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The transplanted, inherently modern detective genre serves as an especially effective lens for exposing the fissures and divergences of modernity in post-1968 Mexico and revolutionary Cuba. Combining in-depth critical analyses with the theoretical insights of current literary and cultural theory and Latin American postmodern studies, Crimes against the State, Crimes against Persons shows how the Cuban novela negra examines the Revolution through an incisive chronicle of life under a decaying regime, and how the Mexican neopoliciaco reveals the oppressive politics of modernization and globalization in Latin America. International in scope, comparative in approach, Braham’s study presents a unique inquiry into the ethical and aesthetic complexities that Latin American authors face in adapting genre detective fiction—a modern, metropolitan model—to radically diverse creative and ideological programs. Considering the work of writers such as Leonardo Padura Fuentes and Paco Ignacio Taibo II, as well as such English-language influences as G. K. Chesterton and Chester Himes, Braham also addresses Marxist critiques of the culture industry and emergent Latin American concepts of postmodernity.
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Crimes against the State Crimes against Persons This page intentionally left blank Crimes against the State Crimes against Persons Detective Fiction in Cuba and Mexico Persephone Braham University of Minnesota Press Minneapolis • London Parts of chapter 3 previously appeared in “Mrs. Watson in Havana,” Hopscotch 2, no. 1 (2000): 52–59; copyright 2000 Duke University Press; all rights reserved; used with permission of Duke University Press. Parts of chapter 5 previously appeared in “Violence and Patriotism: The novela negra from Chester Himes to Paco Ignacio Taibo II,” Journal of American Culture 20, no. 2 (1997): 159–69; copyright The Popular Press; used with permission of The Popular Press. Copyright 2004 by the Regents of the University of Minnesota All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Published by the University of Minnesota Press 111 Third Avenue South, Suite 290 Minneapolis, MN 55401-2520 http://www.upress.umn.edu Library of Congress Cataloging-in- Publication Data Braham, Persephone. Crimes against the state, crimes against persons : detective fiction in Cuba and Mexico / Persephone Braham. p. cm. Includes index. ISBN 0- 8166- 4134-X (HC : alk. paper) — ISBN 0- 8166- 4135- 8 (PB : alk. paper) 1. Detective and mystery stories, Cuban—History and criticism. 2. Detective and mystery stories, Mexican— History and criticism. 3. Cuban fiction—20th century—History and criticism. 4. Mexican fiction—20th century—History and criticism. 5. Politics and literature— Cuba. 6. Politics and literature— Mexico. I. Title. PQ7382 .B73 2004 863'.08720997291— dc22 2003017865 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper The University of Minnesota is an equal- opportunity educator and employer. 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Contents Acknowledgments Introduction: Latin American Detective Literature in Context 1. Origins and Ideologies of the Neopoliciaco vii ix 1 Cuba: Crimes against the State 2. A Revolutionary Aesthetic 3. Masking, Unmasking, and the Return to Signification 21 39 Mexico: Crimes against Persons 4. Contesting “la mexicanidad” 5. The Dismembered City 65 81 Epilogue: Globalization and Detective Literature in Spanish Notes Bibliography Index 101 109 145 165 This page intentionally left blank Acknowledgments T o Marina Brownl