La otredad suburbana en la narrativa peruana entre 1950 y 1992

Abstract

Since the 1950's, Peru has moved from a rural to an urban society. Rural migration caused a demographic explosion and emerging shantytowns ( barriadas) in peripheral areas of Lima, where a third of Peru's population currently resides. This phenomenon has transformed Lima's Hispanic character. The main actors of this process, referred to in this study as otro suburbano, were mostly Andean-peasant migrants and marginal urban individuals. Together, they built barriadas and occupied traditional urban spaces, and were considered as suburban groups excluded from the conventional city. Despite Peruvian literature's mimetic tradition, critics have stated that Peruvian writers have lacked interest in this phenomenon. This dissertation demonstrates that, by applying the concept of otredad suburbana, we find, in fact, significant relations between Lima's urban transformation and fictional stories. The focus of this study is the configuration of the otredad suburbana in Peruvian narrative between 1950 and 1992 through the analyses of eight short stories, three novels and one nouvelle, written respectively by Huanay, Congrains, Ribeyro, Bonilla, Salazar Bondy, Urteaga, Jara, and Higa. This study is divided into four parts corresponding to four points of view depicting the otro suburbano: (1) Andean-migrant (the other from the margin), (2) Urban-criollo (the other from the centre), (3) Emerging-migrant (the other and the hybridizing centre), and (4) Contemporary-urban (the other and the suburbanizing centre). Considering the literary text as the vehicle of an author's ideology, analyses are based on semiotic-narratological concepts (Bal, Genette, Lanser) and supported by categories from sociological and cultural studies (Comejo Polar, Lauer, Matos Mar, Nugent, Romero). This dissertation concludes that, (1) the otro suburbano, as fictional figure, appears alternately as a sublime, victimized, scatological, perturbing and tanatic subject; (2) the otro suburbano , in the narrative production, passed from being a contemplated object to being an agent of its own discourse; and (3) as a consequence of the other's massive presence, stories illustrate Lima moving towards a desuburbanizing periphery and consequently a suburbanizing centre.