"Graphic Documentaries: Drawing Reality in Hispanic Graphic Narrative" is a study of nonfiction graphic narrative that documents complex social challenges across the Hispanic world. It explores how comics artists contend with their social and political contexts and use the comics medium to document and narrate some of the most critical problems of the 20th and 21st centuries. My dissertation establishes a cross-cultural dialogue between graphic works from Spain, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, and Mexico. The graphic narrative corpus I study captures challenging human conditions: migration, unemployment, gender and race discrimination, political suppression, and childhood trauma, among others. Using critical readings of seven graphic novels published between 2014 - 2017, I examine the documentary techniques that artists use to research, record, and narrate actual events and lives within their own countries. Through the lenses of comics studies, historiography, literary analysis, media studies, and memory studies, I characterize the unique esthetic and structural features of comics as a documentary medium.The introduction and first chapter of the dissertation establish the historical development and theoretical conceptualization of graphic narrative as a documentary medium. I explore the hybrid nature of comics as literature and art in the service of documenting contemporary reality. The following three chapters explore subgenres of graphic documentaries: documenting comics journalism and ethnography, documenting family histories, and documentary autographies. Throughout the chapters, I provide critical readings of graphic narrative focusing on three fundamental notions: the construction of narrative subjectivity, the use of drawing as a process of bearing witness, and the re-framing of artifacts and media archives. My analysis relies on historical contextualization, and stylistics, and syntactical reading of comics. My dissertation demonstrates that graphic documentaries can bring about ethical visual representation of disenfranchised communities and allow individuals to claim social visibility. Using attention to material details and active observation, these works expand testimonial discourse to public spaces and material information. Hence, I contend that graphic documentaries are an apt medium for representing political and economic circumstances surrounding testimonial subjects. Finally, due to their hybrid multimodal nature, graphic documentaries call attention to the interpretation of historic archives, allowing comics authors to re-frame and recontextualize their meaning.

My dissertation examines the fictional representation of madness, what I have called literary maniagraphy —fictionalized writing about madness— in “Extracción de la piedra de locura” by Alejandra Pizarnik, “Macario” by Juan Rulfo, “La jaula de la tía Enedina” by Adela Fernández and “La culpa es de los tlaxcaltecas” by Elena Garro with the aim of scrutinizing how and to what extent their narratives destabilize hegemonic discourses to redefine social norms and identities. Given the importance of Spivak's contributions on the subaltern subject and its capacity and limits of self-representation —I understand the mad characters, central in these maniagraphies, as subaltern subjects— in each hermeneutical exercise, I inquire if these literary maniagraphies can make madness speak. The study has an interdisciplinary approach; thus, it considers some key concepts from gender studies, historiography, psychoanalysis, Foucauldian theory and, of course, race and literary theory. For the analysis of literary strategies, the concept of the chronotope elaborated by Bakhtin is key. Regarding the analysis of both, the representation of madness and, its transgressive potentiality in these maniagraphies, the notion proposed by Michel Foucault of madness, as a socio-historical construction, is a cornerstone for exploring the contingency and social transience of madness. Based on key concepts and approaches of these theories, my study argues that, on the one hand, these maniagraphies wish to operate as catalytic metaphors of a subjectivity of otherness, labeled as anomalous, that ‘speaks’ to resist the regimented behavior that regulate its identity. On the other hand, maniagraphies succumb to their transgressive intent and part of their rebellion is devoured by the dominant hegemonic discourses and practices. My dissertation is organized thematically in four chapters. Chapter I presents the theoretical and conceptual tools that support my analysis. Chapter II is a chronological tour of the representations of madness in literature focused mainly on Western culture. Comments on maniagraphies from ancient and classical times to modernity. The chapter explores how madness has helped to shape national identities and political spaces of control. It ends by presenting the complexity of Mexica society's conceptions of insanity in an attempt to open the horizon beyond Eurocentric cultural spheres of domain. Chapter III develops the hermeneutical exercise of the fictionalization and subversion strategies of the selected maniagraphies of Alejandra Pizarnik and Juan Rulfo. This chapter assesses Pizarnik's representation of the self devoured by the abyss of self-destruction in modernity. Regarding Rulfo's text, I contextualize -through a historical approach- rural post-revolutionary Mexico, where the Catholic Church and its conservative morality rule, surveil and punish. I analyze how madness questions the limits that the nation-state imposes on the individual through its microstructures of power in the intimate spheres of sexuality, the affections, the family, the ways of surviving hunger, misery, and marginality. Chapter IV analyzes the maniagraphies of Adela Fernández and Elena Garro to assess how far the transgressions of the hegemonic patriarchal normative can reach. In Fernández's text, the issue of racism and marginality are key to analyzing the representation of madness. As for Garro's maniagraphy, in addition to analyzing the ways in which patriarchy exercises violence against women in the intimate micro-space of home, I also analyze the representations of the nation state. I argue that Garro’s fictional historiographic narrative of the Spanish conquest holds a simplified notion of La Malinche and betrayal. The historical analysis of the struggles for hegemonic dominance in central Mexico between the Mexica and the Tlaxcaltecs lacks complexity. Also relevant is the socio-political analysis of the developmental stage that propels the entry into modernity of a fractured Mexican state. One with a patriarchal system of dominance that permeates the presidency of López Mateos. These historical contexts are key to understanding the scope of the transgressions and limitations that Garro's maniagraphy has in the construction of the notion of the nation and the modern state of both the pre-Hispanic peoples and contemporary Mexico of the 70's. In conclusion, my study shows that these maniagraphies manage to transcend, although with some limitations in the representation strategies of their mad characters, certain identity paradigms elaborated by the discourses of power that standardize gender roles, sexual behaviors, morality, sanctioned ways of suffering and living nostalgia.

1970s Mexican film is less studied than cinema of other periods, and this dissertation pays it overdue attention. The sexenio of President Luis Echeverría Álvarez from 1970 to 1976 saw a shift in the way Mexicans and foreigners alike thought about and talked about national identity. During this decade, discourse shifted away from the concept of a mestizo nation and toward conversation about Mexico’s economic solvency and the direction of Mexico’s economy. Discussions about land, land resources, and territory took on new importance. Where in previous decades, one of the primary concerns of the government and intellectual circles was how to make Indigenous peoples more culturally Mexican, by the 1970s, conversation had turned to territory and resource control. They pondered, for example, how to Mexicanize Indigenous territory in order to benefit Mexico’s industries. Fundamentally, political objectives had not changed; the aim was always to make Mexico modern, which was in itself a goal without a universally accepted benchmark for success. Still, as 1970s Mexican films Ayautla (José Rovirosa, 1972), Etnocidio, notas sobre el Mezquital (Paul Leduc, 1977), and Cascabel (Raúl Araiza, 1976) each reveal, Mexican politicians and civilians alike spent the decade preoccupied with questions of land use, maximizing the profits of agricultural, mining, and energy industries, and the significance and value of labor. These three films approach the decade’s dominant questions through an aesthetic and ideological framework that leftist geographers, anthropologists, authors, and filmmakers had already been developing. Filmmakers of the New Latin American Cinema waves of the 1960s and 1970s had laid the groundwork for creating genre-bending films exploring the bounds of documentary and fiction cinemas while leveling critiques at capitalism and the State. Meanwhile, geographers thinking about the same issues developed geocritical theory, anchored in terms like territory, landscape, and space, to articulate some of the same observations New Latin American Cinema was making about social and economic inequality in the Global South. This dissertation considers Ayautla, Etnocidio, and Cascabel inheritors of both traditions, and as films that reflect—and grapple with—the implications of representing land and labor within the context of shifting conversations about territory, the Nation-State, and racialized Indigenous peoples in pre-NAFTA Mexico. This study has multiple implications: first, for the way we think about Mexican film not only of the 1970s but also of earlier and later periods, and second, for the way we think about—and perceive—film and its relationship to space.

This dissertation examines the relationship between marginalized individuals and space as it is represented in a selection of 20th century Mexican novels. I focus on analyzing the differences and inequalities expressed within specific ethnic (indigenous), gender (feminine), sexuality (homosexual) and socioeconomic categories (the working class). I rely on national and urban theoretical discourses in order to distinguish and delineate the voices and minority perspectives that are ever present in Mexican culture. I argue that the individuals in these novels become subjected to multiple forms of marginality which ultimately shape the types of cartographies they construct. Additionally, I demonstrate how in the novels: Balún Canán, Oficio de tinieblas, Los albañiles, Chin chin el Teporocho, El vampiro de la Colonia Roma and Las púberes canéforas, these alternative discourses challenge and subvert the ethical values established and legitimized by an institutionalized patriarchal order. By constructing these cartographies they are not only able to survive within the spaces they inhabit but also contest and problematize pre-established notions of Mexico's national identity.

In addition to analyzing urban spaces, I examine the interstices of domestic space; a place of reception and rebellious subversion of patriarchal regulations in the novels: Los recuerdos del porvenir, Como agua para chocolate, Dos Mujeres and La cresta de Ilión. I also focus on female characters who venture outside the private sphere of the home and into "public" spaces previously inaccessible to them in Hasta no verte Jesús mío, La insólita historia de la Santa de Cabora and Duerme. Ultimately, these novels reconfigure the parameters of traditional gender identities and demonstrate how various characters' subjectively create new meaning by re-mapping and dismantling the fixed and unitary nature of the official national discourse which they re-appropriate.

In this study, I examine mythological, historical, and literary representations of killer women, beginning with the iconic transgressive female figures that are Medea, Clytemnestra, and Elektra in classical literature. Then, I consider three historical women made famous due to killings connected directly or indirectly to her: Salomé (flourished1st Century CE), Charlotte de Corday (1768-1793), and Mata Hari (1876-1917). The last two chapters begin by, first, delineating two narratives focused on killer women in 19th century Mexican literature to then specifically examine different narratives in Mexican literature and expose the different themes and tropes that authors such as María Luisa Puga, Amparo Dávila, and Elena Poniatowska deploy throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. The study seeks to show the different representations of killer women in literature, the visual arts, theater, and other cultural productions. It aims to show the impact killer women since memorial times and still continue to have in our contemporary society. Chapter 1 explores the impact that killer women have had since their origin, meaning to display the foundation killer women have had, even in mythological stories and tragedies written thousands of years ago. By offering the power and influence of three killer women: Medea, Clytemnestra, and Elektra, and their representations throughout time; this study creates a foundation of killer women since the contemporary characters that I examine cannot be separated from the role played by Medea, Clytemnestra and Elektra in our cultural imaginary as demonstrated by the many cultural productions throughout the centuries in literature and the arts. Chapter 2 bridges the gap between the real and the fictional stories and narratives created around killer women. By examining three women: Salomé, Charlotte de Corday, and Mata Hari, and the legacy they left behind in our culture, we can see the fictional and different representations that happen after the imaginary distorts and becomes the owner of these women’s stories. As it is known, a lot of the stories about killer women are exaggerated or create other narratives based on their crimes. This chapter focuses on what is real and what is fiction, including what was exaggerated. In chapter 3, we bridge the gap between fictitious, confirmed cases and mythological narratives by paying attention to the different fictitious narratives created around killer women in the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries. After discussing the 19th century narratives, it focuses on the short story “Emma Zunz” (19) by Jorge Luis Borges, which attests to the relationship between contemporary literature and Greek tragedies. It also offers the different types of womanhood depicted within these narratives, which women were allowed to kill and their destiny. In the end, it shows the actual cases of killer women narrated in the form of chronicles. This is done to create a path of storylines and set the relevance of women killer’s narratives within Mexican literature. Chapter 4 focuses on three different famous real-life cases in Mexico which were transformed into fictional narratives in film and literature. The first case is about Elvira Luz Cruz, a mother of four who killed her children. The narratives analyzed about this event show the scenarios leading Elvira to kill her offspring. The second case depicts that of las Poquianchis, three successful entrepreneur sisters with multiple prostitution establishments in Guanajuato, Mexico. Their story was exaggerated beyond repair; thus, they ended up in jail for “killing” several prostitutes and violating specific laws prohibiting prostitution. The last case shows how the hyperviolent State of Mexico has sadly transcended gender barriers by creating vigilantes and “sicarias” (paid assassins). This study investigates the representation, subjectivity, and identity of killer women within different scopes: the mythological, the real and within literature, particularly within Mexican narratives. We create a guide through time and different events that are relevant to the character of the killer women; it shows the different approaches authors and cultural creators take toward the representation, and the subjectivity and identity of the killer women. It also states the anxieties and traumas that are created within society after women commit this crime through the representations of their acts. Thus, it contributes to the overall representations of killer women within Mexican literature.

This dissertation explores the period from 1968 to 1985, when there was an extensive production of Mexican novels and essays that show -albeit with unique characteristics- that Mexican intellectuals were engaged in active dialogue with French thought during the 1960s. Therefore I focus on the points of encounter and reception of ideas that were circulating in Paris at that time, and Mexican intellectuals' intervention of these topics, such as the polemic discussion about "the death of the author" and its consequences: the birth of the reader, the narrative construction that shows a mental process of the writer -which are core issues of the Western thought nowadays.

I focus on how Salvador Elizondo, Julieta Campos, and Tomás Segovia consider Literary Theory not just as an academic field, but also as the day-to-day writer's job. These three intellectuals were active writers during this period since they participated as translators, professors, and journal editors. As a result, their novels and creative essays were spaces where they extended theoretical reflections on literature.

This dissertation counteracts the idea that Latin American intellectuals have not participated in the history of Literary Theory, which has been principally established by European intellectual's circles. Therefore, the main objective of this study is to lead scholarly attention to reassess the contributions of Mexican intellectuals to the Western history of ideas, and the role of Latin American intellectuals in the emergence of what we currently consider Literary Theory.

Xavier Villaurrutia is a 20th Century intellectual Mexican writer best known for his poetry, fiction, and playwriting. My dissertation aims to study his prolific art criticism from 1926 to 1950 as a narrative literary genre that creates a third space for discussing Mexican culture. Traditionally, relations between art and Mexican modernity have been viewed in a deeply polarized way. On the one hand, we find an orthodox nationalist project committed to the Mexican society and working class, as exemplified by Diego Rivera’s murals or the work of avant-garde writers such as Manuel Maples Arce. Countering this conservative and nationalistic viewpoint we also find the cosmopolitanism of the Contemporáneos avant-garde group, to which Villaurrutia belonged. In order to dismantle this dualistic narrative I propose a third possibility that departs from Walter Benjamin’s media theory as well as Roland Barthes and John Berger’s photography theoretic and textual analysis to frame an understanding of visual representation, criticism and national culture in the Mexican modernity of the 20th century and its implications for the 21st century.

Authors such as Rubén Gallo (2003) and Esther Gabara (2008) have portrayed Mexican modernity from the standpoint of media history and photography, respectively, to trace the ethics and aesthetics of representation of modernity. However, the intersectionality of poetic images, painting, photography, and cinema in art writing published in newspapers as well as in journals like Ulises, Contemporáneos, and El Hijo Pródigo have been almost completely overlooked. In order to fill this gap, I have revised works from Xavier Villaurrutia that reveal these intersections with the goal of expanding the scope of national cultural discourses during mid-twentieth century. These writings expose the poet’s will to establish himself as an active and critical spectator of the cultural policies. In addition, Villaurrutia shows the impact of technology and media, such as photography, in representations of nationalism. The Mexican author selected for this project is roughly contemporary to Walter Benjamin and, in many ways, displays a similarly original approach to media theory as the German critic, for which I consider him to be pioneering voice on visual and media culture in Latin America.

This dissertation examines representations of Protestants in Spanish novels published between 1850-1890, analyzing ways literary texts construct the religious "other". By examining novels of four important 19th century Spanish authors—Fernán Caballero (El exvoto and Lady Virginia), José María Blanco y Crespo (Luisa Bustamante, o La huérfana española en Inglaterra), Benito Pérez Galdós (Rosalía, Fortunata y Jacinta, and Torquemada en la hoguera) and Emilia Pardo Bazán (La Tribuna and La prueba)—who represent distinct literary movements and ideological commitments, the study highlights ways in which the representations of Protestants advances the authors' convictions, distorts the historical presence of Protestants during the time period, and/or affirms—explicitly or implicitly, intentionally or inadvertently—notions that exclude this religious minority from full membership in society or portray Protestantism as incompatible with Spanish national identity.

During the time period studied, religious liberty and Catholicism's role as a unifying force in Spanish society and an essential element of Spanish identity are fervently contested topics. The historical vicissitudes of the period—an unsuccessful attempt to introduce religious freedom during the Bienio Liberal (1854-56), the Revolution of 1868 and introduction of religious freedom in the Constitution of 1869, the evanescent First Spanish Republic, the restoration of the Bourbon monarchy and limiting of religious freedoms in the Constitution of 1876—frame the presence of competing ideologies. In this context, Protestant missionaries and colporteurs actively proselytize in Spain, a generation of Spanish Protestant leaders emerges, and the first congregations are established.

In chapters dedicated to each author, the study investigates the representation of the Protestant "other", utilizing categories developed by Tzvetan Todorov to describe the encounter with the religious subaltern in the New World. While examining the function of Protestants in the texts, the study also compares and contrasts the literary figures with historical representatives of the period. The dissertation reveals that similar responses toward the Protestant "other" emerge in authors of different ideological persuasions and literary commitments. Whether informed by costumbrismo, romanticism, realism or naturalism, the novels inevitably advance the authors' ideological commitments, misrepresent the religious other, and/or dismiss Protestantism as a legitimate religious alternative.

“Mujeres bravas: respresentaciones de agencia femenina y heroicidad en épicas inversas de la literatura fronteriza entre México y los Estados Unidos” examines critical feminist interventions and the representation of women’s historical function through an analysis of female characters in historical novels from the northern Mexican border and southwestern United States. This study brings together a literary corpus to create a genealogy of inverted epics (épicas inversas) by Mexican and Chicana writers a response to the invisibility of the historical function of border women as active agents. I argue that the novels of Forgetting the Alamo, or Blood Memory (2009) by Emma Pérez, La insólita historia de la Santa de Cabora (1990) by Brianda Domecq and Las rebeldes (2011) by Mónica Lavín, constitute a feminist intervention, or what Assia Mossihne calls “épica inversa” from the traditional epic, as the characters’ female agency question the official history of both countries to make visible the quotidian heroism of women. Therefore, this study identifies a series of strategies that women writers use to re-signify and articulate the idea of heroism in alternative histories that claim the epic potential of anonymous heroines who have gone unnoticed by history. The study offers a new approach to border studies and Latino/Chicana literature in the United States since it aims to recover the heroines of other bi-borderlands historical episodes besides the Mexican Revolution, such as the Battle of the Alamo in 1836 and the Tomóchic Rebellions in the 1890s.

The structure of this study is divided into two parts. The first part presents three chapters which document the literary historical context in which the épica inversa was developed, as well as the key concepts of the theoretical framework that enables the analysis of our literary corpus, to culminate with a brief literary genealogy. Chapter one focuses on the heroic ideal of the epic genre from its classical origin to the present feminist intervention of an épica inversa to demonstrate the metamorphosis it has endured. The chapter two, identifies the bi-referential and bi-borderlands theoretical framework to understand the analysis of the novels chosen through three key concepts: épica inversa, female agency and the border. Chapter three serves as a map and guide to a bi-borderlands literary genealogy documenting the postcolonial strategies of an inverted epic. The second part consists of the literary analysis of three novels most representative of our genealogy. Chapters four, five and six are individual studies that focus on three novels and the female characters who serve as protagonists: Micaela Campos in Forgetting the Alamo or Blood Memory, Teresa Urrea in La insólita historia de la Santa de Cabora; and Leonor Villegas in Las rebeldes. Through the study of the three texts, the analysis shows how the constant negotiation of female agency in inverted epics can function as historical accounts to understand the patriarchal structures as a binary project of domination, subordination and exclusion.