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Familiar Patterns: Rejection and Fleeing in the Narrative of the Mcondo Generation

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Familiar Patterns: Rejection and Fleeing in the Narrative of the Mcondo Generation Familiar Patterns: Rejection and Fleeing in the Narrative of the McOndo Generation Item Type Electronic Dissertation; text; text Authors Lorenz, Teresa Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 25/09/2021 08:04:35 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/145462 FAMILIAR PATTERNS: REJECTION AND FLEEING IN THE NARRATIVE OF THE MCONDO GENERATION by Teresa Marie Lorenz _________________________ Copyright © Teresa Marie Lorenz 2011 A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the DEPARTMENT OF SPANISH AND PORTUGUESE In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY WITH A MAJOR IN SPANISH In the Graduate College THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA 2011 2 THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA GRADUATE COLLEGE As members of the Dissertation Committee, we certify that we have read the dissertation prepared by Teresa Marie Lorenz entitled Familiar Patterns: Rejection and Fleeing in the Narrative of the McOndo Generation and recommended that it be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy ______________________________________________________ Date: April 21, 2011 Dr. Lanin A. Gyurko ______________________________________________________ Date: April 21, 2011 Dr. Malcolm A. Compitello ______________________________________________________ Date: April 21, 2011 Dr. Eliud Chuffe Final approval and acceptance of this dissertation is contingent upon the candidate‘s submission of the final copies of the dissertation to the Graduate College. I hereby certify that I have read this dissertation prepared under my direction and recommend that it be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement. ______________________________________________________ Date: April 21, 2011 Dissertation Director: Dr. Lanin A. Gyurko 3 STATEMENT BY AUTHOR This dissertation has been submitted in partial fulfillment of requirements for an advanced degree at the University of Arizona and is deposited in the University Library to be made available to borrowers under rules of the Library. Brief quotations from this dissertation are allowable without special permission, provided that accurate acknowledgement of source is made. Requests for permission for extended quotation from or reproduction of this manuscript in whole or in part may be granted by the copyright holder. SIGNED: Teresa M. Lorenz 4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to sincerely thank Dr. Lanin Gyurko, my dissertation committee director, for his willingness to oversee this project, for his insight and guidance, and for his dedication to me as a student. I would also like to thank my additional committee members, Dr. Malcolm Compitello and Dr. Eliud Chuffe, whose constant support encouraged me every step of the way. I would like to thank my family—my mother, Linda, my father, Denny, and my sister, Jen, whose constant love and support have always helped me to push myself to my fullest potential. The loving family, wonderful education and unforgettable opportunities that they have provided for me has made quite a positive impact on my life, something that I will forever cherish. I would also like to thank Gilbert for his support and patience with me during my career as a graduate student. I truly appreciate his encouragement to take breaks from my work and to relax, and likewise, his understanding when I refused to do so. And lastly, I would like to thank Yadira for her complete selflessness, her sense of wisdom and her helpful guidance. 5 DEDICATION To Mary and Howard 6 TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ……………………………………………………………………..………. 8 INTRODUCTON ……………………………………………………………...…….…. 10 CHAPTER ONE: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK …………………………………. 21 1. Domestic Space ………………………………………………………………… 21 2. Theories on Gender and Ego Formation …………………………………..…… 24 3. The Role of Family in Identity Formation …………………………………..…. 46 4. Hybridism and Borders ………………….……………………………….….…. 53 CHAPTER TWO: THE CIRCLE OF DISTRUST: A GLANCE INTO THE FAMILIAR ATMOSHERE OF ALBERTO FUGUET‘S MALA ONDA……………………….…… 60 1. Reality and North American Influence ……………………………………..….. 62 2. Examining Relationships ………………………………………………………. 70 3. Masculinity and Gender Issues ……………………………………………..….. 83 4. Religion and Family Honor ………………………………………………….… 89 5. Matías‘ Flight ……………………………………………………………….… 102 6. Acceptance and Resolution ………………………………………………….... 109 CHAPTER THREE: WHAT DID I DO TO DESERVE THIS LIFE? ABANDONMENT AND FLEEING IN SERGIO GÓMEZ‘S VIDAS EJEMPLARES ………………....…. 118 1. Familiar Dysfunction ……………………………………………………….… 120 2. Abandonment……………………………………………………………...…... 129 3. Relationships and Commitment ………………………………………………. 148 4. Gender and Power Struggle …………………………………………………... 159 5. Karen and Pedro Pablo‘s Flights …………………………………………….... 163 6. Acceptance and Resolution …………………………………………………… 167 CHAPTER FOUR: MY FAMILY IS THE CULPRIT: FLEEING IN JAIME BAYLY‘S FUE AYER Y NO ME ACUERDO ……………………………………………..……... 178 1. Oedipus Complex, Primary Bisexuality and Persecutory Paranoia…………… 180 2. Neurosis and the Damaged Ego …………………………………………..……186 3. Nature vs. Nurture …………………………………………………………….. 190 4. Negative Parenting and Relationship Issues ……………………………….…. 196 5. Gabriel‘s Flight …………………………………………………….…………. 208 6. Social Status ………………………………………………………...……...…. 217 7. The ―McOndo Veil‖ …………………………………………………….…….. 221 8. Acceptance and Resolution …………………………………………………… 224 CONCLUSIONS ……………………………………………………………..………. 229 7 TABLE OF CONTENTS- Continued APPENDIX A: CAUSES FOR FLEEING IN MALA ONDA, VIDAS EJEMPLARES, AND FUE AYER Y NO ME ACUERDO ……………………………………………... 242 REFERENCES ………………………………………………………………….……. 243 8 ABSTRACT The purpose of this dissertation is to provide a new means of examining the way in which the domestic space influences the protagonists of the three following novels written by McOndo authors: Mala onda by Alberto Fuguet, Vidas ejemplares by Sergio Gómez and Fue ayer y no me acuerdo by Jaime Bayly. Until now little research has been conducted on the works of the McOndo generation with reference to the protagonists‘ typically dysfunctional familiar situations. Delving deeper into their sparsely related and virtually untold childhoods, this dissertation seeks to find the core of the protagonists‘ problems and explains how their childhood experiences have led to their near total destruction as adolescents and young adults. The narrative analysis is supported with the theoretical framework of Judith Butler, Sigmund Freud and Melanie Klein, whose scholarly contributions link gender, psychoanalysis and early childhood development to the protagonists‘ search for individual identity. The protagonists represented within the pages of these narratives live in what the McOndo authors refer to as the true reality of Latin America during the last three decades of the twentieth century. This globalized and virtual reality is anything but the exotic or magical space represented by Gabriel García Márquez‘s fictional city Macondo in Cien años de soledad. Instead, the backdrops of these narratives are crime-ridden (sub)urban spaces which are seemingly the spaces from which the protagonists long to flee. These adolescents and young adults who are troubled by familiar expectations, rejection and abandonment have another agenda in mind, however, and that is to escape from that which has caused the gravest threat to their wellbeing: their family. In an attempt to recuperate the missing link to happiness, the 9 protagonists are faced with a challenge: whether or not they pardon their family. My study of psychoanalysis and gender formation leads to the conclusion that the unhealthy relationships between the protagonists and their parents result from the emotional loss of the parent(s) during early childhood. The physical loss of the parent(s) during adolescence or early adulthood is what leads the protagonist to flee, but is also what ironically leads them to forgiveness. 10 INTRODUCTION Family dynamics, being a well-studied topic in literature, anthropology and education throughout centuries does not cease to be an integral theme of much narrative still today. From the storyline presented in the drawing of the Mayan Codices, to the ever-so-renowned Cien años de soledad (1967) by Gabriel García Márquez, and La casa de los espíritus (1982) by Isabel Allende, the family has not only been a popular theme in Latin American literature but has also maintained its status as one of most important components of Latin American culture. The critic Denis Jones has even gone as far as to say every story inescapably narrates the family1. Throughout centuries, the traditional nuclear family in Latin American literature has represented religious values, social expectations and its part in national identity, but with more recent generations of authors who wrote at the turn of the century, these values, expectations and identities have been more challenged in light of postmodern fragmentation, liberalism and globalization. Together with biological factors, the way that the family functions in a specific space and time, the education that the parents provide their children during early childhood, the capacity to which the family can or is willing to provide love and support, all determine the extent to which it shapes individual identity.
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