Copyright by Brian Lee Price, Jr. 2007 The Dissertation Committee for Brian Lee Price, Jr. certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: Cult of Defeat: Narratives of Failure in Mexico’s Historical Novel Committee: Nicolas Shumway, Supervisor César A. Salgado Charles Rossman Héctor Domínguez-Rubalcava Sara Poot-Herrera Cult of Defeat: Narratives of Failure in Mexico’s Historical Novel by Brian Lee Price, Jr., B.A.; M.A. Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin May 2007 Dedication I dedicate this dissertation to my parents: Cecily, Brian, and Suzanne Price; and to my sweet wife, Janine. Acknowledgements The following individuals and institutions aided me in completing this dissertation, and I am deeply grateful for their contributions. First, I owe a debt of gratitude to my dissertation committee: to Nicolas Shumway, my committee chair, for his unflagging support and mentoring, his willingness to wade through endless reams of paper, and his friendship; to César Salgado, whose classes challenged me to think more deeply and whose example of scholarship I hope to emulate; to Charles Rossman, for our informal discussions on Modernism and his unintentional lessons on professionalism; to Héctor Domínguez-Rubalcava, whose eleventh-hour comments and observations have immeasurably improved this study; and to Sara Poot-Herrera, for her kindness, her willingness to work with me, and for her invaluable feedback throughout many years of fortuitous encounters. The contributions of the following friends and colleagues should not go unnoticed: University of Texas at Austin professors Naomi Lindstrom, Jonathon Brown, Vance Holloway, and John Trimble; University of California at Davis professor Leopoldo Bernucci; University of Texas at Austin staff members Michael Hironymous and Laura Rodríguez; Brigham Young University professors Russell Cluff and Howard Quackenbush; fellow University of Texas at Austin graduate students and friends Cristina Carrasco, Anna Nogar, Oswaldo Zavala, Sara Pollack, Nicolas Poppe, Ryan Schmitz, v Garrett Oleen, and Rob Martinsen; Mexican friends Samuel Gordon, José Ramón Ruisánchez Serra, Fernando García, Miguel Rodríguez Lozano, Elena Urrutia, Álvaro Enrigue, and Guillermo Samperio; and the Office of Graduate Studies, Teresa Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies, the Mexican Center at the University of Texas at Austin, and the Colegio de México, for their abundant financial and academic support during my studies. And finally, I would not have been able to complete my studies or this dissertation without the love and support of my family. I thank my parents, Cecily, and Brian and Suzanne Price, for their wisdom, teachings, encouragement, and support. I would also like to recognize the help of my father-in-law, Thomas Draper. Despite having found his niche in the social sciences, he is a humanist at heart and I have greatly benefited from working through sticky ideas with him. And most importantly, I offer my love and thanks to my wife Janine, who been a constant support of joy, laughs, encouragement, and humor. Without her, this would not have been possible. vi Cult of Defeat: Narratives of Failure in Mexico’s Historical Novel Publication No._____________ Brian Lee Price, Jr., PhD The University of Texas at Austin, 2007 Supervisor: Nicolas Shumway Failure haunts Mexico’s historical imagination. Mexican intellectuals express a negative view of their country’s history—especially vis-à-vis its nineteenth-century founding—and this negativity spills over into contemporary political and social discourse. To be sure, they have much to lament about the nineteenth century: multiple foreign invasions, rampant political instability and cronyism, excessive foreign debt, heavy-handed military leaders, and lest we forget, the loss of half the national territory. My dissertation analyzes narratives of failure in five historical novels, written between 1982 and 2005: Jorge Ibargüengoitia’s Los pasos de López (1982), Rosa Beltrán’s La corte de los ilusos (1995), Ignacio Solares’ La invasión (2005), Fernando del Paso’s Noticias del imperio (1987), and Enrique Serna’s El seductor de la patria (1999). I define narratives of failure as discursive strategies that highlight—and often poeticize—perceived cultural, political, and social shortcomings. They are historical arguments that attempt to explain, justify, embellish, expose, or reinterpret contemporary problems as the atavistic result of prior shortcomings. They mediate between lofty aspirations and unsatisfied goals. They seek to ameliorate the psychological trauma vii resulting from loss. And despite apparent pessimism, these narratives tend to be fiercely nationalistic. It might be said that the transmission of failure narratives from one generation of intellectuals to the next has concretized their existence. Once in place, narratives of failure inform debates about nationhood, democracy, stability, and autonomy. Inertia propels these ideas forward. Despite the prevalence of these narratives in most genres, nowhere does failure manifest itself more clearly than in historical novels that recreate the nineteenth century. Furthermore these narratives are intimately tied up with the nation’s guiding fictions. As authors employ narratives of failure, they reinterpret the nation’s foundational moments. At times this serves to challenge official stories and dogmas or to liberate enduring symbols for reinterpretation. Narratives of failure challenge citizens to rethink their nation, their history, and themselves. viii Table of Contents Introduction: Towards a Theory of Failure..............................................................1 Critical history of failure.................................................................................9 Mexico’s Historical Novel............................................................................11 Michel Foucault and the Archive of Positivity.............................................16 González Echevarría and the Archive of Power...........................................17 Linda Hutcheon and Historiographic Metafiction ........................................19 The Historical Novel and Neoliberalism ......................................................21 Common Threads..........................................................................................24 Organization..................................................................................................25 Chapter One: A Mexican Comedy of Errors in Jorge Ibargüengoitia’s Los pasos de López.............................................................................................................27 Hidalgo’s Revolution....................................................................................28 Polemical Interpretations: Alamán, Mora, Sierra, Vasconcelos...................34 Ibargüengoitia and Usigli..............................................................................43 La conspiración vendida and Los pasos de López........................................46 Theatrical Motifs in Los pasos de López ......................................................52 Script, Directors, and Audience....................................................................67 Conclusion ....................................................................................................74 Chapter Two: Recuperating Women’s History in Rosa Beltrán’s La corte de los ilusos .......................................................................................................................75 Mexico’s Independence and First Empire ....................................................76 Taking Back Women’s Space in the Historical Record................................83 Cultural Attitudes in Early Nineteenth-Century Mexico..............................88 El Dragón de Hierro......................................................................................94 Wily Ways: Strategies of Negotiation ..........................................................98 Conclusion ..................................................................................................114 Chapter Three: Confessing Thy Sins: Ignacio Solares’ La invasión ...................115 Ignacio Solares and the Historical Novel....................................................116 ix La invasión..................................................................................................121 Manifest Destiny and James K. Polk ..........................................................125 The Annexation of Texas and the Ensuing Conflict...................................130 Trauma Theory: Freud, LaCapra, Caruth ...................................................135 Writing and Confession in Solares .............................................................147 Abelardo: Prophet of Mexico’s Collapse....................................................149 Personal Sins...............................................................................................154 National Sins...............................................................................................158 Conclusion ..................................................................................................171 Chapter Four: Making a Case for Mexican Maximilian in Fernando del Paso’s Noticias del imperio....................................................................................173