The political constitution of the literary: The limits of representation in modern Peruvian literature.

摘要

This dissertation analyzes the critical constitution of the literary in Peru during the twentieth century, and criticizes that same constitution through the analysis of unfinished works by canonical authors that in their incompleteness show the profound limits of the aforementioned critical model. The introduction ties the concepts of state, nation and culture, and analyzes how they are interconnected as tools of power and domination. By defining and isolating these concepts, they become the embodiment of the tools they are defining and overdetermine concepts within their sphere. The fist chapter presents the two main definitions of a Peruvian literary tradition in the works of Jose de la Riva Aguero and Jose Carlos Mariategui. Although standing in opposition, I argue that both represent an idea of identity that attempts to define Peruvianness through a single defining element. In the first case, this element is the Spanish heritage and in the second, the Indigenous legacy in Peruvian Culture. The second chapter analyzes the work of Antonio Cornejo Polar, which I read as an attempt to propose a "third way" of understanding the Peruvian literary tradition. I find this attempt marred by an idea about identity that prevents multiplicity from becoming the center of a new definition of literary practice.;The third chapter examines Lazaro, an unfinished novel by Indigenist writer Ciro Alegria. In this reading, I demonstrate how its unfinished character responds to a structural impossibility of expressing multiplicity. The fourth chapter reads another unfinished novel, El zorro de arriba y el zorro de abajo, by Indigenist writer Jose Maria Arguedas. In this instance, the text embraces multiplicity, establishing a model of an insurmountable crisis of representation. Ultimately, Arguedas' work constitutes a new way of reading more faithful to the practice of Literature and its attempt to create a social realm not subordinated by repressive notions of identity.