Historia y memoria en Cuba a través de la narrativa de Amir Valle History and memory in Cuba through the narrative of Amir Valle’s Havana Babylon, Sanctuary of shadows and The words and the dead = ( Historia y memoria en Cuba a través de la narrativa de Amir Valle en Habana Babilonia, Santuario de sombras y Las palabras y los muertos)

peer-reviewed
This thesis discusses the relationship between memory and history in contemporary Cuba, within the framework of cultural studies, as represented in three books by Amir Valle: Habana Babilonia, Santuario de sombras and Las palabras y los muertos. In the aftermath of the Cuban revolution, history and memory became instruments in the construction of a collective revolutionary identity that took a definite downturn during the 90s. The present study aims to illustrate, how Valle’s fiction and nonfiction narratives problematize these changes, and project the embodiment of memory in Cuba. Drawing on a variety of theoretical frameworks that range from memory studies, history and hermeneutics to deconstructionism, I analyse three core elements in these works: Valle’s portrayal of marginality as a way to challenge centre-periphery relationships, his use of testimony in rescuing alternative histories and the deconstruction of the official discourse that is present in his literature. This textual and extra-textual analysis reveals the process of counter memory, as well as the transformation of the social frameworks of memory and the shifting of landmarks through which Cuban society remembers. This unveils supressed polyphonic identities and leads to the emergence of a besieged memory, and new sites of memory which are evolving, distant from the official discourse, and in resonance with the nation’s cultural diversity. This thesis proves the problematic relationship between memory and history, and how it’s dynamic has become altered on the island. I hope this research will contribute to enrich the interdisciplinary approach in recent Cuban history and offer new insights within the field of Cultural Studies.