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Crimes against the State, Crimes against Persons: Detective Fiction in Cuba and Mexico PDF

187 Pages·2004·1.57 MB·English
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Crimes against the State Crimes against Persons This page intentionally left blank Crimes against the State Crimes against Persons Detective Fiction in Cuba and Mexico Persephone Braham University of Minnesota Press Minneapolis • London Parts of chapter 3 previously appeared in “Mrs. Watson in Havana,” Hopscotch 2, no. 1 (2000): 52–59; copyright 2000 Duke University Press; all rights reserved; used with permission of Duke University Press. Parts of chapter 5 previously appeared in “Violence and Patriotism: The novela negra from Chester Himes to Paco Ignacio Taibo II,” Journal of American Culture 20, no. 2 (1997): 159–69; copyright The Popular Press; used with permission of The Popular Press. Copyright 2004 by the Regents of the University of Minnesota All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Published by the University of Minnesota Press 111 Third Avenue South, Suite 290 Minneapolis, MN 55401-2 520 http://www.upress.umn.edu Library of Congress Cataloging-i n- Publication Data Braham, Persephone. Crimes against the state, crimes against persons : detective fi ction in Cuba and Mexico / Persephone Braham. p. cm. Includes index. ISBN 0- 8166-4 134-X (HC : alk. paper) — ISBN 0- 8166-4 135-8 (PB : alk. paper) 1. Detective and mystery stories, Cuban— History and criticism. 2. Detective and mystery stories, Mexican— History and criticism. 3. Cuban fi ction—2 0th century—H istory and criticism. 4. Mexican fi ction—2 0th century—H istory and criticism. 5. Politics and literature— C uba. 6. Politics and literature—M exico. I. Title. PQ7382 .B73 2004 863'.08720997291— dc22 2003017865 Printed in the United States of America on acid-f ree paper The University of Minnesota is an equal-o pportunity educator and employer. 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Contents Acknowledgments vi Introduction: Latin American Detective Literature in Context ix 1. Origins and Ideologies of the Neopoliciaco 1 Cuba: Crimes against the State 2. A Revolutionary Aesthetic 21 3. Masking, Unmasking, and the Return to Signifi cation 39 Mexico: Crimes against Persons 4. Contesting “la mexicanidad” 65 5. The Dismembered City 81 Epilogue: Globalization and Detective Literature in Spanish 101 Notes 109 Bibliography 145 Index 165 This page intentionally left blank Acknowledgments To Marina Brownlee, my gratitude for her friendship and encour- agement in this and other projects. To José Miguel Oviedo, for his criti- cism of this manuscript in its earliest stages, and for introducing me to the novels of Leonardo Padura Fuentes. To Leonardo Padura, Carlos Alonso, Justo Vasco, Ilán Stavans, Mauricio-J osé Schwarz, Gustavo Pérez Firmat, and Luis Adrián Betan court, for sharing their time and insights so generously. To Bill for his careful objectivity, his synthetic criticism, and his untiring and perspicacious readings. v i i This page intentionally left blank Introduction: Latin American Detective Literature in Context Until the 1970s, the fi eld of Latin American detective fi ction was both limited and derivative. Through simulation or parody, authors en- gaged the marginal status and formulaic nature of detective narrative to dramatize Latin America’s peripheral position with respect to modern Western culture. Detective writing in Spanish remains a marginalized endeavor, charting an uncertain path between the politicized arenas of literary production and the contested phenomena of popular culture. But the Latin American detective genre is also fl ourishing, on its own merits and as a source for other literary experimentation. This book examines the trajectory of the detective novel in Mexico and Cuba from its obscure beginnings to its present success, and seeks to recognize the rationales by which it was adopted, as well as the aesthetic and ethical complexities of the process itself. What are the political and literary discourses governing the production of detective literature in Hispanic cultures, and in Mexico and Cuba in particular? What aes- thetic, ideological, and practical obstacles do detective writers confront as they try to adapt the genre to refl ect their own circumstances? Final- ly, can the exploration of this genre allow us to refl ect on some of the broader literary and cultural questions pertinent to Cuban and Mexican realities? The detective novel came late to Hispanic letters, and one of its defi n- ing characteristics has been a concern with foreign paradigms of moder- nity, and ultimately the failure of liberalism and its constituent elements in a Hispanic context. Leftist and socialist aspirations, also a part of the i x

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