El Panamericanismo de la persecución: Examining the Struggles of Oppressed Populations and Minorities in Latin America and the Caribbean Through the Lens of Literature Since the 19th Century

This thesis will attempt to explore the struggles of oppressed populations and minorities throughout Latin America and the islands of the Caribbean via the modality of Pan-American literature. Ibero-American works such as Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda’s Sab (1841), known for both its depictions of slavery and the restrictions forced upon women in Cuban society, and Clorinda Matto de Turner’s Aves sin nido (1889)—a Peruvian novel demonstrating the plight of the indigenous Andean people—will be critically compared. Literature of a relatively more recent vintage, including Avengers of the New World (2004)—Laurent Dubois’ historical account of the Haitian Revolution—and Virginia Garrard-Burnett’s work concerning the Mayan genocide in Guatemala of the early 1980s, Terror in the Land of the Holy Spirit (2009), will also be scrutinized as well in a comparative fashion. Due to the holistic nature of the Latin American Languages and Civilization program of study, this project intends to utilize the related disciplines of history, political science, literature, language, and cultural studies in order to discern connections and form relevant analogies to the respective present situations of these populations and their countries today. Lastly, this endeavor will also hope to provide perspective on how the effects of these intercontinental American developments have both in turn impacted and have been impacted by the influence of the United States.