THE DEMYTHIZATION AND THE RE-MYTHIZATION OF CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS IN THE POSTMODERNIST LATIN-AMERICAN HISTORICAL FICTION
THE DEMYTHIZATION AND THE RE-MYTHIZATION OF CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS IN THE POSTMODERNIST LATIN-AMERICAN HISTORICAL FICTION

Summary/Abstract: The historical and heroical figure of Christopher Columbus, which is unfailingly associated with the discovery of the Indies, represents one of the favourite topics for the postmodern Latin American authors. The postmodernist rewritings and reinterpretations of his life are offering another point of view with regards to the conquest of the Indies, as most of historical documents were written from the point of the European colonizer, without any regard to the opinions of the Latin-Americans. These fictional works try to find new meanings in the past events, and based on the present social and political ideologies, and through imagination, they recreate the past and demystify Columbus’s figure, exposing a different version of the historical facts, where history is no longer the only accepted truth. Analyzing three different novels from authors originating in Cuba, Mexico, Paraguay, we will show how historical fiction has restaged the past, demystifying Columbus’s heroic conduct and his conquest of America.

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