Prosa Ultima De Jose Marti: Ideoestetica, Estilo Y Teoria Literaria

295 p.Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1993.The late prose style of Jose Marti is studied here chiefly on account of his own theoretical conceptions of history, literature, and art. The thesis intends to rebut interpretative standards that have traditionally overlooked the writings of this period by claiming its spirited political content and the rather unconventional forms it adopted--notably, a syncretic type of journalism based on a redefined perception of reality.The writing methods and techniques Marti employed towards the end of his life are examined amidst his direct engagement in Cuba's War of Independence while additionally seeking to dilate before a turn-of-the-century historical backdrop the extent into which the texts he produced during this period can be paralleled to his so called "pure" literature. The thesis stresses throughout Marti's de-normative aesthetics vis-a-vis revisions with a broader and more integrated scope of analysis. It shows how the Cuban patriot sucessfully forged a multi-purpose, ancilary mode of expression by which Latin America could construe its own autonomy without neglecting the universal values inherent to high quality art.Following a rudimentary cross section of Marti's style and ideas, the Introduction reveals the most significant underpinnings of its successive stages of development since 1886, and how each of these stages were shaped in turn by the need to influence not only the positive outcome of Cuba's separatist revolution, but also against the threat of foreign domination at a hemispheric scale. Particularly emphasized in such a context is Marti's simultaneous attainment of a native, original voice yet comparable to the highest achievements of the Western creative culture.Chapters I and II review the historical factors that come into play--modernism, modernity, modernization--in the re-reading of this prose, and in what way Marti helped to consolidate Spanish language and thought into a powerful literary unit.The second part of the thesis focuses on functional aspects, first (Chapter III) with respect to the concept of literary humor as an antilogical, counter-discourse device nevertheless entrusted within the most transcendental virtues of human behavior and art. Marti's radicalized originality (tropicalism) is treated in the final chapter from the perspective of the journal he maintained at war shortly before his death, and in relation to his notions of Harmony and Nature.In general, the thesis attempts to call upon Marti's farsighted contribution to the making of modern/modernist literary theory, its intrinsic value and viability in contemporary literary criticism.U of I OnlyRestricted to the U of I community idenfinitely during batch ingest of legacy ETD