The Grotesque Body and the Reconfiguration of Nation in Mexican Historiographic Metafiction
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Bodies of Evidence: e Grotesque Body and the Reconfiguration of Nation in Mexican Historiographic Metafiction by Kyle James Matthews B.S.O.F., Indiana University, 2003 A.M., Brown University, 2008 Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Hispanic Studies at Brown University Providence, Rhode Island May 2013 © Copyright 2010 – 2013 by Kyle James Matthews is dissertation by Kyle James Matthews is accepted in its present form by the Department of Hispanic Studies as satisfying the dissertation requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Date____________________ __________________________________ Julio Ortega, Director Recommended to the Graduate Council Date____________________ __________________________________ Aldo Mazzucchelli, Reader Date____________________ __________________________________ Rafael Olea Franco, Reader Approved by the Graduate Council Date____________________ __________________________________ Peter M. Weber, Dean of the Graduate School iii CURRICULUM VITAE Kyle James Matthews was born in Cheshire, CT in 1981. He graduated with high honors from the Indiana University School of Music with a Bachelor of Science degree in Music and an Outside Field (Spanish) in 2003 after writing a thesis titled “Resonances of Faulkner in La muerte de Artemio Cruz.” He began at Brown University’s Department of His- panic Studies in 2005 and received his Master’s Degree in 2008; the title of his major paper was “El realismo grotesco en Rayuela.” After receiving a competitive dissertation fellowship, Kyle began work on this dissertation in 2009 and completed it in November 2012. Kyle has taught Spanish at Brown University’s Department of Hispanic Studies and the College of the Holy Cross’s Department of Spanish. Since 2012 he has held a position as Visiting Assistant Professor of Spanish in the Department of Languages and Literatures at the State University of New York College at Geneseo. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank the following people and institutions, each of whom have con- tributed to the production of this dissertation in countless ways. I first owe a debt of grati- tude to my dissertation committee: to Julio Ortega for his boundless erudition, his always valuable guidance, and his unflagging willingness to allow me to sit in his office and talk through my ideas; to Aldo Mazzucchelli for his always pertinent and thought-provoking comments; and to Rafael Olea Franco for his decidedly practical and therefore invaluable as- sistance from afar. Also eminently deserving of mention are Ignacio Solares and Jorge Volpi, who were willing to speak with me about my project and about their novels at the Transatlantic Studies Conference at Brown University in 2010. I would also like to thank the Brown University Graduate School and Department of Hispanic Studies, without whom the production of this document would have been impossi- ble. In particular, I wish to acknowledge the many friends and colleagues at Brown who con- tributed to this dissertation: Suzanne Stewart-Steinberg, for teaching me to read philosophy and criticism, and for her constructive opinions on the connection between the grotesque and the Lacanian real; Daniella Wittern Bush and Polina Decker, the two who remained until the end; María Pizarro Prada and David Colbert, without whom I may never have stopped reading and started to write; Felipe Valencia, whose friendship, erudition, and peren- nial willingness to talk shop helped sustain me through many years and many thousands of v words; Mercedes Vaquero for her invaluable guidance navigating the vicissitudes of graduate school; and Stephanie Merrim for her advice and encouragement in the beginning phases of the dissertation, and for reminding me how to write in English. I extend my thanks as well to Gonzalo Celorio, whose comment that Mexico found its identity at the precise moment when it no longer mattered provoked much anxiety, but ultimately led to a sturdier and more well-reasoned theoretical framework. To the faculty in the Department of Spanish at the College of the Holy Cross, and my present colleagues and students at SUNY-Geneseo for their support and assistance in the final stages of my writing. To Rachel Leow, for her wisdom and stalwart encouragement, and one decisive con- versation while walking through the streets of Cambridge. Finally, I would not have been able to finish my studies or my dissertation without the endless support and encouragement of my family, who never ceased to humor me and lis- ten as I bounced ideas off of them. To my parents, whose support has been impeccable throughout. To my brother-in-law Andrew, for conversations on philosophy (and the oc- casional editorial eye); to my father-in-law, for conversations on the mechanics of writing. Most especially I would like to thank my wife Laura for her unabating love and patience. And lastly to my beautiful boy Elan, who obligingly waited until the end of Chapter 3 to be born. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction ........................................................................................................................1 Toward a Genealogy of the Body in Mexican Historical Literature ............................1 New Historical Novel?.............................................................................................11 Status of the Question.............................................................................................16 Grotesque Bodies ....................................................................................................19 Chapter 1. “Grotesqueing” the Empire: Degradation and Renewal in Fernando del Paso’s Noticias del Imperio....................................................................26 Reading Noticias del Imperio ....................................................................................29 History and fiction......................................................................................31 Carlota’s delirium ........................................................................................40 Critique of imperialism ...............................................................................47 e Grotesque Body in Noticias del Imperio.............................................................51 Bodies in Noticias del Imperio ..................................................................................54 “[Y] yo lo que hago lo hago con la conciencia limpia” .................................60 “Al que me pague mejor, se la enseño” .........................................................68 “Las cosas se esconden en carne propia”.......................................................74 “Grotesque-ing” Maximiliano .................................................................................81 “e second time as low farce” ....................................................................83 “¿Pero no será de verdad estéril…?” .............................................................85 “Ahora me permitiré examinar el pasaje rectal de Su Majestad”....................88 e first execution.......................................................................................91 Maximiliano’s Imaginary Body ................................................................................98 Inventing Maximiliano................................................................................99 e second execution ................................................................................107 Carlota’s Creative Body and the Birth of Mexico ...................................................110 “Con tu lengua y con tus ojos, tú y yo juntos vamos a inventar de nuevo la historia”.................................................................................113 “Yo soy Mamá Carlota” .............................................................................117 Conclusion............................................................................................................122 vii Chapter 2. “Pero no te olvides que tu cuerpo está ahí”: e Gazing Body of Francisco Madero and the Breakdown of Identity in Ignacio Solares’s Madero, el otro...........................................................................................................124 Ignacio Solares, Novelist of the Mexican Revolution .............................................127 Madero’s Empty Body ...........................................................................................131 Desire and the Gaze ..............................................................................................137 Madero’s Body Cannot See; It Can Only Gaze ......................................................149 Madero in the Mirror Stage...................................................................................158 A Contingent Accident .........................................................................................167 Why Madero? .......................................................................................................174 Conclusion............................................................................................................178 Chapter 3. Bodies of Evidence: Lack and Excess in Two 21st-Century Mexican Historical Novels.........................................................................................180 e Corpse as Lack in Jorge Volpi’s La paz de los sepulcros......................................182 Empty(ing) Bodies ....................................................................................183