Bentley Final Dissertation
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
IN AND OUT OF THE PERIPHERAL NETWORK CITY: URBAN SPACES WRITTEN BY VIOLENCE IN POSTWAR GUATEMALA By Andrew Bentley A DISSERTATION SuBmitted to Michigan State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Hispanic Cultural Studies—Doctor of Philosophy 2019 ABSTRACT IN AND OUT OF THE PERIPHERAL NETWORK CITY: URBAN SPACES WRITTEN BY VIOLENCE IN POSTWAR GUATEMALA By Andrew Bentley In and Out of the Peripheral Network City: Urban Spaces Written by Violence in Postwar Guatemala analyzes transformations of urBan space and culture in contemporary Guatemala. More specifically, the study focuses on material and discursive responses to urBan violence as they appear in literature and related cultural products in and about postwar Guatemala City (1997-present). The study contends that, while Guatemala City undeniably operates under the same logic as suBstantially larger Latin American megacities, with populations of 8 million and up, it must be read under its own terms, considering its recent history and cultural production that responds to such history, as well as the city layout, which shapes cultural mediations of people. Thus, I propose the trope of the peripheral network city—a mid-sized, partitioned urBan sprawl, shaped by citizen and state involvement, with qualities of the megacity and the megaslum—to analyze Guatemala City’s heterogeneous spaces and the role of violence in constructing them. I conceptualize the peripheral network city through the lens of four main theoretical approaches: the archive, the repertoire, necropolitics, and violence. Discussions of these main theoretical concepts draw upon critical debates by thinkers such as Jacques Derrida, Ann Laura Stoler, Antoinette Burton, Diana Taylor, Mike Davis, Achille MBemBe, and Slavoj Žižek, among others. To read the peripheral network city, the specific texts under consideration are the site of the Archivo Histórico de la Policía Nacional [Historical Archive of the National Police, AHPN] and its novelistic representation in Rodrigo Rey Rosa’s 2009 novel El material humano [Human Matter], photographs of disappeared persons on the walls of buildings in Guatemala City’s Historic Center, the novel Ruido de fondo [Background Noise] (2006) by Javier Payeras, and the collection of short stories perZONA (2014) by Juan Pensamiento Velasco. By offering new paradigms through which to read the GloBal South city in the 21st century, this study contends that cultural production, and the city itself, register traces of the recent past and ensure the survival of urBan violence not as a transient mode but rather as a structuring principle of culture in postwar Guatemala. More broadly, the dissertation posits that such a reading of violent urBan spaces allows us to understand Latin America and the GloBal South from a Guatemalan perspective, which until now has Been largely ignored by cultural criticism. Copyright by ANDREW BENTLEY 2019 DEDICATION In loving memory of Professor Nancy Marino. If I am but a distant echo of you in many decades, I will be the best. “En la literatura, no hay muchas ideas radicales.” v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The research and writing of this dissertation about urBan space took place in several metropolitan areas: those of the capital districts of Upstate New York and Mid- Michigan, Milwaukee, Virginia Beach, and in raucous internet café-video game arcades in Guatemala City. In mapping out this personal cartography, the indebtedness I have accrued is immense. First and foremost, I must acknowledge my advisor, Rocío Quispe- Agnoli, for her sound critiques of my work and willingness to step outside of her area of expertise on the colonial Andes to explore unchartered territory with me. Her dedication to students has undouBtedly served as a model to emulate and this dissertation has Benefitted from her rigorous attention to details, which permeates these pages. Words hardly seem sufficient to express my debt of gratitude to the other memBers of my committee, particularly to Joseba Gabilondo, who, like my advisor, stepped well outside of his academic comfort zone to lend a hand. He has an uncanny ability to keep me on my toes and ask me the hard questions, while remaining extremely patient as I do my Best to answer them. His unfailingly innovative theoretical interventions never cease to amaze me and, without him, not a single word of this dissertation would have been written. My voyage would have been completely adrift without Douglas Noverr, who has Been so much more than a reader of my work. He has always gone above and beyond the call of duty, intervening at crucial moments to point out my oversights and get me back on course when the waters got choppy. His enthusiasm for Guatemala and belief in me, vi despite my own douBts and insecurities, saved me in more ways than I can list here. I thank Danny Méndez for aiding me with bureaucratic maneuvers and other nuances of the profession. Aside from being a phenomenal teaching supervisor and mentor, Adolfo Ausín offered good humor and sound advice, which lifted me up more times than he proBably realizes. I am grateful to the anthropologists NajiB Hourani and Mindy Morgan, Both of whom offered just the right courses at just the right times and welcomed me as one of their own graduate students with warm collegiality. Also in the Department of Anthropology, Laurie Medina must be singled out for her kindness and for frequently chatting with me about the topics we so enjoy. A very special thank you is also due to Emily Holley, Associate Director of the Center for Latin American and CariBBean Studies, and Distinguished Professor Emerita Laurie Kaguni, Director of the Center for Mitochondrial Science and Medicine, for their staunch support over the years. I have found lifelong interlocutors in my friends and fellow graduate students Claudia Berríos-Campos, Jonathan Montalvo, Osvaldo Sandoval, and Ross Smith. I thank them collectively for nights out, a lot of laughs, accompanying me at academic events, proofreading on numerous occasions, and, most importantly, pointing out new directions I had not considered. I could have never reached the finish line without them. Having had hundreds of students during my time at Michigan State, it would be impossiBle to thank them all individually but I set aside special mention for Caleb Cooper, Michelle Freers, Mitchell Gajar, Gabriel Guimond, Olivia Hoover, Lucy Tomer, and Jonathan Walkotten, all of whom have made me a better human being. They have taught me more vii than I could have ever hoped to teach them and our continued correspondence (as well as their encouragement) sustains me through writing marathons. All academic writing is an exercise in intertextuality and this dissertation builds on the work of distinguished scholars, many of whom I am fortunate enough to call friends. I am Beholden to Arturo Arias, Jean Franco, and Diane Nelson who, aside from writing Books that changed the way I see Guatemala, have always been enthusiastic about my research in ways that have enriched it. Arturo has Been an especially fantastic mentor, friend, and rock with whom I have always been able to comfortably talk about our country of origin. Equally, I owe more than I can properly acknowledge to Tatiana Argüello, Nanci Buiza, Debra Castillo, Gloria Chacon, Maya Chinchilla, Sophie Esch, Carolyn Fornoff, John Kennedy, Leda Lozier, Alicia Miklos, John Petrus, Ana Patricia Rodríguez, Gabriela Ramirez-Chavez, María Roof, Ignacio Sarmiento Panez, and Oriel María Siu, all of whom have impacted my work in more ways than they can imagine. To those who were not immediately involved in this project but nurtured my growth at the institutions where I have studied, I wholeheartedly thank Gunnar Anderson, Gail Bulman, Kathryn Everly, Gustavo Fierro Zevallos, Myrna García-Calderón, Alan Hersker, Lora Lunt, Vilma Manzotti, Oscar Sarmiento, and Liliana Trevizán. You are all present in these pages. Céline PhiliBert left us too soon but her lively spirit has guided me on many nights as I struggled at the computer. In addition, the quirky mind of the late Pedro Cuperman opened my eyes to previously unknown ways of thinking about Latin America and I sincerely hope he would be pleased with the fruits of my labor. Sadly, another former viii professor and dear friend, Nancy Marino, also passed away Before the completion of this dissertation. On countless occasions, she provided a haven in her office and never gave up on me as I made mistakes in my attempts to ascend the ivory tower. Most of all, she reminded me of the world’s real proBlems when my own trivial ones seemed so insurmountable. Although Nancy’s departure is an irreplaceable loss, her legacy will always be a boon to those of us who knew her. I dedicate this dissertation to her. I have been fortunate enough to receive valuable input on my work at multiple academic conferences such as the Latin American Studies Association (LASA) (San Juan 2015, New York 2016, and Barcelona 2018) and the Modern Language Association (MLA) (Philadelphia 2017), as well as at invited talks delivered at the State University of New York at Potsdam, the University of Puget Sound, and the Universidad de Costa Rica, Sede de Occidente. I thank Liliana Trevizán, Oriel María Siu, Ronald Rivera Rivera, and Damaris Madrigal López for kind invitations to their respective campuses. I owe a debt of gratitude to the enthusiastic audience memBers (namely, the undergraduate students) in these academic spaces, whose inquiries prompted revising and tossing out some unwieldy ideas altogether. Of course, none of these presentations would have been possiBle without the Department of Romance and Classical Studies and the Graduate School at Michigan State University, both of which have financially supported my travels to far- flung locales over the years. A simple “thank you” hardly seems sufficient but I offer it all the same.