Abstract

In the novel Nublares, Antonio Pérez Henares presents a caveman who typifies the modern, fragmented subject. The protagonist, Ojo Largo, a hybrid child of various cultures, crosses the boundaries between those cultures and negotiates the in-between space as a cultural translator. The concept of the fragmented, hybrid self reflects modern cognitive science. Daniel Dennett's Multiple Drafts model of consciousness presents a fragmented self characterized by "disaggregated agency," a subject consisting of the center of gravity between disparate mental processes and accumulated "narratives." Taking this model as point of departure, this thesis finds a consensus between three novels of prehistory, recent paleoanthropological theory, and modern literary criticism on the cohesion of subjectivity, language, and culture. It then examines the fundamental obstacles that complicate translating between languages/cultures, proposing a new model of the translator as a kind of multicultural outcast who creates equivalence from the center of gravity between cultures.

Degree

College and Department

Humanities; Spanish and Portuguese

Rights

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