THE FUNCTION of PHYSICAL SPACE in the CUBAN NOVEL of the 1950S

THE FUNCTION OF PHYSICAL SPACE IN THE CUBAN NOVEL OF THE 1950s JILL INGHAM B.A. (Hons.) Spanish Studies, B.A. (Hons.) French & German Studies, Postgraduate Diploma in International Marketing. A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the University of Wolverhampton for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy This work or any part thereof has not previously been presented in any form to the University or to any other body whether for the purposes of assessment, publication or for any other purpose (unless otherwise indicated). Save for any express acknowledgments, references and/or bibliographies cited in the work, I confirm that the intellectual content of the work is the result of my own efforts and of no other person. The right of Jill Ingham to be identified as author of this work is asserted in accordance with ss. 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. At this date copyright is owned by the author. Signature……………………………………………….. Date……………………………………………………... ABSTRACT Long overshadowed by the subsequent 1960s ‘Boom’, Cuban novels of the 1950s have been confined to the backwater of literary analysis, often grouped together and dismissed as mere social realism like their Spanish counterparts, or described as inferior. The spatial has been similarly overlooked in literary analysis in favour of a focus on stylistic experimentation, narrative structure, characterisation and the temporal. More recently, however, theorists such as Mitchell (1980) and (1989), and Wegner (2002), have argued that literature has become increasingly spatial, and that a greater focus on spatial analysis is needed. Furthermore, conceptions of space in literature have moved from the static notion of ‘setting’ and identification within a specific location and time, to embrace the function of actual physical spaces, whether exterior or interior, public or private, embedded or liminal, juxtaposed, dynamic, static or fluid. One Cuban novel of the 1950s has already been discussed from a spatial perspective - El acoso (1956) by Alejo Carpentier. Using the two previous studies on spatiality in this novel as a starting point (Stanton [1993] and Vásquez [1996]), this analysis expands on the conclusions made by these studies, stressing the importance of water imagery, and demonstrating that spaces in El acoso are essentially dynamic and female-gendered, arguing that the crisis experienced by the acosado is actually one of masculine identity. Building on the expanded analysis of space in El acoso, three lesser-known Cuban novels of the 1950s are then considered from the perspective of space: Los Valedontes (1953) by Alcides Iznaga, Romelia Vargas (1952) by Surama Ferrer, and La trampa (1956) by Enrique Serpa. The socio-economic, political and cultural backcloth for the novels is set out, before an investigation into theories of space, both literary and non-literary, is conducted. Spaces in Los Valedontes reveal that in the rural domain, sexual identities are stable with conventional masculine hegemony virtually uncontested. Spaces in Romelia Vargas demonstrate that in the urban domain, female sexual identity, albeit historically suppressed, triumphs over the traditionally dominant male norm, whilst a study of spaces in La trampa demonstrates that not only are gangsters, policemen and homosexuals shown to occupy particularly challenged positions, but also that constructions of mainstream Cuban masculinity are under threat. The conclusion compares the function of spaces across all four novels, adding new insights into existing theories of literary space where appropriate. i This thesis, therefore, tests the hypothesis that the manipulation of space in these novels constitutes material worthy of study, showing that spaces are dynamic and challenging when female-gendered, and constituting a threat to the hegemony exerted by traditional models of masculinity. Spaces in these novels demonstrate how the early part of the 1950s was a period in which an unpredictable array of contested positions was exposed through cultural, racial, gender and sexual stereotypes, leaving conventional norms of identity open to question. ii CONTENTS ABSTRACT ………. …………………………………… i CONTENTS …………………………………………… iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS …………………………………………… iv PREFACE …………………………………………… vi INTRODUCTION …………………………………………… 1 CHAPTER 1: The socio-economic, political and cultural context of Cuba in the 1950s 23 CHAPTER 2: Theorising literary space …………………………………….……… 52 CHAPTER 3: El acoso (1956) by Alejo Carpentier ………………………..… 75 CHAPTER 4: Los Valedontes (1953) by Alcides Iznaga …………………………. 103 CHAPTER 5: Romelia Vargas (1952) by Surama Ferrer ………………………… 122 CHAPTER 6: La trampa (1956) by Enrique Serpa …………………………. 148 CONCLUSION …..……………………………………….. 176 BIBLIOGRAPHY …………………………………………… 188 APPENDIX A. From Site of Paralysis to Site of Transformation : the Vargas House as Threshold for Personal, Social and National Change in the Cuban Novel Romelia Vargas (1952) ….…………………….. 204 B. Gangsters, Gays and Policemen : Arrested Masculinity in the Cuban Novel Fifty Years Ago ……………………... 214 iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The inspiration for this thesis was provided by the stimulating teaching of Professor Tony Kapcia and Dr. Par Kumaraswami at the University of Wolverhampton during the 1990s. They ignited my interest in the representation of the socio-political conditions of Hispanic countries in their literatures, and in literary production under dictatorships. Throughout my research I have benefited from an outstanding supervisory team: Professors Jean Gilkison, Tony Kapcia and Catherine Davies have provided support and advice beyond the call of duty, in terms of advice over funding, teaching and career development. I have been fortunate to be able to draw upon the resources of the Forum for the Study of Cuba firstly at the University of Wolverhampton, and subsequently at the University of Nottingham, not only in terms of physical resources, but also in terms of the conferences and seminars run by the Forum at both institutions. I am indebted to the School of HLSS and HAGRI at the University of Wolverhampton for providing financial support, allowing me to attend conferences and study days up and down the UK. I thank Ann Edwards at the Harrison Learning Centre for her advice on Cuban collections in the USA during the early period of my research, and more recently Wendy Bastable, Senior Academic Research Librarian, and her staff for the cheerful support and interest they have always shown in my work. Thanks also to staff at other university libraries: Manchester, Birmingham, Warwick and the British Library. I cannot underestimate the importance of the postgraduate community at the University of Wolverhampton in the day-to-day progress of this PhD. In particular I warmly thank fellow postgraduates Anne Luke and Julia Speht for their encouragement, advice and good humour, and for sharing the vicissitudes of my PhD research. I also thank Karin Dannehl, Olga Kozlovska, Aidan Byrne and Jarek Kyncl for enriching the research community, and staff from other departments who have always maintained an interest in my research: Paul Henderson, Sarah Capitanio, Eleanor Andrews, Stella Hockenhull, Tom Dickins and Gerry Carlin. Thanks are also due to Ron Nield, Mark Scholes and Margaret Ponsonby for providing me with teaching opportunities. I am indebted to Ana Martiarena, formerly at Wolverhampton, and more recently to Raúl Marchena of Manchester University, for helping to elucidate some of the Cuban Spanish in my selected texts. iv My research trip to Cuba was a pivotal and enriching experience, for the success of which I have to thank Professor Tony Kapcia for his excellent briefing, Hilda Torres and her family for their warm hospitality in Havana, and the staff at the Biblioteca Nacional and the Instituto de Literatura y Lingüística, especially Sergio Chaple. I also thank Rogelio Rodríguez Coronel, former Dean of the Facultad de Artes y Letras, and the three eminent writers who spared time to talk to me about the pre-revolutionary writing climate: Lisandro Otero, Antón Arrufat, and César López. I have also benefited throughout the PhD from membership of three organizations: AHGBI, SLAS and WISPS. I thank the executive of SLAS for providing me with a travel grant for my research trip to Cuba, and the AHGBI for two conference bursaries, in particular to attend their 50th Anniversary Conference in Valencia. I thank the executive of WISPS for their professional support, for the opportunity to attend their many useful and varied study days, and for the chance to serve as website administrator and postgraduate representative on the executive committee. I particularly thank Par Kumaraswami for her friendship and encouragement during my academic career. This PhD has been achieved over a long journey, intellectually, personally and financially, spanning my children’s childhood years and four major house moves. My gratitude goes to those non-academic friends whose faith in my ability to complete the PhD has never wavered: to the late Veronica Skidmore and the intrepid Peter Ford, to all my proofreaders, and to those friends in Albrighton, Shropshire, who provided childcare at critical times: Sue Nelson, Lynn Aucott, Bev Bishton, Beth Smailes and Josie Fisher. I also thank Frank Manley, who has always maintained an interest in the various phases of the project, and who has helped me overcome so much. Most of all, none of this would have been at all possible without the support, patience, unwavering faith, and

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