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The Latin American Literary Boom was marked by complex novels steeped in magical realism and questions of nationalism, often with themes of surreal violence. In recent years, however, those revolutionary projects of the sixties and seventies have given way to quite a different narrative vision and ideology. Dubbed the new sentimentalism, this trend is now keenly elucidated in Love and Politics in the Contemporary Spanish American Novel.Offering a rich account of the rise of this new mode, as well as its political and cultural implications, An?bal Gonz?lez delivers a close reading of novels by Miguel Barnet, Elena Poniatowska, Isabel Allende, Alfredo Bryce Echenique, Gabriel Garc?a M?rquez, Antonio Sk?rmeta, Luis Rafael S?nchez, and others. Gonz?lez proposes that new sentimental novels are inspired principally by a desire to heal the division, rancor, and fear produced by decades of social and political upheaval. Valuing pop culture above the avant-garde, such works also tend to celebrate agape--the love of one's neighbor--while denouncing the negative effects of passion (eros). Illuminating these and other aspects of post-Boom prose, Love and Politics in the Contemporary Spanish American Novel takes a fresh look at contemporary works.
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LOVE AND POLITICS IN THE CONTEMPORARY SPANISH AMERICAN NOVEL
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LOVE AND POLITICS IN THE CONTEMPORARY SPANISH AMERICAN NOVEL
BY ANÍBAL GONZÁLEZ
UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS PRESS, AUSTIN
COPYRIGHT © 2010 by the UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS PRESS All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America First edition, 2010 Requests for permission to reproduce material from this work should be sent to: Permissions University of Texas Press P.O. Box 7819 Austin, TX 78713-7819 www.utexas.edu/utpress/about/bpermission.html The paper used in this book meets the minimum requirements of ansi/niso z39.48–1992 (r1997) (Permanence of Paper).
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA González, Aníbal. Love and politics in the contemporary Spanish American novel / Aníbal González. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn 978-0-292-72131-9 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Spanish American fiction—20th century—History and criticism. 2. Sentimentalism in literature. 3. Politics and literature. I. Title. pq7082.n7g666 2010 863'.64093543—dc22 2009028217
CONTENTS
PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS INTRODUCTION
vii From Testimonial Narrative to the New Sentimental Novel: Barnet and Poniatowska 1
ONE
Patriotic Passion: Isabel Allende’s Of Love and Shadows 40
TWO
Love or Friendship? Tarzan’s Tonsillitis by Alfredo Bryce Echenique 62
THREE
FOUR
Journey Back to the Source of Love: García Márquez’s Of Love and Other Demons 80 Recipes for Romance: Laura Esquivel, Luis Sepúlveda, and Marcela Serrano 102
FIVE
APPENDIX
The Importance of Being Sentimental: Antonio Skármeta’s Love-Fifteen and Luis Rafael Sánchez’s La importancia de llamarse Daniel Santos 126 Some Spanish American Novels with Amorous or Sentimental Themes (1969–2003) 147
NOTES
149
BIBLIOGRAPHY OF WORKS CITED
163
INDEX
173
PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
In his celebrated essay “Our America” (1891), after analyzing the social and political confl icts that bedeviled the Spanish American nations after their independence, José Martí offered a hopeful vision of the continent’s situation: “They tried hatred, and every year the countries were worse off. Tired of the useless hatred of book against lance, of reason against the votive candle, of city against country, of the impossible hegemony of the divided urban castes against the tempestuous but inert natural nation, they are beginning to try—alm