After the Earthquake: Literary Responses to Catastrophe in Mexico City, 1985-2000

Garner-Prazeres, Julia Hilary

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Year:: 2012
Contributor:: Garner-Prazeres, Julia Hilary (creator); Ortega, Julio (Director); Mazzucchelli, Aldo (Reader); Pastor, Beatriz (Reader); Brown University. Hispanic Studies (sponsor)
Genre:: theses
Subject:: Mexico City; catastrophe; Earthquakes; Disasters; Science fiction; Mexico--Mexico City
Extent:: vii, 212 p.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.7301/Z05Q4TDP

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Abstract:: The dissertation examines the representations of catastrophe that emerge in Mexico City following the devastating 1985 earthquake and the upheaval of the nineties. The study focuses on novels published between 1987 and 1997: Cristóbal Nonato by Carlos Fuentes; Casas de encantamiento by Ignacio Solares; La leyenda de los soles and ¿En quién piensas cuando haces el amor? by Homero Aridjis; and Cielos de la Tierra by Carmen Boullosa. <br/> The dissertation explores how the fantastical conjoining of distinct temporalities and the fragmented narrative structures in these novels of catastrophe permit a critical perspective on Mexico’s path towards development. I argue that these writers make use of science fiction techniques to deconstruct temporality and to prompt the reader to contemplate whether Mexico’s trajectory could have been otherwise. These novels of catastrophe fit within the conceptual framework of contemporary speculative fiction; and two theorists of the science fiction genre, Jean Baudrillard and Frederic Jameson, have provided support for my line of analysis. In contrast to the testimonial and journalistic accounts of the earthquake, centered on a realistic portrayal of the immediate aftermath of the disaster, the novels by Fuentes, Solares, Aridjis and Boullosa present an exaggerated version of the possible, interweaving a more distant “before” and “after” of the catastrophe. Science fiction time in these novels creates free-flowing connections between historical moments and includes a longer, more associative causal chain of events through devices such as time travel, dystopian futurescapes, the existence alternative realities that unfold from a single moment in time, and the displacement of historical or mythical elements. <br/> I contend that the novels give a comprehensive depiction of the complexity of the disaster because they are close to the free associations that form the popular imaginary of Mexico City as the site of catastrophe. They draw on Mexico’s unique template for narrating disaster through myth and the story of the Conquest. The writers reveal their political engagement by suggesting that ultimately the present is the only time and space in which fulfillment can happen and in which the potential for social change exists.<br/>
Notes:: Thesis (Ph.D. -- Brown University (2012)

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Rights: In Copyright
Restrictions on Use: Collection is open for research.

Citation

Garner-Prazeres, Julia Hilary, "After the Earthquake: Literary Responses to Catastrophe in Mexico City, 1985-2000" (2012). Hispanic Studies Theses and Dissertations. Brown Digital Repository. Brown University Library. https://doi.org/10.7301/Z05Q4TDP

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Hispanic Studies Theses and Dissertations

Theses and Dissertations for the Hispanic Studies department.
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