(Un)Natural Pairings: Fantastic, Uncanny, Monstrous, and Cyborgian Encounters in Contemporary Central American and Hispanic Caribbean Literature” By
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“(Un)Natural Pairings: Fantastic, Uncanny, Monstrous, and Cyborgian Encounters in Contemporary Central American and Hispanic Caribbean Literature” By Jennifer M. Abercrombie Foster @ Copyright 2016 Submitted to the graduate degree program in Spanish and Portuguese and the Graduate Faculty of the University of Kansas in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. ________________________________ Co-Chairperson, Yajaira Padilla ________________________________ Co-Chairperson, Verónica Garibotto ________________________________ Jorge Pérez ________________________________ Vicky Unruh ________________________________ Hannah Britton ________________________________ Magalí Rabasa Date Defended: May 3, 2016 ii The Dissertation Committee for Jennifer M. Abercrombie Foster certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: “(Un)Natural Pairings: Fantastic, Uncanny, Monstrous, and Cyborgian Encounters in Contemporary Central American and Hispanic Caribbean Literature” ________________________________ Co-Chairperson, Yajaira Padilla ________________________________ Co-Chairperson, Verónica Garibotto Date approved: May 9, 2016 iii Abstract Since the turn of the 20th century many writers, playwrights, and poets in Central America and the Hispanic Caribbean have published fantastic, gritty, and oftentimes unsettling stories of ghosts, anthropomorphic animals, zoomorphic humans, and uncanny spaces. These unexpected encounters and strange entities are an embodiment of muddled boundaries and a creation of unsettling and sometimes monstrous myths and fictions. Cultural theorists from Central America and Cuba have associated this kind of literature with a growing culture of disenchantment and cynicism that is rooted in the loss of utopian and egalitarian ideals associated with past revolutionary projects. Through the course of this dissertation, I look beyond cultural disenchantment as I show how many writers—especially women—from Central America (Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica) and the Hispanic Caribbean (Puerto Rico, Cuba, and the Dominican Republic) have utilized strange, fantastic, and sometimes grotesque elements in their work in order to imagine alternative, utopic futures that challenge gendered hierarchies in society. Traditional dualistic categories that require all-or- nothing identities (of being all good, all bad, all feminine, all masculine, etc.) are broken down in the literature that I explore from both regions. By joining sacred domestic spaces in uncanny environments, mixing the dead with the living, blending animals with humans, and rendering passive women into abject, erotic monsters—these (un)natural pairings contest and contradict naturalized gender and sexual hierarchies by revealing the fluidity of supposedly inherent and fixed boundaries. At the same time, the (un)natural pairings that I explore provide an unlikely and creative space where traditional gender and sexual ideologies are especially foregrounded, which invites the reader to rethink conventional and hierarchal structures of power, especially as they relate to gender in Hispanic Caribbean and Central American societies. iv Acknowledgments I have many people to thank for helping me write this dissertation. First and foremost is my best friend and husband, Andrew, who has tirelessly encouraged me and made me laugh when I needed it most. Also my coffee/officemate and perpetual confidant, Jake Rapp, has read countless pages, offered endless support, and watched The Big Lewbowski with me more times than I can count. I am very grateful for Erinn and Javier Barroso, who have given me endless support, love, and abiding friendship. I am also thankful for my KU friends and colleagues: Tiffany Creegan Miller, Pablo Celis, Michael Cantú, Luis Rodríguez Cortez, Judit Dorado Cadilla, Raciel Alonso, Katya Soll, and Nathan Presnell have helped make my graduate career a meaningful and gratifying experience. As well, I am deeply indebted and forever grateful to all of my committee members, but especially to my core advisors and mentors: to Yajaira, who encouraged me to always go a step further and who consistently has provided me with invaluable insights and counsel; and to Verónica and Jorge, who have acted as my on-campus advocates and encouragers and whose suggestions and advice have challenged me to approach my work from new perspectives. I am also grateful to KU’s Department of Spanish and Portuguese, whose generous funds have allowed me to fully dedicate myself to completing this dissertation over the past year. KU’s Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies has also awarded me with two Tinker Foundation Field Research grants and the Stansifer Fellowship, which have allowed me to perform essential doctoral research abroad. And, finally, I am eternally grateful to Ana Suyapa Dilworth, who allowed me to audit her classes in the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Honduras and who introduced me to Central American literature. Her passion and generosity has profoundly shaped my own deep appreciation and respect for those powerful “peripheral” works of literature that deserve much more attention than they currently receive in Academia. v To Suyapa Dilworth And to my friends in Honduras, who continue to believe that change is possible. vi Table of Contents Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 1 Cultures of Disenchantment: Bridging Central America and the Hispanic Caribbean .... 1 Common Histories and Literary Aesthetics ........................................................................... 5 Unfinished Revolutions and (Re)productive Women in Neoliberal and Globalized Markets .................................................................................................................................... 14 Fantasy and Desencanto in Central American and Cuban Narratives .............................. 21 Women Writing in Central America and Cuba ................................................................... 24 Chapter One: Ghostly Haunts of Endless Violence in Francisco Ayala Silva’s Mujer de las aguas and Daína Chaviano’s El hombre, la hembra, y el hambre ........................................... 33 Francisco Ayala Silva’s Mujer de las aguas .......................................................................... 40 Daina Chaviano’s El hombre, la hembra, y el hambre ......................................................... 59 Chapter Two: Uncanny Domestic Spaces in Contemporary Costa Rican and Cuban Literature ..................................................................................................................................... 81 Fernando Contreras Castro’s Única mirando al mar .......................................................... 92 Ena Lucía Portela’s “Al fondo del cementerio” ................................................................. 109 Chapter Three: Erotic, Abject Others: Expressions of Feminine Autonomy in Central American and Cuban Short Fiction ........................................................................................ 127 Anna Lidia Vega Serova: “La muchacha que no fuma los sábados” ............................... 139 Patricia Belli: “El hechizo” .................................................................................................. 149 Lucía Escobar: “Mis noches de luna llena” ........................................................................ 159 vii Chapter Four: The Natural Cyborg: Visions of a Gynocentric Utopia in Salvadoran and Honduran Literature ................................................................................................................ 174 Horacio Castellanos Moya’s Baile con serpientes .............................................................. 181 Marta Susana Prieto’s “Animalario” .................................................................................. 187 Jacinta Escudos’ “Hereje” ................................................................................................... 192 Lety Elvir’s “Perro podenco” .............................................................................................. 197 Rocío Tábora’s “Epílogo: Vocación de serpiente” ............................................................ 200 Conclusion: Utopia Re-examined ............................................................................................ 206 Works Cited ............................................................................................................................... 212 1 Introduction Cultures of Disenchantment: Bridging Central America and the Hispanic Caribbean Since the turn of the 20th century many writers, playwrights, and poets in Central America and the Hispanic Caribbean have published fantastic, gritty, and oftentimes unsettling stories of ghosts, anthropomorphic animals, zoomorphic humans, and uncanny spaces. In these narratives, writers explore taboo subjects regarding rape, menstruation, incest, and castration within unsavory settings like a garbage dump or a cemetery, but also within the familiar space of the traditional home. These unexpected encounters, strange entities, and troubling environments embody muddled boundaries as well as unsettling and sometimes monstrous myths and fictions. This dissertation, a literary and cultural study, examines Central American and Hispanic Caribbean works that were written during what