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The Aesthetics of Violence in Contemporary Latinx Literature by Maia Gil'adí BA in English and Creative Writ

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The Aesthetics of Violence in Contemporary Latinx Literature by Maia Gil'adí BA in English and Creative Writ Doom Patterns: The Aesthetics of Violence in Contemporary Latinx Literature by Maia Gil’Adí B.A. in English and Creative Writing, May 2005, The George Washington University M.F.A. in Creative Writing, December 2010, American University A Dissertation submitted to The Faculty of The Columbian College of Arts and Sciences of The George Washington University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy August 31, 2018 Dissertation directed by Antonio López Associate Professor of English The Columbian College of Arts and Sciences of The George Washington University certifies that Maia Gil’Adí has passed the Final Examination for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy as of May 14, 2018. This is the final and approved form of the dissertation. Doom Patterns: The Aesthetics of Violence in Contemporary Latinx Literature Maia Gil’Adí Dissertation Research Committee: Antonio López, Associate Professor of English, Dissertation Director Gayle Wald, Professor of English and American Studies, Committee Member Ricardo Ortíz, Associate Professor of English, Committee Member ii © Copyright 2018 by Maia Gil’Adí All rights reserved iii Acknowledgements Writing is a lonely enterprise and can, even on the best of days, make you feel like an incompetent transcriber in need of a good thesaurus. Sayings by authors about their hatred of writing are a dime-a-dozen. Kurt Vonnegut, for example, said that when writing he felt like “an armless, legless man with a crayon in his mouth,” and Joyce Carol Oates said that finishing a first draft is like “pushing a very dirty peanut across the floor with your nose.” So, here is my dirty peanut. I am fortunate to have had a floor to push it across and people who would pick it up when it reached the other end of the room. This project is indebted to the many incredible people—teachers, friends, and mentors—whom I’ve been lucky enough to know in over three decades of being a student, people who have encouraged me and pushed me to read, think, and write. In tenth grade, after a terrible rendition of Mark Anthony’s Julius Caesar soliloquy, Mr. Parsons said to me, “Maia, stop being such a hippie and get your shit together.” I’d like to think that I have done so and for his urgency I will always be grateful. As an undergraduate student at the George Washington University, it was Jim Miller’s Introduction to African American literature that made me want to be an English major. His guidance in and outside the classroom has been invaluable: he introduced me to books that continue to surprise me, taught me to ask good questions of the text, and take risks in my writing. Aside from Tony López, Jim is probably the most important teacher I will ever have, and his presence is terribly missed. My time at American University was crucial for my current focus on aesthetics in Latinx literature. Denise Orenstein and Richard McCann supported my exploration of form and story, always asking the right questions of my work, forcing me to pay attention iv to, as Richard always said, “where the heat of the story lies.” I will always be grateful for the mentorship and friendship of Faye Moskowitz, who has read every single page of fiction I ever produced, from my terrible short stories at GW to my novel at American. Her questions about my fiction helped me think deeply about structure, motivation, and word choice—questions I continually return to in my writing. My analysis of aesthetics is better because of them. At AU, I also had the fortune to take many classes with Erik Dussere, and it was our conversations about aesthetics and representation that gave me the determination to pursue a doctorate in English. Throughout my time at GW, I have been keenly aware that having the space and time for contemplation, reading, and writing is a luxury and privilege, one that I have been lucky to share with an amazing and supportive group of friends and readers. I am grateful for the many conversations with Lori Brister, Elizabeth Pittman, Julie Chamberlain, Sam Yates, and K. Tyler Christensen. Molly Lewis has been compassionate and reassuring in a way only a friend can be. My life and work is better because of the countless hours of discussions with D. Gilson and Justin Mann. They have read almost every single word of this dissertation, probably more than once, and have pushed me to think harder, work harder. D. has urged me to block out the noise and focus on my work, to find the fun in writing, the beauty in words. I am grateful for Justin’s intellectual generosity. His difficult questions always pushed me to better places, and he has been able to decipher things in my writing before I have been able to do so myself. He has been a true friend with whom I am lucky to have shared this process. Both D. and Justin have left an indelible mark on my work and I am better because of them. v At GW I have had the honor of learning from exceptional professors including Holly Duggan, Robert McRuer, Ayanna Thompson, Patty Chu, Jennifer James, Jonathan Hsy, Jennifer Chang, Daniel DeWispelare, and David McAleavey, who were particularly supportive when I was on the job market. I am also eternally grateful for the support of professors in and outside GW, including Kavita Daiya, Daniel, Jung Yun, Josh Guzman, Manuel Cuellar, Sergio Weismann, Sam Pinto, Renee Hudson, Holly, and Sreyoshi Sarkar, who generously gave of their time and advice by reading my job materials, preparing me for interviews, and talking with me about campus visits. I could not have asked for a better dissertation committee. Ricardo Ortíz’s work is inspiring and his encouragement to think expansively about the field has been instrumental. Working with Gayle Wald has been an honor. Achieving her presence and command in the classroom is one my goals, and I’m so grateful for her support, generosity, and kind spirit. I am also indebted to Daniel DeWispelare and John Alba Cutler, who have come in as my outside readers. I am lucky to have a new friend in Daniel, who has been incredibly giving during this process and during the job market. John has been supportive of me and my work since we met through the Latina Latino Literature MLA forum, and it’s a privilege to have someone whose scholarship you admire comment on your work. I’ve heard many times that a dissertation is supposed to be the worst thing one writes, and its purpose is simply to get a job. This dissertation has served its purpose, but none of it would have been possible—I mean nothing: imagining, drafting, and finishing the dissertation, getting interviews, getting a job—without the support and feedback of Tony López. His generosity and enthusiasm are unparalleled, and there is nothing I can vi say or do that can repay the time, generosity, kindness, and dedication that he has showed me and my work. I have been fortunate to have an incredible support system outside of academia. Jenny Molberg’s friendship has been the most important of my life. I am thankful for the hours of phone calls, texts, beach trips, and drunken poetry readings; in short, everything that has made life good. Elliott Wrenn, thank you for the many meals, glasses of wine, and conversations about movies and books that allowed for a little respite from the stress. My cat Steve, albeit neurotic, has been the best writing cuddler, perhaps why I wrote “doom patters” instead of “doom patterns” so many times thinking of his little paws. Finally, my family has been very annoying throughout this whole process, but I guess I should thank them to be polite. Mentira, just a joke. Mis padres, Patricia Dressler y Daniel Gil’Adí, me han demostrado lo importante que es ser resistente, flexible, optimista, lo crucial que es la voz de una mujer fuerte, especialmente ahora. Siempre puedo contar con mi hermana Yael para sentirme mejor, con un chiste, un chisme, una llorada. Es la mejor amiga que cualquiera se pudiera imaginar. Finally, thank you mami for dubbing my many writing spaces “la prigione di Silvio Pelico,” you were able to give my writing a little more pizzazz and drama, fun when I needed it most. Los quiero, esto es para ustedes. vii Abstract of Dissertation Doom Patterns: The Aesthetics of Violence in Contemporary Latinx Literature Contemporary Latinx speculative fiction—stories of monsters, time travel, and the otherworldly, among other things—conquered the academy, the literary market, and popular culture beginning in the 1990s. Scholarly criticism typically argues that reimaginations of conquest, colonialism, and racial discrimination promote social justice and cultural transformation. By contrast, “Doom Patterns: The Aesthetics of Violence in Contemporary Latinx Literature” troubles political remedy as the approach to such works since the 1960s era of Latinx and other social movements. Instead, I argue that representations of destruction and pain foreground the effects of pleasure in reading and rereading representations of the end of the world. Indeed, I demonstrate that contemporary Latinx and multiethnic speculative fiction exhumes destruction through what I term narrative “doom patterns,” devices such as thematic repetition, non-linear narration, character fragmentation, and unresolved plots that consistently return the reader to instances of apocalyptic destruction. The powerful appeal of such doom patterns and the unregenerative destruction they describe establish in stories of colonization, slavery, and the trauma of migration alternative worlds: “elsewheres” where imperial, racial, and ethno-national violence upends stereotypical accounts of minority literature that emphasize upward mobility and the celebration of hybridity.
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