Zombies, Immigrants, Detectives, and the Latin American writer in the United States: "memoria narrativa" in Norte by Edmundo Paz Soldán

• In Event: Siglo nuevo, ficciones nuevas I

Abstract

My central claim about "memoria narrativa" (narrative memory) is a critical reflection of Bakhtin’s analysis of the generic definition, dialogism, and memory of the Novel. I use an intertextual approach, as a way to critically analyze how Edmundo Paz Soldán represents the immigrant as a figure who raises the following questions: What are the politics of identity surrounding Latin American immigrants in the United States? How is the U.S-Latin American relationship changing due to continued border crossing? How does an intertextual approach proposes to question what is inside and out of the United States’ cultural memory?
In Norte (2011) Edmundo Paz Soldán explores multiple perspectives of Latin America immigration to the United States of the 20th and 21st centuries. The narratives of Michelle, Martín, Jesús, and Sergeant Fernández, portray different time periods. Due to the variety of contexts, each character reveals a different relationship with the United States, but also maintains a complex relation with their country of origin. Norte establishes a dialogue with Juan Rulfo’s short story “Luvina” (1953) using the zombie trope, detective fiction genre, and “immigrant literature” to portray these conflicts. The use of different genres offers complex perspectives on the psychiatric hospital, the prison, the university, and the Latin American migratory experience to highlight the variety of the Latin American presence in the United States.
Through memoria(s) narrativa(s) this novel reflects, from an American space, upon a 21st Latin American generation of writers that is trying to find its own voice in United States. Thus, it can be analyzed from a crossroads position, shuttling between an admiration for the comics by the Hernández brothers, fantasy and gothic books, vampire narratives by Laurell K. Hamilton, and homages to Juan Rulfo.

Author

• Thania Munoz Diaz, Assistant Professor