Myth and Literature: Landmarks of Latin-American Cultural Identity Cover Image

Mito y literatura: hitos de la identidad cultura latinoamericana
Myth and Literature: Landmarks of Latin-American Cultural Identity

Author(s): Alina Ţiţei
Subject(s): Literary Texts
Published by: Editura Universității Aurel Vlaicu
Keywords: myth; literature; identity; hero; dictator

Summary/Abstract: In this paper we aim at emphasizing the organic connection between two essential components of Latin American cultural ethos: myth and literature. We attempt to define myth and to contextualize it within the culture of the subcontinent and, correlatively, we map a series of antinomies which delineate its spirituality, antinomies subsumed to the antithetical binomials civilization  barbarity and Europe  America. We also analyze the bonds that link myth, literature, identity and history, and we focus on the relationship between the image of the hero and the myth of the savior, the providential man, on the one hand, and the Latin American dictatorial figure, historic and fictional, on the other, associating both with the identitary specificity of Latin America.

  • Issue Year: 4/2013
  • Issue No: 1
  • Page Range: 83-98
  • Page Count: 16
  • Language: Spanish