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" Turcos, judios, gringos y gallegos: Nociones de identidad en la novela latinoamericana de inmigracion "
Gabriela McEvoy
R. Sanchez
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Latin Dissertation
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Spanish
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| Record Number
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52796
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TL22750
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| Call number
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3371331
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| Main Entry
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Gabriela McEvoy
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| Title & Author
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Turcos, judios, gringos y gallegos: Nociones de identidad en la novela latinoamericana de inmigracion\ Gabriela McEvoy
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| College
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University of California, San Diego
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| Date
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2009
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| Degree
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Ph.D.
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2009
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243
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| Abstract
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This dissertation examines four late twentieth century immigrant novels tracing European and Middle Eastern immigration to Argentina, Chile, and Paraguay during the early twentieth century. This study suggests that through literary representation of marginalized immigrant communities the novels seek to reconfigure the nation and national identities, especially during periods of transition and national crisis. In chapter one, I present the theoretical framework, using identity as a category of analysis for an investigation of Latin American novels of immigration. In the process I make clear the centrality of framing my analysis within a historical context both in terms of the time period configured in the works and the moment in which the authors publish their works. In chapter two, I analyze Una ciudad junto al río (1986), Argentinean author Jorge Isaac's immigrant novel published after the period of "La Guerra Sucia" (The Dirty War). In this chapter I explore the way Isaac goes back to the social formation of Argentina during a period of mass migration for two main reasons. First, Isaac attempts to reconstruct the national imaginary during Argentina's golden years, and then he intends to create a conciliatory discourse after the traumatic experience of the Dirty War (1973-1983). Chapter three focuses on Argentinean author Pedro Orgambide's Hacer la América (1984). In this chapter I suggest that recalling the interaction between political and cultural practices during the decade of the twenties, a socio-historical period characterized by Argentinean Radical party's repression and violence is a way of suggesting a comparison between past repressive measures by the state of early twentieth century and Argentinean state practices of the 1970s and 1980s. In chapter four, I analyze Roberto Sarah's Los turcos (1961). The literary construction of el turco allows the author not only to criticize the construction of an artificial nationalism but also to represent turcofobia (racism against Arab immigrants) in the daily practices and within Chilean elite discourses. As Sarah shows, turcofobia, based on Chilean cultural rejection and discrimination of Arabic groups is offset by communal cohesion and solidarity among Arab compatriots as a defensive strategy against Chilean hostility and aggression. In my concluding chapter, I explore the Jewish diáspora in Paraguay through an analysis of Paraguayan author Susana Gertopan's Barrio Palestina (1999). In this fifth chapter I explore the novel's representation of the estranged Jewish community's focus on cultural maintenance even as some immigrants cling to a utopian desire of the "return trip" replaced in part by the dream of a Jewish nation in the Middle East. Through an analysis of these immigrant novels, this dissertation finds that Latin American authors utilize the immigrant experience of earlier times to comment on their contemporary period. While Isaac tries to recover Argentinean roots in a pluricultural society composed of a variety of distinct immigrant groups in order to suggest that a fragmented society due to the dictatorial regime can once again come together as it did in the past, Orgambide, on the other hand, utilizes the immigrant novel as an act predominantly political to criticize the repressive methods used historically by the Argentinean state and the dominant groups. In the Chilean case, Sarah rewrites the Chilean historical past in order to incorporate Arab immigrants in the national imaginary not only as picturesque characters but as historical subjects. Gender, assimilation, and resistance intersect in Gertopan's novel that portrays the role of Jewish immigrants within a Paraguayan "imagined community." This dissertation emphasizes the contribution of these literary works to the historical and cultural context in which they are produced, and argues for the importance of including the works and perspectives of marginalized immigrant communities in any assessment of the role of literature in establishing notions of Latin American nationhood.
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Language, literature and linguistics; Immigration; Diaspora studies; Latin American literature; Southern Cone; European in Latin America; Latin American diaspora studies; Isaac, Jorge; Orgambide, Pedro; Sarah, Roberto; Gertopan, Susana; Argentina; Chile; Paraguay; 0312:Latin American literature
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R. Sanchez
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University of California, San Diego
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