Author ORCID Identifier

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2251-9183

Date Available

1-28-2019

Year of Publication

2019

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Document Type

Doctoral Dissertation

College

Arts and Sciences

Department/School/Program

Hispanic Studies

First Advisor

Dr. Susan Carvalho

Abstract

The Central American literary community and historiographical critics maintain a constant dialogue in regards to banana literature. Authors such as Asturias, Fallas, and Amador capture the pervasive nature of the banana enclave in their works. My research reveals the ways in which capitalist power controls and redefines spaces in the banner enclave. By taking a closer look these novels reveal the monopolistic power of the United Fruit Company exploits and destroys the natural space, this manuscript becomes a geographical map of the fictionalized banana enclaves, exposing the capitalist oppressing forces, which dominate nature and control the company workers.

Chapter one explores different historical interpretations of the banana enclave, focusing on the geographical spaces in Guatemala, Honduras, and Costa Rica. The second chapter discusses the novel Prisión verde (1950), by Ramon A. Amador, and pointed to enclave plantations and neighboring towns as weaponized spaces that control the inhabitants. Chapter three focuses on Mamita yunai (1941), by Carlos L. Fallas, to show how the banana enclave exploits natural spaces and leave a country ruined by corruption. The fourth chapter concentrates on the banana trilogy by Miguel A. Asturias composed of Viento fuerte (1950), El papa verde (1954) y Los ojos de los enterrados (1960), and examines how geographical spaces in the banana enclave intertwine with total economic, political, and social control in Guatemala. In sum, this thesis brings to light the narrative techniques these authors use to construct and manipulate space within the banana enclave, as a reflection of the capitalist world of Central America.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

https://doi.org/10.13023/etd.2019.224

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