BASTARDOS DE LA MODERNIDAD: EL BILDUNGSROMAN ROQUERO EN AMÉRICA LATINA By ALEXANDER TORRES A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2016 © 2016 Alexander Torres To Giovanna, Alejandro, and Irene. My life has never been the same since. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I want to thank first and foremost my wife Giovanna Rivero. Without you, my life and this dissertation would not have taken their present shape. You have made both of them worthwhile. Thank you to my thesis director, Dr. Efraín Barradas, for his disinterested support and for having recommended to me two very important books that helped me to define my research: Refried Elvis by Eric Zolov and La modernidad de lo barroco by Bolívar Echeverría. Echeverría has revolutionized my critical thought and how to think about Latin America and modernity, among other things. Though he is no longer with us, I thank him as well. Thank you to Dr. Reynaldo Jiménez (Emeritus) who exposed me to the foundations of the Bildungsroman genre and sparked my interest to work with the genre and dig deeper into it. I would also like to acknowledge the importance of the formal and critical feedback that Dr. Luis Álvarez-Castro and Dr. Tace Hedrick have given me as well as their support. Thank you to Dr. Gillian Lord for always being so supportive and understanding. Without her support, I would not be writing this today. I am forever grateful. And though she is no longer at the university, I must thank Dr. Carina González who introduced to me and others here the latest avant-garde trends in Latin American literature and theory. Thanks to her, a door that will never close has been opened. I would also like to acknowledge what I know today thanks to Dr. Andrés Avellaneda (Emeritus), Dr. Geraldine Nichols (Emeritus), Dr. Martín Sorbille, Dr. Alicia Genovese, and Dr. Ignacio Rodeño. Thank you to Richard Phillips (retired) and Paul Losch at the Latin American and Caribbean Collection. Aside from helping me squeeze in a couple of extra books beyond the borrowing limit, they always provided me with helpful information and friendly chats. I must also thank a former colleague of mine, Gerardo Muñoz, for being a source of influence in my formation as a literary critic. Thanks to my friends Antonio Cardentey Levin, Antonio Sajid López Méndez, Antonio Gil, Nancy Gil, and Herlinda Flores. Without them, I never would have 4 survived this. I, of course, cannot forget my family: Herminio Torres (who gave me the gift of salsa), Pura Torres, Christopher Torres (who gave me the gift of rock), and Veronica Petrucci. They are my first tribe and their love and support have always been unconditional. I must not forget my second tribe: Denise, Sebouh, Oleg, Josh, Dom, Mike Shelley, Dave Choi, Dave Amato, Mike Rivera, Frank, Mike Chunusoff, Tom, and last but not least, Adrian. You helped make rock ’n’ roll more than just a listening experience. I must also include a tribe between the first and second: my aunt Jenny and my uncle Papo. Thank you for believing in me. Finally, I want to thank my extraordinary stepchildren, Luis Alejandro Antúnez Rivero and Irene Antúnez Rivero. Since 2010, my triumphs are no longer only mine. 5 TABLE OF CONTENTS page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ...............................................................................................................4 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ..........................................................................................................9 ABSTRACT ...................................................................................................................................10 CHAPTER 1 LA MODERNIDAD Y EL BILDUNGSROMAN ...................................................................12 ¿Qué es el Bildungsroman? ....................................................................................................12 Bildungsroman y conciencia histórica .............................................................................12 Problemática del Bildungsroman como género internacional .........................................15 El concepto de Bildung ....................................................................................................21 Los padecimientos del joven Werther como modelo de Bildungsroman ........................23 Herencia filosófico-política del Bildungsroman .............................................................34 El colectivo implícito en el individuo .............................................................................38 Desvíos teóricos y prácticos en los albores de una nueva sociedad .......................................39 Repercusiones de la evolución de la idea del progreso ..........................................................46 América Latina y el progreso ..........................................................................................48 Cuatro ethe de la modernidad ..........................................................................................53 El concepto de Bildung ante la colonización del mundo de la vida .......................................54 2 EL ETHOS BARROCO Y EL ROCK ....................................................................................61 Aclaración metodológica ........................................................................................................61 Otra manera de ser moderno ...................................................................................................62 El ethos realista y la modernidad noroccidental versus la modernidad suroccidental y el ethos barroco .......................................................................................................................65 El rock en el mundo hispano: agente de “modernización”, símbolo de “modernidad”, la reacción a éstas y el Bildungsroman ...................................................................................75 La revancha de la juventud .....................................................................................................78 Ruptura y renovación de lo nacional en el contexto de la globalización neoliberal ...............81 3 EL ROCK EN MÉXICO: LA APARENTE RUPTURA DE UNA TRADICIÓN CULTURAL ...........................................................................................................................97 ¿Qué es lo mexicano? .............................................................................................................99 Involuntariamente político o cómo socavar un discurso nacionalista ..................................103 El cuerpo ........................................................................................................................104 El lenguaje .....................................................................................................................109 La música, la represión y la posibilidad de renacer .......................................................111 Rock, juventud y literatura mexicana ...................................................................................122 De perfil: Ser o no ser ...........................................................................................................122 6 Equis: entre la melancolía y la metamorfosis ................................................................125 En busca de los orígenes ................................................................................................128 In fraganti ......................................................................................................................129 El rock encuentra a X ....................................................................................................134 Un paréntesis con el primo Esteban ..............................................................................139 Tratando de encontrar una salida al laberinto de la soledad ..........................................140 ¿Vuelta del deseo igual a escape de la jaula? ................................................................141 Tijuana como mundo de la vida ............................................................................................144 Idos de la mente: estructura ...........................................................................................147 Los inicios .....................................................................................................................149 La aprobación de la vida ................................................................................................152 Proceso de transformación ............................................................................................153 “Baby, You’re a Rich Man” (John Lennon y Paul McCartney) ....................................154 Despedida ......................................................................................................................155 La vida después de los Relámpagos ..............................................................................156 Conclusión ............................................................................................................................159 4 EL ROCK ENTRE MODERNIDADES EN COLOMBIA: ¿POR QUÉ VÍA TRANSITAR? ......................................................................................................................162 Colombia: entre el ethos realista y la nación mestiza ...........................................................162 Cuestión a tratar