Written in the Margins:" Doing the Job Right". An Interview with Elena Poniatowska (original) (raw)
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In this paper, we analyze the five strongest works of Mexican writer Elena Poniatowska: Hasta no verte, Jesús mío, La noche de Tlatelolco, Fuerte es el silencio, and Nada, nadie. This Polish-descendant journalism has played a major role in the development and maturing of literary journalism in Mexico and had, in her books, conveyed an Oral History of the poor people of Mexico, among earthquakes, political repression and the nefarious consequences of the misuse of science and technology.
Testimony and chronicle in Elena Poniatowska's Las mil y una... La herida de Paulina
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Providing background on the history and nature of chronicle and testimonio writing, this chapter explores an important facet of Mexican writer Elena Poniatowska’s oeuvre: her chronicle or non-fiction narratives. Discusses critical theory on chronicle writing, Mexican federal and state laws on abortion, and journalistic accounts of the late 20th century era, to explicate Poniatowska’s account on the rape of a young girl, who endures additional abuse from the legal system. The paper places Poniatowska’s book _Las mil y una... La herida de Paulina_ in the context of post-Nafta social and political changes and within the presidential campaign of 2000. The debates around the violation of Paulina’s rights preceded and foreshadowed the large-scale collapse of the rule of law and juridical guarantees in the first two decades of the twenty-first century.
Cristina Rivera Garza’s 2007 novel La muerte me da contributes significantly to current debates over the representation of violence in Mexico and strongly challenges the conventions of generic crime fiction. Her radical rewriting of the novela negra’s iconic corpse encounter initiates a complex reflection on problems of narrative subjectivity, as she turns away from the facile realism of the contemporary novela negra and back toward the self-conscious reflexivity and intertextual play of the Sur group. The novel’s sustained references to visual and performance art (Goya, Abramović, the Chapman brothers) support a nuanced critique of the ethics of representation.
Repression and Resistance: Examining Mexico’s Tlatelolco Massacre through a Gendered Lens
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The 1968 Tlatelolco student massacre has been a topic of scholarly inquiry ever since the fateful day when hundreds of Mexican students lost their lives at the hands of Mexican troops. However, over the past ten years there has been resurgence in interest which has produced fascinating cultural and social analyses. Plaza of Sacrifices, Gender, Power and Terror in 1968 Mexico by Elaine Carey builds on this research by approaching the student movement and tragedy through a gendered lens. The book skillfully traces the events that led to the student massacre while addressing the centrality of gender and masculinity as vital components of the student-ledmovement. Carey conveys the story with the eloquence of a suspenseful novel where all students of Mexican history know the outcome. The book fills in the blanks of this tragic story with the voices of the participants, bringing to life the students who struggled for their vision of the Mexican Revolution.