Diverse perspectives on the “chronicle”as a literary genre and socio-cultural practice.

One of MexicoÕs foremost social and political chroniclers and its most celebrated cultural critic, Carlos Monsiv‡is has read the pulse of his country over the past half century. The author of five collections of literary journalism pieces called cr—nicas, he is perhaps best known for his analytic and often satirical descriptions of Mexico CityÕs popular culture. This comprehensive study of Monsiv‡isÕs cr—nicas is the first book to offer an analysis of these works and to place Monsiv‡isÕs work within a theoretical framework that recognizes the importance of his vision of Mexican culture. Linda Egan examines his ideology in relation to theoretical postures in Latin America, the United States, and Europe to cast Monsiv‡is as both a heterodox pioneer and a mainstream spokesman. She then explores the poetics of the contemporary chronicle in Mexico, reviewing the genreÕs history and its relation to other narrative forms. Finally, she focuses on the canonical status of Monsiv‡isÕs work, devoting a chapter to each of his five principal collections. Egan argues that the five books that are the focus of her study tell a story of ever-renewing suspense: we cannot know Òthe endÓ until Monsiv‡is is through constructing his literary project. Despite this, she observes, his work between 1970 and 1995 documents important discoveries in his search for causes, effects, and deconstructions of historical obstacles to MexicoÕs passage into modernity. While anthropologists and historians continue to introduce new paradigms for the study of MexicoÕs cultural space, EganÕs book provides a reflexive twist by examining the work of one of the thinkers who first inspired such a critical movement. More than an appraisal of Monsiv‡is, it offers a valuable discussion of theoretical issues surrounding the study of the chronicle as it is currently practiced in Mexico. It balances theory and criticism to lend new insight into the ties between Mexican society, social conscience, and literature.

In my dissertarion I explore the national project of the government born from the Mexican Revolution of 1910. This national project consisted of the dissemination of an image of prosperity, economic stability, justice and equal rights for all Mexicans. However, during the 20th Century, different groups erupted to confront the Revolution ideology, its government, and to disarticulate the image of Mexico imposed. The decline of this image started in 1968, which is also the moment when the crónica (chronicle) emerged as a literary genre that indentified with marginal sectors in Mexican society. Also, I study how the crónica of Mexico from the second half of the 20 th Century, represents these marginal groups in its struggle for the construction of a nation that would include them. Through the theory of Homi Bhabha, who establishes that nation is a territory in dispute, I examine the representations of "el Movimiento Estudiantil" of 1968, the 1985 earthquake, and the presidential elections of 2006. In addition, I study the representation of the nation space in crónicas that register the marginal periphery of Mexico City and its struggle for the possession of the urban space. In addition, another group that has been marginalized within the national official project is women. I explore the limited inclusion of women in this national project through their access to work and their participation in society. Lastly, the indigenous movements have been the clearest events that show the failure of the Revolution and its agrarian reform. Even though there are few guerrillas, I only analyze the representations of the EZLN movement and its leader Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos. The crónicas selected are by cronistas like: Carlos Monsivais, Elena Poniatowska, Alma Guillermoprieto, Cristina Pacheco, Magali Tercero, Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos, Juan Villoro, and Guadalupe Loaeza.

Winner of the 2012 Best Book in the Humanities presented by the Mexico Section of the Latin American Studies Association In the turbulent twentieth century, large numbers of Mexicans of all social classes faced crisis and catastrophe on a seemingly continuous basis. Revolution, earthquakes, industrial disasters, political and labor unrest, as well as indigenous insurgency placed extraordinary pressures on collective and individual identity. In contemporary literary studies, nonfiction literatures have received scant attention compared to the more supposedly "creative" practices of fictional narrative, poetry, and drama. In Documents in Crisis, Beth E. Jörgensen examines a selection of both canonical and lesser-known examples of narrative nonfiction that were written in response to these crises, including the autobiography, memoir, historical essay, testimony, chronicle, and ethnographic life narrative. She addresses the relative neglect of Mexican nonfiction in criticism and theory and demonstrates its continuing relevance for writers and readers who, in spite of the contemporary blurring of boundaries between fiction and nonfiction, remain fascinated by literatures of fact.

"A provocative and uncommon reversal of perspective."--Elena Poniatowska.

This book is a detailed study of salient examples of Mexican travel writing from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. While scholars have often explored the close relationship between European or North American travel writing and the discourse of imperialism, little has been written on how postcolonial subjects might relate to the genre. This study first traces the development of a travel-writing tradition based closely on European imperialist models in mid-nineteenth-century Mexico. It then goes on to analyse how the narrative techniques of postmodernism and the political agenda of postcolonialism might combine to help challenge the genre's imperialist tendencies in late twentieth-century works of travel writing, focusing in particular on works by writers Juan Villoro, Héctor Perea and Fernando Solana Olivares.