scholarly journals “Ningún lugar sagrado” de Rodrigo Rey Rosa: una ficción paranoica desde la diáspora centroamericana

Neophilologus ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marileen La Haije
Keyword(s):  
American Literature ◽  
Short Story ◽  
Central American ◽  
Literary Texts ◽  
General Tendency ◽  
Unreliable Narrator ◽  
Central American Literature ◽  
Social Discourses ◽  
Narrative Techniques ◽  
The Voice

AbstractThis paper analyzes “Ningún lugar sagrado” (1998) by the Guatemalan writer Rodrigo Rey Rosa as a ‘ficción paranoica’ (“La ficción paranoica”, Clarín, 10 de octubre de 1991; Blanco nocturno, Anagrama, Barcelona, 2010). I will explain that Rey Rosa’s short story does not include univocal clues to identify the protagonist as an unreliable narrator whose overinterpretations give rise to a misrepresentation of the facts. According to my reading of “Ningún lugar sagrado”, the paranoiac features of the main character contribute to the ambiguity of the text that, in fact, never explicitly confirms or discredits his persecutory ideas. Following this line of argument, I suggest that Rey Rosa’s short story narrates an “imaginario de amenaza” (“La ficción paranoica”, Clarín, 10 de octubre de 1991) that, alluding to the climate of repression, intrigues and complicities in postwar Guatemala, generates paranoia –including that of the reader. “Ningún lugar sagrado” points to a more general tendency in recent Central American literature that, from the realm of fiction, highlights the widespread nature of paranoia in the region. Unlike social discourses that discuss the topic, these literary texts make use of narrative techniques that do not necessarily respond to a referential notion of truth (including hyperboles, digressions, irony and narrative ambiguity), when constructing the voice of a paranoiac character. According to my perspective, such narrative techniques lend themselves especially to capturing the alienating dimensions of violence in Central America where paranoia, rather than being a question of truth or exaggeration, constitutes a survival strategy.

scholarly journals Transnationalism and Testimonio in Contemporary Central American Migrant Literature

2021 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 127-147
Author(s):  
Upasana Thakkar
Keyword(s):  
American Literature ◽  
Latin American ◽  
The United States ◽  
Central American ◽  
Literary Texts ◽  
Critical Writing ◽  
Migrant Literature ◽  
The North ◽  
Central American Literature ◽  
International Audience

This article explores contemporary Central American literature dealing with transnationalism in migrant narratives from the region within the framework of testimonio. The transnational elements in literary texts read as testimonio were also present in previous Latin American narratives but were ignored in critical writing about this genre. These elements often included two countries, and involved transmission of, as well as continuous negotiation between, different languages. Moreover, the immediate translation of these texts into English made them available more to an international audience than to the citizens of the countries in which they were mostly set. Taking Odyssey to the North by Mario Bencastro, and The Tattooed Soldier by Hector Tobar as my point of reference, I will argue that these and several other contemporary Central American works of fiction can be read as testimonio. These works, by focusing attention on the repercussions of the civil war in a new context, depict migration to the United States

scholarly journals El árbol de Adán, de Gerardo Guinea Diez. Narrativa y memoria del genocidio guatemalteco (El árbol de Adán, by Gerardo Guinea Diez. Narrative and Remembrance of the Genocide in Guatemala)

LETRAS ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (59) ◽  
pp. 29
Author(s):  
María Del Pilar López Martínez
Keyword(s):  
American Literature ◽  
Central American ◽  
Central American Literature ◽  
Post War ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
Poetic Style

El estudio analiza la propuesta estética de una de las novelas menos estudiadas sobre el genocidio guatemalteco: El árbol de Adán. Se efectúa un recorrido sobre la obra de ficción del escritor Gerardo Guinea Diez, e incursiona en algunos elementos de su poética para señalar las diferencias con la llamada «literatura de posguerra centroamericana», así como con el modelo predominante que entre los historiadores literarios se tiene. Muestra esos otros imaginarios que desde el interior de los países centroamericanos se construyen, muchas veces a contrapelo de lo que se conoce desde fuera de las fronteras del Istmo.This study analyzes the aesthetic proposal of one of the least known novels about the Guatemalan genocide: El Árbol de Adán (Adam’s Tree). It explores the fictional works of Gerardo Guinea Diez, and addresses the author’s poetic style, to emphasize the discrepancies between his work and that of the so-called “post-war school of Central American literature” and the predominant model supported by historians. The article reveals these other imaginary worlds created from within the Central American countries, but which often contrast with widespread perceptions of those who are outside the region. 

scholarly journals El hombre de Montserrat: writings on violence in the latin american crime fiction

2018 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 142-160
Author(s):  
Víctor Manuel Sanchis Amat
Keyword(s):  
American Literature ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Crime Fiction ◽  
Central American ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Detective Novel ◽  
Theoretical Terms ◽  
Central American Literature ◽  
Latin American Narrative ◽  
History Of

Abstract: The article adresses the novel El hombre de Montserrat, written by the Guatemalan writer Dante Liano and recognized within the genre of crime fiction, as a precursory model for a narrative that established a way of rewriting the history of violence in Central American countries in both fictional and theoretical terms. Dante Liano’s successful reception has turned the novel into a reference of the Central American literature of the nineties. This is due to the fact that his narrative is replete with mechanisms that were seen in the best works of the previous Latin American narrative, far from the great discourses, by a displaying genre hybridization, a parodic transgression or lexical localism. This article analyses the interweaving of genres and the subversion of the plot, the characters and the rewriting of the history against the postulates of the classic detective novel.

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