The Politics of Poetics: The Testimonial Genre and the Literary Prize of Casa de las Américas (1970-2011)
In this project I examine how Casa de las Américas' annual literary prize has influenced the formation and conceptualisation of the Latin American testimonial genre. Casa de las Américas was formed in connection with the Cuban Revolution in 1959 and simultaneously its prestigious annual literary prize was established. Since 1970 the genre of testimony is a prize category.
The purpose is to examine how Casa de las Américas' aesthetic and political genre criteria are reflected in the award-winning texts and their significance in the development of the genre. The testimonies will be compared with the awarded texts in the category 'novel' in order to analyse the presupposed differences between the genres. Prize criteria and juries' reports will be taken into consideration, as well as contemporary debates on aesthetics and politics.
Despite Casa de las Américas' influence on cultural politics in Latin America after 1960, the importance of its literary prize has not previously been examined in a systematic way. Likewise, the project s significant materials have not been taken into consideration in key theories of the testimonial genre.
Initially, I will map the development of the genre in relation to the novel by means of a contextualising close reading of the winning texts, in relation to a discussion of the politics of aesthetics. Secondly I will carry out a critical revision of present theories of the testimonial genre, based on the results of the project's first phase.
The purpose is to examine how Casa de las Américas' aesthetic and political genre criteria are reflected in the award-winning texts and their significance in the development of the genre. The testimonies will be compared with the awarded texts in the category 'novel' in order to analyse the presupposed differences between the genres. Prize criteria and juries' reports will be taken into consideration, as well as contemporary debates on aesthetics and politics.
Despite Casa de las Américas' influence on cultural politics in Latin America after 1960, the importance of its literary prize has not previously been examined in a systematic way. Likewise, the project s significant materials have not been taken into consideration in key theories of the testimonial genre.
Initially, I will map the development of the genre in relation to the novel by means of a contextualising close reading of the winning texts, in relation to a discussion of the politics of aesthetics. Secondly I will carry out a critical revision of present theories of the testimonial genre, based on the results of the project's first phase.
Final report
Casa de las Américas is a prestigious cultural institution founded in connection with the Cuban Revolution in 1959. Its annual literary prize was established simultaneously and since 1970 the genre of testimony is a prize category, introduced in relation to the increasing political intervention in cultural matters at that period. The original purpose of this project, to examine the influence of the aesthetic-political criteria of Casa de las Américas’ literary award on the formation, conceptualisation and institutionalization of the Latin American testimonial genre, has remained unchanged during the whole project. With the aim of developing a new theoretical and historical understanding of the testimonial genre as an aesthetic-political phenomenon, the diverse representational criteria as well as the variety of the awarded texts have been explored in relation to the contemporaneous debates on the interrelations between poetics and politics, form and content. The analyses of the awarded texts have focused on the construction of figures of author and narrator in the texts. By means of an analysis of how the author-informant-narrator are textualized with regard to the testimonial materials, the level and type of stylistic and ideological intervention can be assessed. In connection with the analysis of the figures of author and narrator, the tensions between aesthetics-autonomy and politics-authenticity were taken into consideration.
As a result of the fact that the quantity of prize winners in the category ‘testimonio’ are 22, and not 12 as I erroneously estimated in my research plan, the comparative analysis between the genre of testimony and the awarded novels has been restricted to a selection of text which I considered would enrich the interpretation of the testimonies. The original idea was to carry out systematic comparison of the awarded novels and testimonies, an idea I abandoned due to the increased number of text, which made it unfeasible.
I have organized the research material thematically in four parts which each one corresponds to a chapter in the monography I will finalize in 2020. The first part looks into the institutionalization of the genre and the creation of a new figure of author. In this part I also examine how the aesthetic-political concept of avant-garde is used and defined in the intellectual debates in the 1970’s an how it is canalized in the awarded texts. The second part explores the ethnographic poetics of some of the award-winning testimonies. The analysis approaches the relations between author and informant in the creation of a new revolutionary subjectivity, as well as the negotiations between a literate and a popular repertoire in the construction of the revolutionary socio-cultural imaginary. I argue that the ethnographic testimonies, canonized by academic criticism as the stories of 'the voiceless', are part of a homogenizing cultural discourse launched in the framework of the Cuban Revolution, with a scope far beyond the island. The third part takes a look at the testimonies which reproduce the ideal of the new man in the guerrilla-testimonies, with Ernesto Che Guevara's writings as a model. The fourth and last part examines the texts awarded after 2000 in the light of the current ‘memory boom’ which has affected the testimonial genre that becomes more subjective and plays more with the borders between fact and fiction.
The most important result is, in the first place, that I analyse an extensive material that previously was excluded from the theory and literary history of the testimonial genre in Latin America. Based on this previously unexplored material, the project has shed light on more varieties and variations within the genre and has extensively examined its characteristics and development in a transnational, historical, literary and sociopolitical context. Particularly the part on ethnographic poetics, connected to debates on decolonization and the process of modernization of the Cuban politics, has led to a reassessment of the testimonial genre in relation to the dominant theories in the field.
The project has formulated new research questions regarding the debate on World Literature, the circulation of literature, the cultural and political value of the literary prize, as wells as regarding the relationship between the global-cosmopolitan and the local-vernacular in the testimonial genre.
I have organized three panels (2, 3 and 5 in the list below) at international conferences to which I invited specialists in the field (Victoria García, Carolina Pizarro Cortés and Rossana Nofal). Moreover, I have participated in 4 other international conferences:
1. “Artistic Autonomy and Revolution: Notes on the Testimonial Genre and the Literary Prize of Casa de las Américas (1970-1976)”. Presumed Autonomy. Literature and the Arts in Theory and Practice. Stockholms Universitet, 10-13 of May 2016.
2. ”Los idearios poético-políticos del Premio Testimonio de Casa de las Américas (1970-1975)”. Panel: ”Relecturas del género testimonial en América Latina”. XXXV Latin American Studies Association (LASA), Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú. 29 April -1 of May 2017.
3. ”Los idearios poético-políticos del Premio Testimonio de Casa de las Américas (1970-1975)”, The Nordic Latin American Research Network (NOLAN), School of Global Studies, Göteborgs Universitet, 15-17 of June 2017.
4. .”Dosificaciones de las dos vanguardias”. Panel: “Relecturas de Ángel Rama. La ciudad letrada y la construcción de un sistema literario para América”. II Simposio de la Sección de Estudios del Cono Sur de LASA, Montevideo 19-22 of July 2017.
5. “Ecología social y perspectivas decoloniales en Wadubari de Marcos A. Pellegrini”. Lecturas ecocriticas de la cultura latinoamericana. Nordic Latin American Research Network (NOLAN), Oslo, 25-26 of October 2018.
6. “Del testimonio a la literatura testimonial: sobre las nuevas formas de pensar lo real (2003-2011)”, XXXVI Latin American Studies Association (LASA), Barcelona, 23-26 of May 2018.
7. "Intelectuales divergentes en el nuevo milenio: sobre el premio testimonio de Casa de las Américas (2007-2011)”. III Simposio de la Sección de Estudios del Cono Sur de LASA, Buenos Aires 10-13 of July 2019.
I August of 2019 I attended a symposium on ”Revolutionary Havana” as an invited speaker at the University of Bergen, Norway where I presented ”The Precious Ambiguities of Political Writing. Reflections on the Testimonial Genre and the Prize of Casa de las Américas (1970-2017)". I have also presented my research at two Swedish Universities other than my own:
1. ”The Politics of Poetics: The Testimonial Genre and the Literary Prize of Casa de las Américas (1970-2011)”. Institutionen för språkstudier, Umeå Universitet 20 september 2016.
2. ”Poetik som politik” Forum för komparativ litteraturvetenskap. Språk och litteraturcentrum, Lunds Universitet. 30 mars 2016.
During the project I was invited to participate in an large international research project called ”Pensar lo Real: Autoficción y Discurso crítico”, led by Ana Casas at Universidad de Alcalá, Spain. I was invited to participate as a specialist on the borderland between testimony and autofiction and at the meetings of the project I have contributed with my research on the testimonies awarded after 2000.
I carried out a research trip to Casa de las América, Havana in January of 2019 which unfortunately was not particularly fruitful because of the precarious material situation at the institution. However, I was able to attend the ceremonies of this year's literary award which takes place in January each year.
Within the education at the University of Gothenburg, I have dealt with the testimonial genre within the courses SP2105, Det egna och det främmande i litteraturen (master’s level) and SP2700, Berättelser om jaget: minne, exil och genus i latinamerikansk litteratur och film (master’s level).
As a result of the fact that the quantity of prize winners in the category ‘testimonio’ are 22, and not 12 as I erroneously estimated in my research plan, the comparative analysis between the genre of testimony and the awarded novels has been restricted to a selection of text which I considered would enrich the interpretation of the testimonies. The original idea was to carry out systematic comparison of the awarded novels and testimonies, an idea I abandoned due to the increased number of text, which made it unfeasible.
I have organized the research material thematically in four parts which each one corresponds to a chapter in the monography I will finalize in 2020. The first part looks into the institutionalization of the genre and the creation of a new figure of author. In this part I also examine how the aesthetic-political concept of avant-garde is used and defined in the intellectual debates in the 1970’s an how it is canalized in the awarded texts. The second part explores the ethnographic poetics of some of the award-winning testimonies. The analysis approaches the relations between author and informant in the creation of a new revolutionary subjectivity, as well as the negotiations between a literate and a popular repertoire in the construction of the revolutionary socio-cultural imaginary. I argue that the ethnographic testimonies, canonized by academic criticism as the stories of 'the voiceless', are part of a homogenizing cultural discourse launched in the framework of the Cuban Revolution, with a scope far beyond the island. The third part takes a look at the testimonies which reproduce the ideal of the new man in the guerrilla-testimonies, with Ernesto Che Guevara's writings as a model. The fourth and last part examines the texts awarded after 2000 in the light of the current ‘memory boom’ which has affected the testimonial genre that becomes more subjective and plays more with the borders between fact and fiction.
The most important result is, in the first place, that I analyse an extensive material that previously was excluded from the theory and literary history of the testimonial genre in Latin America. Based on this previously unexplored material, the project has shed light on more varieties and variations within the genre and has extensively examined its characteristics and development in a transnational, historical, literary and sociopolitical context. Particularly the part on ethnographic poetics, connected to debates on decolonization and the process of modernization of the Cuban politics, has led to a reassessment of the testimonial genre in relation to the dominant theories in the field.
The project has formulated new research questions regarding the debate on World Literature, the circulation of literature, the cultural and political value of the literary prize, as wells as regarding the relationship between the global-cosmopolitan and the local-vernacular in the testimonial genre.
I have organized three panels (2, 3 and 5 in the list below) at international conferences to which I invited specialists in the field (Victoria García, Carolina Pizarro Cortés and Rossana Nofal). Moreover, I have participated in 4 other international conferences:
1. “Artistic Autonomy and Revolution: Notes on the Testimonial Genre and the Literary Prize of Casa de las Américas (1970-1976)”. Presumed Autonomy. Literature and the Arts in Theory and Practice. Stockholms Universitet, 10-13 of May 2016.
2. ”Los idearios poético-políticos del Premio Testimonio de Casa de las Américas (1970-1975)”. Panel: ”Relecturas del género testimonial en América Latina”. XXXV Latin American Studies Association (LASA), Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú. 29 April -1 of May 2017.
3. ”Los idearios poético-políticos del Premio Testimonio de Casa de las Américas (1970-1975)”, The Nordic Latin American Research Network (NOLAN), School of Global Studies, Göteborgs Universitet, 15-17 of June 2017.
4. .”Dosificaciones de las dos vanguardias”. Panel: “Relecturas de Ángel Rama. La ciudad letrada y la construcción de un sistema literario para América”. II Simposio de la Sección de Estudios del Cono Sur de LASA, Montevideo 19-22 of July 2017.
5. “Ecología social y perspectivas decoloniales en Wadubari de Marcos A. Pellegrini”. Lecturas ecocriticas de la cultura latinoamericana. Nordic Latin American Research Network (NOLAN), Oslo, 25-26 of October 2018.
6. “Del testimonio a la literatura testimonial: sobre las nuevas formas de pensar lo real (2003-2011)”, XXXVI Latin American Studies Association (LASA), Barcelona, 23-26 of May 2018.
7. "Intelectuales divergentes en el nuevo milenio: sobre el premio testimonio de Casa de las Américas (2007-2011)”. III Simposio de la Sección de Estudios del Cono Sur de LASA, Buenos Aires 10-13 of July 2019.
I August of 2019 I attended a symposium on ”Revolutionary Havana” as an invited speaker at the University of Bergen, Norway where I presented ”The Precious Ambiguities of Political Writing. Reflections on the Testimonial Genre and the Prize of Casa de las Américas (1970-2017)". I have also presented my research at two Swedish Universities other than my own:
1. ”The Politics of Poetics: The Testimonial Genre and the Literary Prize of Casa de las Américas (1970-2011)”. Institutionen för språkstudier, Umeå Universitet 20 september 2016.
2. ”Poetik som politik” Forum för komparativ litteraturvetenskap. Språk och litteraturcentrum, Lunds Universitet. 30 mars 2016.
During the project I was invited to participate in an large international research project called ”Pensar lo Real: Autoficción y Discurso crítico”, led by Ana Casas at Universidad de Alcalá, Spain. I was invited to participate as a specialist on the borderland between testimony and autofiction and at the meetings of the project I have contributed with my research on the testimonies awarded after 2000.
I carried out a research trip to Casa de las América, Havana in January of 2019 which unfortunately was not particularly fruitful because of the precarious material situation at the institution. However, I was able to attend the ceremonies of this year's literary award which takes place in January each year.
Within the education at the University of Gothenburg, I have dealt with the testimonial genre within the courses SP2105, Det egna och det främmande i litteraturen (master’s level) and SP2700, Berättelser om jaget: minne, exil och genus i latinamerikansk litteratur och film (master’s level).