish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | ETD, application/pdf |
| Rights | In Copyright, http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ |
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