Alfaro, Raquel Ursula
(2010)
"Borroneando y chachareando: modos siniestros de po-etizar".
Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.
(Unpublished)
Abstract
Assuming that -in one way or another- Latin American literature deals with the shock caused by the conquest and colonization of the New World, my dissertation reads this literature by paying special attention to texts that by undermining Western hegemonic logics, successfully perform decolonization. It is in the process of drawing this alternative map for reading Latin American literatures, that I have realized the extent to which "memory" becomes a key factor in decolonizing literary projects. It is a special configuration of memory that keeps literature loyal to the lettered city's principles, turning it into a colonizing device. In that regard, it is assumed that the only way to deal with otherness is to wipe out any sign of difference that may eventually disturb hegemonic discourses. Memory, however, can also work in a different direction, uncovering alliances between writing and power, and by so doing confronting dominant narratives with other rationalities. In this sense, memory proves to be strongly linked to the creation, reproduction, updating and deconstruction of cultural imaginaries. Understood as a tool of decolonization, memory opens the way to alternative epistemologies. Trying to identify epistemological differences between projects of decolonization based on specific uses of memory, I have selected a body of texts produced in a diverse set of geopolitical areas. First, I concentrate on literary works emerged from locations where a massive indigenous population proactively affects the formation of a given national culture, producing the emergence of subjectivities and forms of socialization other than those legitimized by cultural and historical elites. In a second approach, I examine how a similar process takes place in zones with reduced indigenous settlements and/or where Indians have largely been made invisible by national power centers. In these cases, literature achieves a decolonizing performance by contaminating itself with the same cultural logics that the elites seek to isolate. In this way, nations that imagine themselves as "clean" of the Indian, are nevertheless able to produce a literature that unexpectedly questions hegemonic discourses by indirectly making connections with indigenous rationalities.
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Details
| Item Type: |
University of Pittsburgh ETD
|
| Status: |
Unpublished |
| Creators/Authors: |
| Creators | Email | Pitt Username | ORCID  |
|---|
| Alfaro, Raquel Ursula | rua@pitt.edu | RUA | |
|
| ETD Committee: |
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| Date: |
28 September 2010 |
| Date Type: |
Completion |
| Defense Date: |
15 April 2010 |
| Approval Date: |
28 September 2010 |
| Submission Date: |
24 May 2010 |
| Access Restriction: |
5 year -- Restrict access to University of Pittsburgh for a period of 5 years. |
| Institution: |
University of Pittsburgh |
| Schools and Programs: |
Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences > Hispanic Languages and Literatures |
| Degree: |
PhD - Doctor of Philosophy |
| Thesis Type: |
Doctoral Dissertation |
| Refereed: |
Yes |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: |
Decolonizing Process; Latin American Literarure |
| Other ID: |
http://etd.library.pitt.edu/ETD/available/etd-05242010-162745/, etd-05242010-162745 |
| Date Deposited: |
10 Nov 2011 19:45 |
| Last Modified: |
15 Nov 2016 13:43 |
| URI: |
http://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/id/eprint/7944 |
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