중미의 증언문학

Abstract

The growing attention paid to cultural diversity surely has contributed to the popularity of testimonies like Mench's, but there are other reasons for the interest they have attracted. In general, testimonies are more accessible to the North American student of Latin American culture and literature than, for instance, the highly complex texts of the Boom writers. The study of testimony and of “voices from below” also coincides with a surge in interest in popular culture and in the redefinition of the literary canon. Testimony is really nothing new. from the time of Conquest, in which testimonies were accorded legal standing so that victims, through eyewitness accounts, could reclaim their due testimonial narrative has expressed urgency, sought redress and justice, and challenged official discourse. Testimonial novel has emerged alongside testimony per se as another form of resistance narrative. Like testimony, the testimonial novel has been translated and widely disseminated for political and cultural reasons. With the testimonial novel, they must also deal with issues of historiography and artistic elaboration, the tensions between ethics and aesthetics, the role of he author, and the economics of production. To create the testimonial novel, writers have combined testimonio with narrative strategies introduced by the Boom, with various features of the old social realist and indigenista approaches, and with elements of magical realism and poetic lyricism. This degree of “mediation” varies from text to text, complicating attempts at classification and at times actually obscuring the testimonial elements in favor of the novelesque. The primary function of testimonial discourse is the “self-representation” of the Other like peasants, indigenous peoples, women, children, homosexuals, the poor, political prisoners, guerrilla fighters.