Identity and memory in the current Mexican literature. Writing strategies against disappearances

Abstract

This paper focuses on the study of contemporary literary texts on the theme of violence and disappearances in Mexico. In this context, the concept of disappearances is not limited to the physical disappearance of bodies, but it also refers to the disappearance of a certain vision and image of the country. To combat this threat, both physical and symbolic, that is posed by violence, texts draw upon elements and traits of the individual and collective identity and develop writing strategies contributing to the production of a present-tense memory. Some of these strategies include creating micronarratives or micro stories to re-humanize the victims; references to the collective, community and group dimensions as a form of cohesion and belonging; and a critical re-writing of founding texts. To illustrate these strategies, some texts of contemporary Mexican authors including Cristina Rivera Garza, Carmen Boullosa, Jorge Humberto Chávez, María Rivera, Sara Uribe, Gerardo Arana and Javier Raya are analyzed within the thinking of authors such as Elizabeth Jelin (2002), Gabriel Gatti (2006, 2007, 2018), John Gibler (2017) and Andreas Schedler (2018).