Abstract:
The short story narrative genre has had a tremendous impact on Central America since the beginning of the 20th Century. This study examines the common themes of identity, race, and gender in 6 contemporary authors from Guatemala, El Salvador, and Panama. The writers used the short-story narrative written between 1965 and 1996 to illustrate the construction of national identity through plot, characterization, dialog, scenarios, and narrative strategies. The 23 stories reflect national identity through the eyes of females, war victims, racial minorities, or other disenfranchised social groups. The characters depicted in the stories identify similar traits that contribute to the construction of identity, race, and gender. The historical, political, and social context that influenced the authors precedes the detailed analysis of the stories creating fictional environments that reflect the national identity of the country. Within the theoretical spectrum, postcolonialism, intertextuality, gender, and cultural studies are prominent ideas in this analysis. This dissertation recognizes the importance of the authors studied and argues for the inclusion of their works in the cannon of 20th Century Latin American Literature. The research demonstrates the importance of culture in the works studied and shows how each country is able to develop and create its own national identity despite struggling with an extremely violent civil war in Guatemala and El Salvador.
