A Postwar Perversion of "Testimonio" in Horacio Castellanos Moya's "El asco"

Autor/in	Thornton, Megan
Titel	A Postwar Perversion of "Testimonio" in Horacio Castellanos Moya's "El asco"
Quelle	In: Hispania, 97 (2014) 2, S.207-219 (13 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0018-2133
DOI	10.1353/hpn.2014.0031
Schlagwörter	Authors; War; Novels; Spanish Literature; Foreign Countries; Immigrants; Criticism; El Salvador + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Author; Autor; Autorin; Krieg; Novel; Roman; Ausland; Immigrant; Immigrantin; Immigranten; Kritik
Abstract	Salvadoran writer Horacio Castellanos Moya offers a provocative example of postwar cynicism in his 1997 novel "El asco: Thomas Bernhard en San Salvador." By telling the story of Edgardo Vega, an emigrant who returns to El Salvador in the mid-1990s after living in Canada for eighteen years, "El asco" represents the mass exodus of Salvadorans during and after the country's Civil War (1979-92). Because Vega recounts his story in an oral monologue, his narration recalls the testimonial project of the revolutionary years; however, Vega's narcissistic story distorts the "testimonio" to capture the disillusion and contradiction of the postwar years. Through a perversion of the "testimonio's" form and content and also by parodying the post-World War II Austrian writer Thomas Bernhard, "El asco," meaning disgust or repulsion, criticizes El Salvador's postwar reality and imagines the Salvadoran transnational community. Furthermore, the use of fiction allows Castellanos Moya to denounce the "testimonio's" claim on authenticity without abandoning its social project. (As Provided).
Anmerkungen	American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese, Inc. 900 Ladd Road, Walled Lake, MI 48390. Tel: 248-960-2180; Fax: 248-960-9570; e-mail: AATSPoffice@aatsp.org; Web site: http://www.aatsp.org
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2017/4/10