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This book is an analysis of twentieth-century historical fiction from Central America, tracing the active interplay between language, space, and memory.
About the Book
Through penetrating analysis of twentieth-century historical fiction from Central America this book asks: why do so many literary texts in the region address historical issues? What kinds of stories are told about the past when authors choose the fictional realm to represent history? Why access memory through fiction and poetry? Nicole Caso traces the active interplay between language, space, and memory in the continuous process of defining local identities through literature. Ultimately, this book looks to the dynamic between form and content to identify potential maps that are suggested in each of these texts in order to imagine possibilities of action in the future.
Review Quotes
1.
“In this striking book, Caso explores Central American fiction as a productive site to fathom the complex project of Latin American modernity and developmentalism in the twentieth century. She meditates on what it means for a region to be considered an ‘isthmus,’ a passageway from elsewhere to elsewhere, a small unit of land that stands as a trope for Banana Republics, revolutions, or drug-trafficking. Rather than taking texts in isolation or reading them as representatives of the whole, Caso highlights instances of regional voices, listening to the ‘sighs and whispers’ that traditional historiographers exclude from their accounts. In Casos’s reading, creativity becomes a tool for subverting official history, breaking the silencing of alternative understandings of what the nation and the region are supposed to represent. Literature thus plays a regenerative role and counters social complacency.”—Arturo Arias, Professor, Deptartment of
2.
"In this striking book, Caso explores Central American fiction as a productive site to fathom the complex project of Latin American modernity and developmentalism in the twentieth century. She meditates on what it means for a region to be considered an 'isthmus, ' a passageway from elsewhere to elsewhere, a small unit of land that stands as a trope for Banana Republics, revolutions, or drug-trafficking. Rather than taking texts in isolation or reading them as representatives of the whole, Caso highlights instances of regional voices, listening to the 'sighs and whispers' that traditional historiographers exclude from their accounts. In Casos's reading, creativity becomes a tool for subverting official history, breaking the silencing of alternative understandings of what the nation and the region are supposed to represent. Literature thus plays a regenerative role and counters social complacency."--Arturo Arias, Professor, Deptartment of Spanish and Portuguese, University of Texas at
3.
"Memory, defined as Caso does, becomes also a powerful tool for the less privileged members of society to resist political impositions intended to create a space racially, politically, and intellectually homogenous.But what seems most remarkable about this book is not only its definition of the term memory but what follows: an innovative comprehension of the role of literature as an instrument for transforming an established idea of history in Central America . . . Caso's reading of the encounter of history and literature in Central America is certainly intelligent, well written, and structurally solid." - "The Latin Americanist"
"The main characteristic of Nicole Caso's book, "Practicing Memory in Central American Literature" is the intelligent and detailed analysis of literary works: interpretations she uses to illustrate Central American historical periods." - "Letras femeninas "
"A well-rounded exploration of how writers 'speak out' on their own terms." - Hispanophilia
"In the last few years there has been a resurgence of book length studies written in English about Central America, not just in the realm of revolutions or testimony, but also of its fiction. "Practicing Memory in Central American Literature, " is a welcomed, suggestive and important endeavor in that process of insertion . . . the critique that Caso conveys . . . employing Canclini's criticism of nationalism, is very pertinent because it articulates how narratives that reinforce national imaginaries serve to fortify essentialist categories of identity that undermine ethnic and racial realities. [In one of her chapters] the author demonstrates how the narratives of mestizaje are unquestionably reproduced to enforce the problematic 'mythology of the nation as a primary referent for the definition of collective identities.' Caso makes a compelling argument in tying the form of the totalizing novel to these underlying ideologies in the context of Central American literary prod
4. "Scholarship on memory and history in Central American literature has tended to focus on the new Central American historical novel and/or the testimonio. By including analyses of short stories and poetry, Caso effectively argues that the space of the text, its form and aesthetic, enhance and reemphasize the author's historical vantage point . . . This is one of the book's greatest contributions to Central American literary studies, as it expands the generic limits of the traditionally studied historical novel and testimonio in the understanding of how the past is represented and problematized through literature." - Latino Studies "Memory, defined as Caso does, becomes also a powerful tool for the less privileged members of society to resist political impositions intended to create a space racially, politically, and intellectually homogenous.But what seems most remarkable about this book is not only its definition of the term memory but what follows: an innovative comprehension of the role of literature as an instrument for transforming an established idea of history in Central America . . . Caso's reading of the encounter of history and literature in Central America is certainly intelligent, well-written, and structurally solid." - The Latin Americanist "In this striking book, Caso explores Central American fiction as a productive site to fathom the complex project of Latin American modernity and developmentalism in the twentieth century. She meditates on what it means for a region to be considered an 'isthmus, ' a passageway from elsewhere to elsewhere, a small unit of land that stands as a trope for Banana Republics, revolutions, or drug-trafficking. Rather than taking texts in isolation or reading them as representatives of the whole, Caso highlights instances of regional voices, listening to the 'sighs and whispers' that traditional historiographers exclude from their accounts. In Casos's reading, creativity becomes a tool for subverting official history, breaking the silencing of alternative understandings of what the nation and the region are supposed to represent. Literature thus plays a regenerative role and counters social complacency." - Arturo Arias, Professor, Department of Spanish and Portuguese, University of Texas at Austin "Caso's project focuses on the writing of history from different positions and textual practices; thus, her book not only "gives" the history of Central America but also examines the discursive constructions of 'history' in selected texts. We need more published scholarship on this literature, and this book will provide a much welcomed critical page in the corpus of Central American literary and cultural studies . . . it promises to be a significant contribution to the field." - Ana Patricia Rodriguez, Department of Spanish and Portuguese, University of Maryland, College Park and author of Dividing the Isthmus: Central American Transnational Histories, Literatures, and Cultures"
5.
"Scholarship on memory and history in Central American literature has tended to focus on the new Central American historical novel and/or the testimonio. By including analyses of short stories and poetry, Caso effectively argues that the space of the text, its form and aesthetic, enhance and reemphasize the author's historical vantage point . . . This is one of the book's greatest contributions to Central American literary studies, as it expands the generic limits of the traditionally studied historical novel and testimonio in the understanding of how the past is represented and problematized through literature." - Latino Studies
"Memory, defined as Caso does, becomes also a powerful tool for the less privileged members of society to resist political impositions intended to create a space racially, politically, and intellectually homogenous.But what seems most remarkable about this book is not only its definition of the term memory but what follows: an innovative comprehension of the role of literature as an instrument for transforming an established idea of history in Central America . . . Caso's reading of the encounter of history and literature in Central America is certainly intelligent, well-written, and structurally solid." - The Latin Americanist
"In this striking book, Caso explores Central American fiction as a productive site to fathom the complex project of Latin American modernity and developmentalism in the twentieth century. She meditates on what it means for a region to be considered an 'isthmus, ' a passageway from elsewhere to elsewhere, a small unit of land that stands as a trope for Banana Republics, revolutions, or drug-trafficking. Rather than taking texts in isolation or reading them as representatives of the whole, Caso highlights instances of regional voices, listening to the 'sighs and whispers' that traditional historiographers exclude from their accounts. In Casos's reading, creativity becomes a tool for subverting official history, breaking the silencing of alternative understandings of what the nation and the region are supposed to represent. Literature thus plays a regenerative role and counters social complacency." - Arturo Arias, Professor, Department of Spanish and Portuguese, University of Texas at Austin
"Caso's project focuses on the writing of history from different positions and textual practices; thus, her book not only "gives" the history of Central America but also examines the discursive constructions of 'history' in selected texts. We need more published scholarship on this literature, and this book will provide a much welcomed critical page in the corpus of Central American literary and cultural studies . . . it promises to be a significant contribution to the field." - Ana Patricia Rodriguez, Department of Spanish and Portuguese, University of Maryland, College Park and author of Dividing the Isthmus: Central American Transnational Histories, Literatures, and Cultures"
6.
"Scholarship on memory and history in Central American literature has tended to focus on the new Central American historical novel and/or the testimonio. By including analyses of short stories and poetry, Caso effectively argues that the space of the text, its form and aesthetic, enhance and reemphasize the author's historical vantage point . . . This is one of the book's greatest contributions to Central American literary studies, as it expands the generic limits of the traditionally studied historical novel and testimonio in the understanding of how the past is represented and problematized through literature." - Latino Studies
"Memory, defined as Caso does, becomes also a powerful tool for the less privileged members of society to resist political impositions intended to create a space racially, politically, and intellectually homogenous.But what seems most remarkable about this book is not only its definition of the term memory but what follows: an innovative comprehension of the role of literature as an instrument for transforming an established idea of history in Central America . . . Caso's reading of the encounter of history and literature in Central America is certainly intelligent, well-written, and structurally solid." - The Latin Americanist
"In this striking book, Caso explores Central American fiction as a productive site to fathom the complex project of Latin American modernity and developmentalism in the twentieth century. She meditates on what it means for a region to be considered an 'isthmus, ' a passageway from elsewhere to elsewhere, a small unit of land that stands as a trope for Banana Republics, revolutions, or drug-trafficking. Rather than taking texts in isolation or reading them as representatives of the whole, Caso highlights instances of regional voices, listening to the 'sighs and whispers' that traditional historiographers exclude from their accounts. In Casos's reading, creativity becomes a tool for subverting official history, breaking the silencing of alternative understandings of what the nation and the region are supposed to represent. Literature thus plays a regenerative role and counters social complacency." - Arturo Arias, Professor, Department of Spanish and Portuguese, University of Texas at Austin
"Caso's project focuses on the writing of history from different positions and textual practices; thus, her book not only "gives" the history of Central America but also examines the discursive constructions of 'history' in selected texts. We need more published scholarship on this literature, and this book will provide a much welcomed critical page in the corpus of Central American literary and cultural studies . . . it promises to be a significant contribution to the field." - Ana Patricia Rodriguez, Department of Spanish and Portuguese, University of Maryland, College Park and author of Dividing the Isthmus: Central American Transnational Histories, Literatures, and Cultures
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