This project focuses on how the novels of the so called Literatura de la Onda and Chicano narratives of the sixties and seventies challenged the legacy of Mexican revolutionary nationalist discourse through the voice of young rebels and misfits. I argue that the rather contentious attitude of Onda novels on the one hand, and of Chicano fiction on the other bring to the fore a search for identity that is articulated as an opposition between post-revolutionary values typically held by father figures, and the revolt of the young protagonists. The novels by Mexican Onda writers, such as José Agustín and Parménides García Saldaña, raise identity issues that have been a constant source of anxiety in the nationalist discourse of Latin America since the nineteenth century. Among these, one of the most important is the impact of US culture in Mexican cultural identity. At the same time, Chicano narratives portray the struggle of adolescents who live between traditional Mexican values and North American ones as seen in works such as Alejandro Morales Barrio on the Edge, and José Antonio Villarreals Pocho. Drawing on Julia Kristevas theory of the abject, I show how the abject position of adolescents towards their origins undermines a sense of total rebelliousness that creates its own space within the narration. It is in this place where tradition and rebellion collide. Such collision gives way to the anguished quest of identity, and this quest is one that transgresses both cultural and national boundaries.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VANDERBILT/oai:VANDERBILTETD:etd-03052010-143651 |
| Date | 05 March 2010 |
| Creators | Fortes, Mayra |
| Contributors | Edward Wright-Rios, Jason Borge, William Luis, René Prieto |
| Publisher | VANDERBILT |
| Source Sets | Vanderbilt University Theses |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.library.vanderbilt.edu/available/etd-03052010-143651/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to Vanderbilt University or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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