| Description |
Hugo Arce, a polemic Guatemalan writer/journalist, wrote what could be termed transitional resistance literature. Both his journalism and his literary works are marked by a discourse of opposition to the staggering violence and impunity that Guatemala faced during the periods in which Arce wrote. Resistance literature has often been theorized in terms of movements for national liberation and revolutionary movements. Nevertheless, resistance literature as a struggle over the cultural/historical also plays a particularly important role during periods of transition to democracy and out of civil war. This thesis focuses on two cuentos from ¿Y Maura?, the final work of Guatemalan author Hugo Arce. The thesis consists of an introduction and four chapters. The introduction briefly presents the background to the study, the professional significance of the study, and the delimitations of the study. The first chapter provides a general introduction to Hugo Arce's literary and journalistic work. It also places that work within the social and historical context and includes a literature review touching on the historical circumstances during which he wrote and briefly discusses the body of his literary work. The introductory chapter also serves the purpose of potentially being useful to those approaching the subject with an eye towards journalism or history. The second chapter discusses the literary theory that will be applied in the close reading and introduces the work of ¿Y Maura? as a whole. In particular, that chapter explores the ways the ambiguous zone created by a state of emergency may be exploited to eliminate opposition groups. The chapter ties this idea to the specific history of Guatemala. In Chapter III and IV, the thesis looks at Arce's literature against this backdrop. The framework of resistance literature is augmented by looking at specific cuentos through the lens of Giorgio Agamben's State of Exception and Victor Perera's The Unfinished Conquest. The third chapter is a close reading of the cuento, La Transfiguración. The fourth presents a close reading of the cuento El Delator. Finally, the conclusion ties the four chapters together, arguing that Arce's work is an example of transitional resistance literature. |
