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Through penetrating analysis of twentieth-century historical fiction from Central America this book asks: why do so many literary texts in the region address historical issues? What kinds of stories are told about the past when authors choose the fictional realm to represent history? Why access memory through fiction and poetry? Nicole Caso traces the active interplay between language, space, and memory in the continuous process of defining local identities through literature. Ultimately, this book looks to the dynamic between form and content to identify potential maps that are suggested in each of these texts in order to imagine possibilities of action in the future.

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PART I: THE ISTHMUS: A GEOGRAPHY OF DUBIOUS STRAITS: CARTOGRAPHIES OF TRAUMA AND REDEMPTION The Dubious Strait An Epic of Resistance The Strait as Palimpsest The Wounds of 1954 Historical Context Historicality in Fiction After the Bombs PART II: THE CITY: THE CITY AS METONYMY FOR THE COSTS OF ´PROGRESS´ El Se¤or Presidente´s Liberal City and the Modern Scriptural Economy Subverting the Cabrerista Myth Unliveable Places and Ineffable Experiences The Effects of a Fragmented Narrative: Community and Alienation in the City Fragmentation and the Search for Community Fragmentation and Alienation PART III: THE NATION: THE NATION IN A GLOBAL ECONOMY Totalizing Narratives Written from the Margin: Julio Escoto´s Rey del Albor,Madrugada The ´Truth´ Behind the Scenes: a Detective´s Quest History as a Spiral of Resistance and Domination Foundational Fictions: Reasserting National Identity in the Midst of Globalization PART IV: THE OTHER: NEGOTIATING SPACES FOR CULTURAL DIFFERENCE Defining a Space of Shared Cultural Identity: the Pan-Maya Cultural Movement in Guatemala The Center at the Margin: Rethinking the Role of the Non-Maya Intellectual Border Crossings, Narratives of Duplicity and Unstable Selves Healing and Revitalization through Poetry Conclusion

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NICOLE CASO, Assistant Professor of Spanish at Bard College, USA.

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