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UC Santa Barbara UC Santa Barbara Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Reforming, Deforming, and Performing: Remixing Digital and Traditional Approaches to José Agustín's La tumba Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3kd692rs Author Ihlendorf Burke, Claire Elizabeth Publication Date 2014 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Santa Barbara Reforming, Deforming, and Performing: Remixing Digital and Traditional Approaches to José Agustín’s La tumba A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Hispanic Languages and Literature by Claire Elizabeth Ihlendorf Burke Committee in charge: Professor Ellen McCracken, Chair Professor Sara Poot-Herrera Professor Rita Raley June 2014 The dissertation of Claire Elizabeth Ihlendorf Burke is approved. ____________________________________________________________ Rita Raley ____________________________________________________________ Sara Poot-Herrera ____________________________________________________________ Ellen McCracken, Committee Chair June 2014 Reforming, Deforming, and Performing: Remixing Digital and Traditional Approaches to José Agustín’s La tumba Copyright © 2014 by Claire Elizabeth Ihlendorf Burke iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This dissertation has been a journey. Like any journey, there have been ups and downs, and I am lucky to have been surrounded by a great community— both academic and social—which offered me the guidance and support necessary to complete this project. Foremost, I would like to thank my committee chair, Professor Ellen McCracken. Professor McCracken supported me from the very beginning, when the first kernel of an idea resembled nothing of the resulting dissertation. She continued to offer support and guidance through all the stages and developments of this project, and I truly appreciate her knowledge and expertise. I would also like to thank my committee members: Professor Sara Poot- Herrera and Professor Rita Raley. Professor Poot-Herrera is an immense source of knowledge and has afforded me invaluable opportunities over the years both here, at UCSB, and abroad in Mexico to help enrich my research. Professor Raley has been an inspiration throughout the project, as well as a sounding board helping me to consider new perspectives. Each meeting with her would spur my productivity and renew my excitement for the project. For this I am eternally grateful. I would also like to thank the many friends I have met along the way: Nora, Ariel, Julio (the original members of the Isla Vista Social Club), Aina, Ludo (my fellow adventurers), Erik, Rahul, Seokwon, John, Ben, Anne, Po Shan, Steve, iv Jack, Lindsay, and Elan, all of whom have been there for me over the years and with whom I have enjoyed many hikes, bike rides, runs, camping trips, travel adventures, and the occasional beerfest. I’d like to give a special thanks to my friend and former roommate Monica, who for 3 years lived with the kitchen table in various states of disarray while I used it as my primary workspace. Lastly, I would like to thank my family. My parents, Marcia and Rich, my sister, Kelley, her husband Mark, and my niece Abby, all of whom have sent positive energy from afar and visited when they could (all the while promising that they would still have visited me should I have chosen a less beautiful place to study and work the last six years). I would also like to thank Olaf, the newest (furry) addition to our family. He joined in the final stretch of this dissertation, but his presence and happy tail wagging have been a source of much needed joy these last few months. Finally, to my husband, Peter, I dedicate this dissertation to you. It is a work that could not have been completed without you: without your support, your work as an editor, or your travel companionship this journey would not have been the same. Thank you. v VITA OF CLAIRE ELIZABETH IHLENDORF BURKE JUNE 2014 EDUCATION Bachelor of Science, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) May 2005 (magna cum laude) Master of Arts in History/Area Studies: Latin America, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech), May 2008 Doctor of Philosophy in Hispanic Literature, University of California, Santa Barbara, June 2014 EDUCATION EXPERIENCES ABROAD Summer in Mexico, Universidad Veracruzana, Xalapa, México 2007 Virginia Tech in Spain Summer Program, El Puerto de Santa María and Madrid, Spain 2004 PROFESSIONAL EMPLOYMENT 2013-2014 Teaching Associate, Department of Spanish and Portuguese, Spanish 102L, University of California, Santa Barbara 2008-2014: Teaching Assistant, Department of Spanish and Portuguese, Spanish 1-6, University of California, Santa Barbara 2011-2012: Research Assistant, Adviser Prof. Ellen McCracken, Department of Spanish and Portuguese, University of California, Santa Barbara. 2006-2008 Teaching Assistant, Department of Foreign Language and Literatures, Spanish 1105/6, 2105/6, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) PUBLICATION Ihlendorf, Claire. “Pequeña obsesión numerológica”. Revista Freeway (47; June 2008) 24-6. vi PRESENTATIONS, PROJECTS, AND PERFORMANCE “Twitterizing La tumba” Interactive project presented at the University of California, Santa Barbara “Mediating the Nonhuman” conference and Research Slam. March 2013 “Ludic Analytics” Collaborative blog created with Meaghan Skahan and Liz Shayne to showcase respective projects in the Digital Humanities: http://ludicanalytics.wordpress.com/ May 2012-Present. “Visualizing Character Relations in Agustín’s La tumba” poster presented at the University of California, Santa Barbara Transcriptions 5th annual Research Slam. May 2012. “La tumba: Two Modes of Analysis Deformance and Performance” at the Feria International de la Lectura Yucatán (FILEY). Mérida, Mexico. March 2012. “Presentado por sí mismo: José Agustín.” Paper presented at the XVII Congreso de Mexicanistas Juan Bruce-Novoa, University of California, Irvine. April 2011. Narrador, “¿Dónde está Nellie Campobello?” a Play written by Ariel Schindewolf, performed at the November 2008 UC Mexicanistas conference. “Give Me a Beat. Resistance in the Modern World: The Independent Hip Hop Edition.” Paper presented at the Mid-American Conference on Hispanic Literature, University of Kansas. October 2008. HONORS, AWARDS, AND SERVICE Outstanding Hispanic Literature PhD. Student 2013 Graduate Student Representative UC, Santa Barbara 2012-2013 Nominee, Outstanding Teaching Assistant, 2010UC, Santa Barbara December Wofsy Travel Grant, Received from the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, UC Santa Barbara 2009 vii FIELDS OF STUDY 20th century Mexico Digital Humanities Latin American Literature viii ABSTRACT Reforming Deforming, and Performing: Remixing Digital and Traditional Approaches to José Agustín’s La tumba by Claire Elizabeth Ihlendorf Burke This dissertation focuses on the novel La tumba, by Mexican author, José Agustín and explores this 1960s text through a digital lens. La tumba, written by Agustín when he was just seventeen, follows the life of a young, urban, upper- class protagonist who is disillusioned with his life and society in Mexico City in the beginning of the 1960s. What my re-reading of La tumba aspires to contribute to the existing critical landscape is summarized by three goals. Firstly, my reading demonstrates a new degree of investigation, examining previously undiscovered perspectives of this classic text. I base my analysis of a re-mapping of the text by combining new and traditional hermeneutics. Where previous scholars have limited their scope purely on linguistic elements of this text, I offer new outlets for analysis that extend beyond the existing readings. Through this work I explore the relationships in the text, specifically those between the female characters and the protagonist. Secondly, my work acts as a model for the study of other texts. Agustín has never been examined with a computer-assisted close reading and my dissertation acts as an example of what can be done for future study of other texts and further investigations of Agustín’s work. I explore case studies in which ix I used both deformances and performances of the text in a classroom setting to gauge the pedagogical implications of these methods. My research demonstrates the new perspectives and insights gained by using digital tools and visualizations, and while doing so, I demonstrate how these methodologies can be employed in the study of other texts. Lastly, this dissertation connects the fields of Digital Humanities and Hispanic literature. Recent trends in literary criticism, which were previously labeled as “non-normative” methods of study, are now considered acceptable. These methods include different types of computer-assisted or machine readings as well as textual visualizations. However, there is a lack of representation of using these digital tools in the field of Hispanic literature; this dissertation responds directly to this void. The framework for my textual experimentation comes from the concept of deformance by Jerome McGann and Lisa Samuels. For the purposes of my investigations, I extend this concept from poetry (as McGann and Samuels outline) to an entire novel. I combine my analysis of the deformances with traditional textual analysis/close reading scholarship. I also explore performances of the novel through social media platforms in order to consider the