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Imagining China in Contemporary Latin American Literature IMAGINING CHINA IN CONTEMPORARY LATIN AMERICAN LITERATURE A thesis submitted to The University of Manchester for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Humanities 2017 MARIA MONTT STRABUCCHI SCHOOL OF ARTS, LANGUAGES AND CULTURES Table of Contents Abstract ........................................................................................................................ 3 Declaration ................................................................................................................... 4 Copyright Statement .................................................................................................... 5 Acknowledgements ...................................................................................................... 6 Introduction .................................................................................................................. 7 Chapter One: Recreations of China in César Aira’s Una novela china (1987), Alberto Laiseca’s La mujer en la Muralla (1990) and Mario Bellatin’s La escuela del dolor humano de Sechuán (2001, 2005) .............................................................. 54 Chapter Two: Rediscovering Chinese Latin American Communities and barrios chinos in Un chino en bicicleta (2007) by Ariel Magnus, El mármol (2011) by César Aira and Verde Shanghai (2011) by Cristina Rivera Garza ..................................... 125 Chapter Three: Revisiting Identity and Community through Travel in Santiago Gamboa’s Los impostores (2002) and Hotel Pekín (2008) and Ximena Sánchez Echenique’s El ombligo del dragón (2007) ............................................................. 189 Conclusion ............................................................................................................... 255 Bibliography ............................................................................................................. 275 Word count: 81,917 words 2 Abstract Since the late 1980s, there has been a steady production of Latin American narrative fiction in Spanish concerning China and the Chinese. Despite the work written about China and its relation to Latin America, no comprehensive examination of the representation of China in literature has been produced thus far. This thesis analyses nine novels in which China is the main theme, exploring how China has been represented in Latin American narrative fiction in recent decades. Using ‘China’ as a multidimensional term informed by Sara Ahmed’s understanding of ‘strangerness’ (2000), this thesis first explores how the novels studied here both highlight and undermine assumptions about China that have long shaped Latin America’s understanding of ‘China’. Secondly, using theories of the fetish, it shows ‘China’ to be a kind of literary/imaginary ‘third’ term which reframes Latin American discourses of alterity. On one level, it is argued that these texts play with the way that ‘China’ stands in as a wandering signifier and as a metonym for Asia, a gesture that essentialises it as an unchanging other. On another level, it argues that the novels’ employment of ‘China’ resists essentialist constructions of Latin American identity. ‘China’ is thus shown here to be a symbolic figure in Latin America, serving as a concept through which criticism of the construction of fetishised otherness becomes possible, as well as criticism of the exclusion inherent in essentialist discourses of identity, such as those contained in mestizaje. These discourses of mestizaje have traditionally emphasised racial and cultural mixture, and have excluded the Chinese from discourses of Latin American identity. As a result, ‘China’ is used here to deconstruct bound identities, interrupting discourses of otherness within Latin America. From this perspective, it is argued that these novels tend to gesture towards an understanding of identity as ‘being-with’, and community as inoperative, as developed by Jean-Luc Nancy (1991, 2000), whilst taking a cosmopolitan stance, as developed by Berthold Schoene (2011). The novels have been divided between those that set their stories in China, such as César Aira’s Una novela china (1987); those that explore Chinese communities in Latin America, such as Ariel Magnus’ Un chino en bicicleta (2007); and those that focus on Latin American travel to China, such as Ximena Sánchez Echenique’s El ombligo del dragón (2007). Indebted to Ahmed’s, Nancy’s and Schoene’s theoretical perspectives, Chapter 1 explores how ‘China’, as both a physical space and a discursive context, foregrounds negotiations of power in the histories of both China and Latin America. Chapter 2 studies how ‘China’ is used to recall and interrogate the notion of an indistinct ‘oriental’. The final chapter seeks to understand the ways in which the novels articulate travel to China as a means of challenging Eurocentric structures and ‘national’ epistemologies. Ultimately, by disclosing the complex operations through which ‘China’ is represented in Latin American literary discourses, this study explores possible further reconfigurations of Latin American notions of identity and community as non-essentialist and in constant development. 3 Declaration I declare that no portion of the work referred to in the thesis has been submitted in support of an application for another degree or qualification of this or any other university or other institute of learning. 4 Copyright Statement i. The author of this thesis (including any appendices and/or schedules to this thesis) owns certain copyright or related rights in it (the “Copyright”) and s/he has given The University of Manchester certain rights to use such Copyright, including for administrative purposes. ii. Copies of this thesis, either in full or in extracts and whether in hard or electronic copy, may be made only in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (as amended) and regulations issued under it or, where appropriate, in accordance with licensing agreements which the University has from time to time. This page must form part of any such copies made. iii. The ownership of certain Copyright, patents, designs, trademarks and other intellectual property (the “Intellectual Property”) and any reproductions of copyright works in the thesis, for example graphs and tables (“Reproductions”), which may be described in this thesis, may not be owned by the author and may be owned by third parties. Such Intellectual Property and Reproductions cannot and must not be made available for use without the prior written permission of the owner(s) of the relevant Intellectual Property and/or Reproductions. iv. Further information on the conditions under which disclosure, publication and commercialisation of this thesis, the Copyright and any Intellectual Property and/or Reproductions described in it may take place is available in the University IP Policy (see http://documents.manchester.ac.uk/DocuInfo.aspx?DocID=24420), in any relevant Thesis restriction declarations deposited in the University Library, The University Library’s regulations (see http://www.library.manchester.ac.uk/about/regulations/) and in The University’s policy on Presentation of Theses. 5 Acknowledgements This project is indebted to the help and support of many. First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest thanks to Professor Hilary Owen for her invaluable patience, encouragement, immense knowledge and expert guidance; I will be forever grateful. I would also like to thank Dr James Scorer for his continuous support, and insightful and stimulating comments; Dr Heather Inwood and Dr Esther Gómez- Sierra for their generous disposition and recommendations; and Prof Karl Posso for his contribution to the early stage of this thesis. I would like to thank all members of the Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American Studies department and the Graduate School. I am grateful to the Becas Chile programme of the Government of Chile and the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile for generously funding this research project. Thanks to Bárbara Silva, Fernando Purcell, Ximena Illanes, Olaya Sanfuentes, Patricio Bernedo, Pablo Whipple, Joaquín Fermandois, Susana Gazmuri, Marisol Vidal, Daniela Serra, Claudio Rolle, María José Cot, Alfredo Riquelme, Fernando Alvarado, Johannes Rehner and Agustín Letelier for their continuous friendship and encouragement. Thanks to John and Evelien; and to Wren Strabucchi for his good questions. Thanks to Magdalena Besser, Martin Cassassus, Catalina Carrasco, Ana Allamand, Gabriela Zapata, Fernando Pérez, Mariana Perry, Patricia Palma, Darinka Radovic, Anita Morales, Harriet Lamb, Daphné Richet-Cooper, Jessica Coatesworth, Nicola Tomlinson, Jan Gryta, Eleanor Jones, Mary Farrelly, Luke Kelly, Joanne Shortt Butler, Kaya Davies Hayon and Joseph Twist, for their advice and friendship along the way. Thanks to my family, especially my parents and Anne, Sara, Pepe, Thomas and Antonia, for their good humour, calls and visits. The list continues; I am unable to mention here all of those who have helped me along the way. I am also unable to put into words how grateful I am to Joaquín and Lucía for their unwavering support and love. I owe them everything. I dedicate this thesis to my mother. 6 Introduction The People’s Republic of China (PRC) and Latin America have engaged in a qualitatively and quantitatively new relationship since the 1990s, preceded by the country’s reforms in the 1980s and its rapid integration into the world market (Ellis 2009, 2014; Dussel Peters 2016). Since then, the presence of China
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