Irish Themes and Affinities in Contemporary Spanish American Narrative
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IRLANDÉS IN THE AMERICAS: IRISH THEMES AND AFFINITIES IN CONTEMPORARY SPANISH AMERICAN NARRATIVE A Dissertation Submitted to The Temple University Graduate Review Board In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY by Kathleen Cunniffe Peña May 2017 Examining Committee Members: Hortensia Morell, Advisory Chair, Department of Spanish and Portuguese Sergio R. Franco, Department of Spanish and Portuguese José Manuel Pereiro-Otero, Department of Spanish and Portuguese Daniel O’Hara, Department of English ii © 2017 by Kathleen Cunniffe Peña All Rights Reserved iii ABSTRACT Irlandés in the Americas: Irish Themes and Affinities in Contemporary Spanish American Narrative Kathleen Cunniffe Peña Doctor of Philosophy Temple University, 2017 Doctoral Committee Advisory Chair: Hortensia Morell This dissertation examines Irish characters, themes and literary affinities in modern and contemporary Spanish American literature (1944-2011), focusing on novels and short stories by eight authors: El otro Joyce by Roberto Ferro, “Dublín al sur” by Isidoro Blaisten, El sueño del celta by Mario Vargas Llosa, selections from Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges, Entre gringos y criollos and Quema su memoria by Eduardo Cormick, selected stories by Viviana O’Connell, La importancia de llamarse Daniel Santos by Luis Rafael Sánchez, and The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz. As the above list of authors suggests, Irish themes, characters, and intertextualities are present throughout the region’s Spanish-language literature, from some of its most celebrated writers like Borges and Vargas Llosa to contemporary authors such as O’Connell and Cormick. The prologue introduces the historical context of the Irish in Latin America as well as a theoretical framework to support the analyses in subsequent chapters. Each chapter is then dedicated to a different facet of the Irish-Latin American literary connection. Chapter 1 explores the translation of James Joyce into Spanish and the way in which contemporary Argentine writers dialogue with Joyce, problematizing the act of iv translation. Chapter 2 focuses on the ambiguous nature of Irish characters in Borges’s Ficciones and Vargas Llosa’s historical fiction El sueño del celta. Chapter 3 is dedicated to Latin American writers of direct Irish descendance and their expression of Irishness in the Americas. Finally, Chapter 4 analyzes echoes of Oscar Wilde in Caribbean Latino literature. The central question is how and why these Irish connections manifest themselves in contemporary Spanish American narrative. Ultimately, this dissertation argues that Irish characters and themes present a broader, more hybrid vision of Latin American identity, recognizing the multiplicity of languages, narratives, and selves. v DEDICATION For my friend and mentor Betsy Kiddy (1957-2014) Seu encorajamento e seu espírito sempre estarão comigo. vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Many people have helped me to imagine and complete this work during the length of my graduate studies. First and foremost, I thank my parents, Frank and Helen Cunniffe, for their love and support throughout the years, and for instilling in me a deep appreciation for my Irish heritage. My cousin Eileen Cunniffe provided me with reading suggestions on Irish culture and history in the early stages of the project, and my aunt, Sister Margaret Cunniffe, related Celtic myth to the stories of my paternal grandparents, immigrants from County Mayo. Oscar Wilde once wrote, “To live is the rarest thing in the world.” My husband, Michel, made sure that I continued to live, laugh, and enjoy life while working on my doctorate. This dissertation would not be possible without the guidance and support I received from my dissertation committee. I am grateful to Dr. Hortensia Morell, my dissertation advisor, for her faith in me, her timely responses, and her thoughtful feedback. Now that she has announced her retirement, I congratulate her on a long and fruitful career, and wish her the very best. Dr. Sergio R. Franco has been an inspiration since the day I visited the Department of Spanish and Portuguese as a prospective student, and his scholarship and intellect continue to be an example to follow. Dr. José Manuel Pereiro-Otero gave me a solid foundation in literary criticism. As graduate advisor, his door was always open; I might not have gotten to this point without his warm encouragement and his own example of scholarship. I am also thankful for the feedback of my outside reader, Dr. Daniel O’Hara of the English Department. My gratitude also goes out to my mentor and friend from Albright College, Dr. John Incledon, who has encouraged my continued studies since I was his undergraduate vii student, many years ago. He deserves special thanks for his close reading and thoughtful comments on my chapters, and for introducing me to theories on narrative psychology. As I began to research my topic, I was lucky to discover the Society for Irish Latin American Studies, whose archives and databases provided me with a wealth of sources and inspiration. Finally, many thanks to my colleagues in the Middle Atlantic Council of Latin American Studies, whose feedback and conversations at yearly conferences were both inspiring and energizing. viii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT……………………………….………………………………………….. iii DEDICATION…………………………….……………………………………………v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS………………………………………………………………vi PROLOGUE…………………………………………………………………………….ix CHAPTERS 1. SEARCHING FOR JOYCE: SECRETS, DOUBLES, AND TRANSLATION IN ISIDORO BLAISTEN’S “DUBLÍN AL SUR” AND ROBERTO FERRO’S EL OTRO JOYCE ……………………………….... 1 2. THE THEME OF THE TRAITOR AND THE HERO IN BORGES AND VARGAS LLOSA’S EL SUEÑO DEL CELTA………………………. 40 3. ENTRE GRINGOS Y CRIOLLOS: IRISH-ARGENTINE NARRATIVES………….. 73 4. SEXUAL AND POLITICAL AMBIGUITY: A READING OF LUIS RAFAEL SÁNCHEZ AND JUNOT DÍAZ THROUGH THE LENS OF OSCAR WILDE…..………………………………………………… 108 CONCLUSION……………………………………………………………………. 135 BIBLIOGRAPHY……………………………………………………………..……… 145 ix PROLOGUE IRLANDÉS IN THE AMERICAS This study examines Irish characters, themes and literary affinities in contemporary Spanish American literature (1944-2011), focusing on novels and short stories by eight authors: El otro Joyce by Roberto Ferro, “Dublín al sur” by Isidoro Blaisten, El sueño del celta by Mario Vargas Llosa, selections from Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges, Entre gringos y criollos and Quema su memoria by Eduardo Cormick, selected stories by Viviana O´Connell, La importancia de llamarse Daniel Santos by Luis Rafael Sánchez, and The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz. The intention here is not to carry out a comparative study between Irish and Spanish American literatures, but rather to explore how and why Irishness has served Spanish American narratives. Part of the recent trend in transatlantic studies, Irish culture in Latin America is beginning to receive attention both in popular culture and in academic circles. Most contributions to Irish Latin American Studies have focused on the histories of Irish migration to the region (Davis 2002, Murray 2006, Fernández 2007), presenting a more diverse picture of Latin America’s ethnic heritage. Literary studies have been few, and the majority has focused on English language writers in the Caribbean with ties to Ireland, such as Derek Walcott.i However, as the above list of authors suggests, Irish themes, characters, and intertextualities are present throughout the region’s Spanish- language literature, from some of its most celebrated writers like Borges and Vargas i The one exception to this scarcity is in studies related to the influence of James Joyce in Spanish American literature, which I will explore shortly in the prologue, and again in Chapter 1. x Llosa to contemporary authors such as O’Connell and Cormick. The purpose of this dissertation is to explore how and why these Irish connections manifest themselves in contemporary Spanish American narrative. As we shall see, these manifestations range from direct family ties, such as the writing of Irish Argentines, to literary relationships of correspondence and dialogue between Spanish American and Irish writers such as Joyce, Wilde, and Yeats. The writers included in this study represent, to a certain extent, the geography of Irish-Latin American connections. The Irish-Argentine axis is one of the strongest, as Argentina has been the locus of strong literary connections to Irish writers (Chapter 1), and is also home to Latin America’s largest Irish population (Chapter 3). Peru also received some Irish immigrants, but perhaps its most famous connection to Ireland is Irish patriot Roger Casement, whose journey through the Peruvian Amazon was recently fictionalized in Mario Vargas Llosa’s 2010 novel, El sueño del celta (Chapter 2). The Caribbean traces its Irish roots to various sources—the colonizing presence of Great Britain in the region, which also brought Irish settlers; the large concentration of gallegos, with their ancient Celtic roots; shared Atlantic plantation/Big House cultures; and literary influence, particularly from Oscar Wilde (Chapter 4). My interest in this topic stems from both my own Irish heritage and my academic interest in Spanish American literature. The 2010 publication of Vargas Llosa’s El sueño del celta drew more attention to Irish themes in Latin America, although a group of interdisciplinary scholars from Ireland and Argentina had already formed the Society of Irish Latin American Studies several years prior, in 2003. Although this academic