'I would rather go on being underdeveloped.' Rereading and recontextualising Edmundo Desnoes's 1965 novel Memorias del subdesarrollo. (1st December 2020)
- Record Type:
- Journal Article
- Title:
- 'I would rather go on being underdeveloped.' Rereading and recontextualising Edmundo Desnoes's 1965 novel Memorias del subdesarrollo. (1st December 2020)
- Main Title:
- 'I would rather go on being underdeveloped.' Rereading and recontextualising Edmundo Desnoes's 1965 novel Memorias del subdesarrollo
- Authors:
- Rowlandson, William
- Abstract:
- Abstract : This article follows two lines of inquiry. First, it provides a rereading of the novel Memorias del subdesarrollo (Desnoes 1965), suggesting that the protagonist, Sergio, is affected by the threat of nuclear war throughout the novel and that this fear dominates the text from the outset, and not just the novel's ending during the Missile Crisis of October 1962. It argues that Sergio's state of anxiety and inertia derive as much from this fear as from his intellectual detachment and problematic relationship with the Cuban Revolution, where critical attention has tended to focus. This rereading gives texture to Sergio's inaction and nihilism, revealing a coherent response of an individual to the threat of catastrophe. Secondly, this article sets this rereading against a new context of catastrophe: that of climate change, ecosystem collapse and species extinction. In this context an overlooked revolutionary fervour is detected in Sergio that provides a reading of hope in the narrative that, when read analogously against the present, may reflect a sense of hope against calamity.
- Is Part Of:
- International journal of Cuban studies. Volume 12:Number 2(2020)
- Journal:
- International journal of Cuban studies
- Issue:
- Volume 12:Number 2(2020)
- Issue Display:
- Volume 12, Issue 2 (2020)
- Year:
- 2020
- Volume:
- 12
- Issue:
- 2
- Issue Sort Value:
- 2020-0012-0002-0000
- Page Start:
- 329
- Page End:
- 350
- Publication Date:
- 2020-12-01
- Subjects:
- Desnoes -- Memorias -- Cuba -- revolution -- Missile Crisis -- nuclear -- catastrophe -- climate change -- decarbonisation
Cuba -- Periodicals
Cuba -- Politics and government -- Periodicals
Cuba -- Social conditions -- Periodicals
Cuba -- History -- Periodicals
Politics and government
Social conditions
Cuba
History
Periodicals
972.91005 - Journal URLs:
- http://www.jstor.org/journal/intejcubastud ↗
http://www.cubastudiesjournal.org/ijcs_home.cfm ↗
http://www.londonmet.ac.uk/research-units/cuba/journal/journal_home.cfm ↗
https://www.plutojournals.com/ijcs/ ↗ - DOI:
- 10.13169/intejcubastud.12.2.0329 ↗
- Languages:
- English
- ISSNs:
- 1756-347X
- Deposit Type:
- Legaldeposit
- View Content:
- Available online (eLD content is only available in our Reading Rooms) ↗
- Physical Locations:
- British Library HMNTS - ELD Digital store
- Ingest File:
- 23201.xml