Contemporary Latin American Autobiography and Authoritarianism
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Stating the Self: Contemporary Latin American Autobiography and Authoritarianism By Laura Cade Brown Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Vanderbilt University In partial fulfillment of requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY In Spanish December, 2013 Nashville, Tennessee Approved: William Luis, Ph.D. Earl E. Fitz, Ph.D. Benigno Trigo, Ph.D. José M. Medina, Ph.D. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This project, like autobiography, tells the story of my past six years as a scholar and individual. Over this time I met many people, read many books, and thought many ideas, and their influence can be found in this work. These disparate places and times, random papers and interests, informal conversations and professional meetings have converged here in remarkable ways. I would first like to begin to thank my committee. It is my good fortune to have the guidance of scholars with expertise so closely related to my topic of self-writing. It was the fortuitous, fascinating, and eye-opening course on self-writing taught by Professor Benigno Trigo that showed me that I had been interested in autobiography all along. I also owe an appreciation for performative structures of arguments to his exceptionally unique and creative approaches to literary analysis. I was introduced to Clarice Lispector in this same class, but I came to know her works in seminars led by Professor Earl Fitz. I have benefited from his undying enthusiasm for Brazilian literature and culture, matched only by his kindness. Dr. Fitz has often said that Clarice is “Easy to read, difficult to understand.” I would never have come to understand her without his writing, which I continue to admire for his ability to make abstract arguments so lucidly clear. Sensing that my study of autobiography would take a philosophical turn, I can only attribute it to serendipity that Professor José Medina, a scholar of language philosophy and identity, works at Vanderbilt. I thank him for warmly welcoming me to attend his undergraduate class on language, and for his thoughtfulness in forwarding me relevant material. I have also grown from working from his book, Language, and I can only imagine how much richer this ii project would be had our geographies and schedules been more aligned. I was once told that I needed to study Wittgenstein, and I finally found his place in this work in the end. I look forward to the continuing to learn about language and language games from him. I wholeheartedly thank Professor William Luis for accompanying me through the past years, for being my advocate, mentor, Editor-in-chief, and principal supporter at Vanderbilt. Our shared interests in Juan Francisco Manzano led me to Vanderbilt, and his reading of Manzano’s autobiography influenced me greatly. While my project has drifted away from 19th century Cuba and expanded beyond Revolutionary Cuba, Dr. Luis’s influences are to be found in many instances in this work. I was introduced to Reinaldo Arenas in his course on the Boom and Post- Boom, and the paper that I wrote for that class was a pivotal moment in my graduate career. I have benefited tremendously from his historical and literary knowledge. I thank him for never giving up on me, and for giving me both the freedom to follow my intuitions and for asking questions that would help this project get better at every stage. This dissertation, like many other self-writings, tells the story of travel as well, including three moves, two cities, and various trips abroad. While at Vanderbilt, I benefited from the remarkable support given to graduate students by the university, ranging from professionalization to numerous travel grants and summer support. A Dissertation Enhancement Award and Summer Research Grant allowed me to peel apart the layers of the project, particularly the chapter on sexuality. A Simon Collier grant, while involving a different project, introduced new ideas about self-writing that further prepared me to writing this dissertation. I thank Dr. Helena’s Simonett for her enthusiasm in that project and for involving me in the CLAS opportunities. A summer language program supported by a FLAS in São Paulo proved to be instrumental for understanding Brazilian culture (and, particularly relevant for this project, iii Brazilian modernism) better and for once-in-a-lifetime meetings ranging from singer Tom Zê to author Luis Ruffato. I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to study with the dynamic Professor Christopher Dunn and to network with so many prominent Brazilianist scholars while on that trip, including Jerry Dávila, Rebecca Atencio, and Jeffrey Lesser, as well as Jane Landers. I acknowledge those who have made my pleasant stays in Brazil possible over the years: Sergio Bessa and Ana, Angela Dalhri and Delmo, Fabio Baqueiro Figueiredo and Chris, Rogerio Pinto, Martha Miller, Beatriz Mamagonian, and Carlos Lima. In Nashville I made two dear friends, Rosie Seagraves and Trey Mack, whose encouragement has been unfailing. I also thank John Maddox and Courtney Campbell for being the best colleagues possible over the considerable distance that separated us. I would also like to thank Professors Emanuelle Oliveira and Jason Borge for teaching courses on testimonio and popular culture, respectively, that allowed me to think about ideas that would prove to be related to this project. Likewise, Professor Charles Scott’s seminar on Foucault was my introduction to theories that would prove to be essential for this work. I would also like to thank Vanderbilt’s fabulous, expedient InterLibrary Loan staff, who make everyone’s research possible. This dissertation owes a huge debt to the cultural environment of New York. I feel blessed to not only have experienced such a city, but to have made close friendships there with people who, in caring about me and caring to ask about my work, nurtured this project. Janny Llanos, Osiris Rodríguez, Susan Rohwer, Daniel Rodríguez, Justino Rodríguez, Laura Gerace Rodríguez, Natalie Pierre deserve special mention. Numerous students of the history department at New York University provided me with a stimulating, collegial, and happy environment. In New York I have had the fortune of conversing with various respected scholars whose works have contributed to this project, including Jim Green and Eric Goode. Extreme gratitude must be iv expressed to Barbara Weinstein, for being unfailingly generous with her time, kindness, and professional advice. Once in Washington, this project grew considerably from new resources and friendships. I thank the people at George Washington University who made it possible to have access to their library. I also thank Erin Chapman, Jess Krug, Marcy Norton, Andrew Zimmerman, as well as other scholars for the positive encounters and shared ideas. From George Mason University, I am grateful for my conversations with Johanna Bockman and, in particular, with Benjamin Cowan, whose work has greatly informed my understanding of sexuality in Brazil. Dr. William Becker has been tremendously helpful in facilitating my involvement with the George Washington University. And Michael Weeks helped me in numerous ways, always without the obligation to do so. I am grateful for good friends unrelated to academia for their company, including Afua Anyane-Ntow, Anne Marie Hathcock, Donna Juanita Waldron Howell, and Rachel Aimee. I thank my amazing family for unconditional love and acceptance, for buoying my spirits, and for weathering the emotional stress of graduate school with me over the years. I thank my daughter, Carolina, for being the ray of light that she is. And, finally, I express my profound, ineffable gratitude for the love, brilliance, and unequalled assistance that Greg has provided over the years. His presence has shaped this project continually, always for the better. I thank him for being my partner, librarian, editor, number one fan, comedian, encyclopedia, errand runner, baby walker, Magic 8 Ball, in sum: my everything. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................................ ii Chapter I. Introduction ..........................................................................................................................1 II. Contemporary Self-Writing: Postructural and Postmodern Innovations ...........................18 Clarice Lispector ................................................................................................................25 Diamela Eltit ......................................................................................................................33 Reinaldo Arenas .................................................................................................................43 III. Surveyance, Surveillance, and Torture: Metafiction and the Crisis of Self- Representation....................................................................................................................54 Surveyance: Essentialized Brasilidade and Clarice’s Search for an Unessentialized Self ....................................................................................................................................59 Surveillance and the Self: Replacing the “I” with “Eye” in Lumpérica ............................72 Film, surveillance, and self-representation ....................................................................77 Film as sexualized gaze .................................................................................................83