Resistance and Resilience
(Asynchronous Session - Online)
Rigoberta Menchu, Testimony, and the Function of Memory: Me Llamo Rigoberta Menchu View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Anna Hamling
The ‘ truth ‘ of the testimony of Rigoberta Menchu, an Indian woman in Guatemala, has been both disputed (Stoll, 1999, Rohler 1998, Sanford 1999) and defended (Gugelberger 1995, 1999;Sklodowska; Arias 2001; Beverly 2005; Gilmore 2003; Sommers 1991) since her famous narrative Me llamo Rigoberta Menchu y asi me nacio la conciencia was published in Spanish in1983. Menchu, dictated her oral testimony to the Venezuelan transcriber, Elizabeth Burgos-Debray, to make her story more palatable to the wider public. Burgos did not transcribe Menchu’s story in a literal way but improved the grammar, word structure, and reorganized Menchu’s narrative. Menchu claimed she had not learned Spanish until she was 24 years old but wanted to share her testimony about atrocities of the Guatemalan government and their military in the Civil war in Guatemala at the international arena in the most effective way. Her testimony uncovered ‘her truth’ to scholars, students and general public alike. Menchu became a popular international author. In this study, I analyze the function of memory in Menchu’s English publication I Rigoberta Menchu and the Story of All Poor Guatemalans in 1999 in the view of the immense controversy the publication received.
Alvarez and Cisneros: Latina Writers Reevaluating the Past in a Journey of Resistance View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Nayara Cristina Marques, Giséle Fernandes
The problematization of history is present in the literary production by Latinos in the United States. The Dominican-American writer Julia Alvarez revises history in her works, since her father had serious issues as far as the Trujillo dictatorship was concerned. In her novel In the Time of the Butterflies (1994), Alvarez approaches the mythical history of the Mirabal Sisters, Patria, Minerva e Maria Teresa, who opposed Trujillo and were murdered in 1960. Against Trujillo’s predictions, the death of the Mirabal Sisters made the resistance to his government stronger. In The House on Mango Street (1984), written by Sandra Cisneros, the author shows the perspective of a young Latina girl named Esperanza. The protagonist lives in a Latino neighborhood and narrates the daily dramas and violence lived by her family, her neighbors and herself. From her point of view, she gives multiple perspectives to history when she reviews her experiences as a Latina girl living in the United States and facing problems related to social abandonment, prejudice, and poverty. This study analyzes how Alvarez’s and Cisneros’ novels reevaluate the past and propose resistance in order to ensure Latino places in history and in society. Texts by Ricoeur (1984), White (1985), Hutcheon (1993), Mignolo (2003), Segal (2004), Byers (2011) and Harari (2018) are used as scientific basis for this paper.
Copla y Empoderamiento: El Cine Musical Folklórico Español y Su Modelo de Feminidad View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Rosario Torres
The purpose of this research is to study the filmic representation of the copla singer in the context of Spanish folkloric film musicals, so as to deconstruct the figure of the cantadora and the resilient model of femininity that she proposes. This folk music genre emerged in Spain at the beginning of the 20th century, from the fusion of the medieval poetic form of the same name with various literary movements, with Romance languages’ oral traditions and with cuplé and flamenco. It became the most popular music of its time, but, due to its association with the Franco regime, its beauty, its richness and its cultural, literary and musical value have subsequently been underestimated. My hypothesis is that the reality of the copla is more complex than what has traditionally been assumed and that its ideal of femininity is stronger and more independent than it is assumed. Its main interpreters were women who sang emotionally narratives with passionate and resilient protagonists who often transgressed or questioned the patriarchal canon of feminine docility. Methodology relies on an interdisciplinary approach with both semiotic and ideological perspectives.
‘Every Limit Can Be Crossed’: Jeanette Winterson’s Take on the Evolution towards a Fully Technological Future View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Claudia Martori
In the last few years, Jeanette Winterson has discussed the limits and the evolution of technology, and how that may affect the human species; she has discussed posthumanism and transhumanism through fictionalised narratives that mirror our current society and what it could become. The aim of this paper is to outline her predictions for the consequences of the changes towards a fully automated future, which start with Rosi Braidotti’s theories and end with the idea of transcending transhumanism. This reading of Winterson is necessary because most of the studies that analyse her work are related to love, gender, and sexuality, which she also deals with in her work; but her proposals for the future of a humanity reliant on technology are still greatly understudied. This paper, thus, will attempt to fill a gap in research by doing a close reading of some selected works of hers which discuss the topic. In doing so, the main arguments for discussion that will help string her discourse together will be her conception of limits and how that affects the posthuman discourse, her view of the transition towards transhumanism and its possible consequences, and how to move forward from that. This paper will, thus, explore the purpose behind this unstoppable race towards becoming technology and will make sense of why it is impossible to alter its outcome.
