Date of Award

1-1-2015

Document Type

Masters Thesis

Degree Name

M.A.

Organizational Unit

College of Arts Humanities and Social Sciences

First Advisor

Eric Gould, Ph.D.

Second Advisor

Maik Nwosu

Third Advisor

Richard Clemmer-Smith

Keywords

Cultural commodification, Globalization, Hegemony, Indigenous folklore, José Donoso, Postcolonial

Abstract

José Donoso’s The Obscene Bird of Night is often described as a grotesque labyrinth of symbols and images representative of the Latin Boom literary moment. The novel’s purposefully ambiguous construction opens itself up to two opposing readings that reveal discrepancies and conflicts in postcolonial and globalization studies, and as such, my project consists of two papers, easily read separately or in conversation with one another. The first proposes a reading of the novel as an assertion of marginal identity onto the world stage, ultimately upholding the indigenous native as a source of strength. Here, the novel’s appropriation of the folklore works to subversively challenge imperial and global power structures through the native’s own narrative. The second proposes an understanding of the novel’s cultural appropriation as an exploitative commodification of marginal identity. Here, the novel privileges imperial power by creating a narrative that functions as a continuation of imperial ideology and control through narrative. Both readings, however, work to understand the power of narratives and rhetoric to uphold or alter global power structures. Ultimately, the novel assists in revealing a disjuncture between the rhetoric and practice of contemporary narrative, establishing the paradox of postcolonial thought to perpetuate that which it works to condemn.

Publication Statement

Copyright is held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.

Rights Holder

Allison Welty

Provenance

Received from ProQuest

File Format

application/pdf

Language

en

File Size

85 p.

Discipline

Latin American literature, Folklore, Archaeology

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