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The aim of this thesis is to examine the contemporary rise in historical fiction about the Black past of the River Plate region. Unlike Latin American countries such as Mexico which envisioned racial mixture - mestizaje - as central to national identity, dominant discourses in Uruguay and Argentina fetichised European immigration and whiteness as the nations consolidated a version of national history and identity to present at the time of their Centenaries (Argentina 1910; Uruguay 1925 and 1930). Framed through the lens of memory studies, these contemporary novels are analysed against the backdrop of the Bicentenary celebrations in Argentina (2010) and Uruguay (2011), which acted as catalysts for a reconfiguration of this racial outlook through reinterpretations of the nations' histories. The focus on the contemporary novel establishes the significance of a genre which has not yet received much attention within Afro-Platine literary studies. This dissertation also offers the first comparative exploration of Afro-centric fiction in these two republics. After a chapter devoted to theoretical and methodological issues, Chapter Two studies two novelists (de Mattos and Cucurto) who rewrite canonical works to subvert perceptions of the enslaved as passive and submissive, focusing instead on their agency to rebel. The texts selected in Chapter Three (Chagas and Moya) undermine a model of heroism characterised by unconditional loyalty to a white leader, presenting instead Afro-Platine heroes who question the national projects these leaders represent. In Chapter Four, Chagas and Platero contest a binary understanding of ethnicity by focusing on the often unclassifiable and fluid mixed-race heritage of these populations. Overall, these novels do not only write Afro-descendant characters into the histories of these nations. Instead, they posit a radical challenge to the ways inclusivity itself operates in Uruguayan and Argentine nationhood, redefining its parameters and demanding fresh frameworks to conceptualise race and ethnicity for the Bicentenary.

The process of pile driving has been a commonly used method for the installation of deep foundations in Central Florida due to the soil conditions that consist mainly of medium-dense silty sands. Pile driving can generate large vibration levels that might potentially trigger ground deformations in the surrounding soils and cause damage on nearby structures. Currently, design and construction standards provide guidance in terms of ground vibration levels expected during pile driving and establish vibration thresholds to avoid damage on important infrastructure. However, little insight has been given into the amount of ground deformations that soils experience due to pile driving induced vibrations. This phenomenon becomes important when repetitive and cumulative loading cycles are applied in sandy soils. The main goal of this thesis is to investigate numerical modeling alternatives capable of predicting ground deformations caused by pile driving performed in Central Florida soils. Field data obtained from different construction sites in Central Florida are used to understand the expected ground deformations and their relationships with ground vibration levels. Common construction practices in the area are also analyzed from the reported field data. Two numerical modeling approaches previously used in the literature are compared with data measured in the field to determine the most suitable alternative to numerically analyze and predict ground deformations. Subsequently, a numerical study of the effects of the different variables involved in this problem on expected ground vibrations and deformations is presented. These variables include the type of pile and its dimensions, the driving hammer and its transmitted energy to the pile, and the dynamic properties of the soils in terms of attenuation characteristics and densification potential. It is concluded that in cases where vibration levels comply with the thresholds defined by the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) large ground deformations can still occur depending on the above-mentioned site-specific variables. In terms of numerical modeling alternatives, a continuous modeling approach offered a better estimation of the stress field generated by pile driving than a discontinuous approach. This allows for better determination of the strains within the soil continuum leading to better ground deformation predictions.