Pesadillas del futuro. Distopías urbanas en la narrativa mexicana contemporánea.

Literary texts which do not conform to a realist and mimetic practice have been generally disregarded by critics in the context of Mexican literature, even though a significant number of texts following this tendency have been published since the nineteenth century. This paper focuses on science fiction, one of the categories of ‘the unusual’ in Mexican literary productions, and more specifically on the subgenre of the dystopia. Many examples of this tendency can be found in different literary and filmic expressions, particularly since the end of the twentieth century. Through the analysis of four novels by recognized contemporary authors (Fuentes, Aridjis, Boullosa and Sheridan), this article explores the main themes present in this tendency and proposes a distinct typology for this subgenre in contemporary Mexican fiction, which addresses the extra-textual connections between the texts and the tragic events witnessed by the country in the last decades. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]