Skip to Main Content
 

Global Search Box

 
 
 
 

Files

File List


16194.pdf (1.06 MB)

ETD Abstract Container

Abstract Header

Confluencias de los Generos Literarios en la Literatura Centroamericana: Testimonio, Novela y Narrativas del Yo

Butnaru, Mirela
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3790-0294
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1439455048

Abstract Details

2015, PhD, University of Cincinnati, Arts and Sciences: Romance Languages and Literatures.
My dissertation entitled “Confluences of the Literary Genres in the Central American Literatures: Testimonio, Novels and the “I” Narratives” (“Confluencias de los generos literarios en la literatura centroamericana: testimonio, novela y narrativas del yo”) focuses on three Central American authors: Claribel Alegria, Sergio Ramirez y Gioconda Belli whose texts present a fusion of elements from various literary genres. Thus, I discuss three texts from each author and I demonstrate the literary genres can not be retain within the limits of the framework literary theoreticians and critics established for testimonio, novel and personal narratives. The first chapter is concerned with the theories of the “I” narratives, the novel and the testimonial narratives. Moreover, this chapter discusses the theoretical approaches to the concepts of memory and truth, which are integral to the personal narratives and the testimonio. Nonetheless, this chapter is only an approximation to the theory of the genres already mentioned and does not pretend to exhaust the topic but to offer several guidelines concerning personal narratives, testimonio and novel. In the second chapter, I analyze three books by Claribel Alegria: Cenizas de Izalco (1966), No me agarran viva: la mujer en la lucha (1983), y Luisa en el pais de la realidad (1987). Thus, I examine Alegria’s writing through the perspective of the testimonial theory established by Miguel Barnet because all her books contain some testimonial elements. This way I show that Alegria’s texts do not comprise a sole genre but her writing employs a variety of elements, which come together to express the cruel reality of the Salvadorian revolution. The third chapter focuses on three texts by Sergio Ramirez. La marca de zorro. Hazañas del comandante Francisco Rivera Quintero contadas a Sergio Ramirez (1989) is written primarily in the testimonial genre, nonetheless, as in Alegria’s writing, Ramirez employs elements of the novel. The book Adios muchachos: una memoria de la revolucion sandinista (1999) is a memoir as the title exposes, but the author also resorts to testimonial and fantastic elements. In the same way, the novel Sombras nada mas (2002) includes fictional and testimonial features to express the armed fights of the Sandinista revolution during the 70s. The fourth chapter discusses the writing of Gioconda Belli to reveal one more time that the literary genres converge. Therefore, in this section I analyze the hybrid poem collection Linea de fuego (1978), the novel with testimonial qualities, La mujer habitada (1988) and her memoir El pais bajo mi piel. Memorias de amor y guerra (2001). As in all the texts examined in this dissertation, Belli’s writing also resorts to the elements of the “I” narratives established by the critics, the fragmented memory but additionally employs attributes of the novel such as the intertextuality and the dialogism. This way I show various confluences: novel and testimonio; novel, autobiography and poems; poems and diary; memoirs, novel and poems. Moreover, all these works encompass a variety of forms of remembering, reconstructing and writing about the dictatorship and revolutionary years in Central American. By comparing all these texts, I contribute to the understanding of the development of the Central American novel and I show the role personal writings (testimonio, diary, memoirs and autobiography) played in the manifestations of the new narrative forms.
Nicasio Urbina, Ph.D. (Committee Chair)
Carlos Gutierrez, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
Patricia Valladares-Ruiz, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
227 p.
Literature
testimonio; novel; I narratives; intertextuality; memory; truth

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Butnaru, M. (2015). Confluencias de los Generos Literarios en la Literatura Centroamericana: Testimonio, Novela y Narrativas del Yo [Doctoral dissertation, University of Cincinnati]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1439455048

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Butnaru, Mirela. Confluencias de los Generos Literarios en la Literatura Centroamericana: Testimonio, Novela y Narrativas del Yo. 2015. University of Cincinnati, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1439455048.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Butnaru, Mirela. "Confluencias de los Generos Literarios en la Literatura Centroamericana: Testimonio, Novela y Narrativas del Yo." Doctoral dissertation, University of Cincinnati, 2015. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1439455048

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

ucin1439455048
2,444
© 2015, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by University of Cincinnati and OhioLINK.