Confronting history and modernity in Mexican narrative / Elisabeth Guerrero.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Guerrero, Ellie.

Series:

New directions in Latino American cultures

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Historical fiction, Mexican--History and criticism.

Historical fiction, Mexican.

Mexican fiction--History and criticism.

Mexican fiction.

Literature and history--Mexico.

Literature and history.

Mexico.

Physical Description:

180 pages ; 22 cm.

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : Palgrave Macmillan, 2008.

Summary:

Two motifs of an angel of history, one European and one Mexican, provide a theoretical framework for this book. The first is Walter Benjamin's interpretation of the Klee painting angelus novus, a figure that gazes upon the ruins of the past, powerless to repair the broken pieces as it keels into the future. Although Benjamin envisions history as catastrophe piled upon catastrophe, he also sees in this angel the possibility for redemption in divine destruction. Mexico City's key monument, the Angel of Independence, also embodies redemption and destruction through history, marking moments of staggering transformation beyond the conquest. Drawing from these two theoretical angles, the study delineates three major narrative tendencies in contemporary historical novels from Mexico. First, these novels humanize canonized heroes and bring them down to earth. Second, they demonumentalize the European legacy, renegotiating Europe's five hundred year bequest of conquest and colonialism. Third, the novels have begun to recover secondary. figures previously lost to history, particularly women and people of color. While these three tendencies apply throughout Latin America, they are particularly pronounced in Mexican literary production.

Contents:

Humanizing the hero : Ignacio Solares's Madero, el otro and Jorge Ibargüengoitia's Los pasos de López

Highlighting women in history : Rosa Beltrán's La corte de los ilusos and Brianda Domecq's La vida insólita historia de la Santa de Cabora

Mourning the European legacy : Homero Aridijs's 1492: vida y tiempos de Juan Cabezón de Castilla and Memorias del Nuevo Mundo, and Fernando del Paso's Noticias del Imperio

Redemption of the present : Carlos Fuentes's Los años con Laura Díaz.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [161]-165) and index.

ISBN:

0230606377

9780230606371

OCLC:

176926089

Online:

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