Exile and failure in Marco Antonio Flores’s Lost Battles

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5377/hcs.v0i12.8828

Keywords:

Exile, failure, expatriation, revolution, trauma

Abstract

In The Lost Battles, Guatemalan author Marco Antonio Flores (1937-2013) continues his peculiar novelistic mark regarding the use of irreverent language, and the topics of disappointment and failure. Exile and failure, in this novel, are portrayed from the psychological intimacy of the characters and their lives marked by obstacles to an attain success, or to realize their utopian dreams. Thus, the purpose of this paper is the exploration of exile and the failure endured and experienced by the three main characters. The analysis focuses on the setbacks predicted, or unconsciously carried out by the characters through various facets of their lives. This analysis covers a time span that ranges from their abandoned childhood through their adulthood. It is based on the issues of melancholy theorized by Sigmund Freud, and Edward Saids theoretical framework of the exile.

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Author Biography

Ana Yolanda Contreras, United States Naval Academy

Doctora en Literatura Latinoamericana por la Universidad de Tulane en 2003. Actualmente es profesora asociada en el Departamento de Lenguas y Culturas de la Academia Naval de Estados Unidos. Imparte cursos de lengua, cultura, cine y literatura hispanoamericana en dicha institución. Su enfoque investigativo se centra en estudios culturales, cine y literatura de Guatemala. Sus publicaciones han aparecido en revistas académicas como Centroamericana, Istmo: Revista virtual de estudios literarios y culturales centroamericanos, A Contracorriente: una revista de estudios latinoamericanos, entre otras.

References

Ángel Rama, (1986). La novela en América Latina. Universidad Veracruzana, México.

Edward W. Said, (2000), Reflections on Exile and Other Essays, (Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press.

Flores M, Antonio, (1999) Las batallas perdidas, Guatemala, Alfaguara.

Flores, Marco Antonio, Las batallas perdidas, (Guatemala: Alfaguara, 1999).

Freud Sigmond, Mourning and Melancholia, (London, Hogarth, 1953-66),

Freud, Sigmond, Mourning and Melancholia en Complete Psychological Works, Trad. James Strachey et all., (London: Hogarth, 1953-66), Vol 14, págs. 243-258.

González Ponciano, Jorge Ramón, Guatemaltecos en la ciudad de México, en Les Cahiers ALHIM 2 (2001), págs. 1-8. http://alhim.revues.org/590.

Meyer, Eugenia, y Eva Salgado. Un refugio en la memoria: La experiencia de los exilios latinoamericanos en México, (México: Editorial Océano, 2002).

Molloy, Silvia. At Face Value: Autobiographical Writing in Spanish America, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991).

Moreiras, Alberto, Postdictadura y reforma del pensamiento en Revista de Crítica Cultural 13 (1999), págs. 35-43.

Nickless, Leona, Trilogía de la violencia -Narrativa de Marco Antonio Flores, (Guatemala: FLACSO, 2011).

Perdomo, Orellana, J.L., El insurrecto solitario: Vida y obra de Marco Antonio Flores, (Guatemala: Editorial Óscar de León, 1997).

Rama, Ángel, La novela en América Latina, (México: Universidad Veracruzana, 1986).

Rodríguez, Ileana, Women, Guerrillas, and Love: Understanding War in Central America, (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1996).

Said, Edward W., Reflections on Exile and Other Essays, (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2000).

Published

25-11-2019

How to Cite

Contreras, A. Y. (2019). Exile and failure in Marco Antonio Flores’s Lost Battles. Revista Humanismo Y Cambio Social, 92–101. https://doi.org/10.5377/hcs.v0i12.8828

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