Abstract: | This is an attempt at establishing the theme of the border as a parameter for a more inclusive project: a typology of contemporary Chicano literature. The three novels (Mendéz, Miguel, El Sueño de Santa Maria de las Piedras, 1986; Islas, Arturo, The Rain God, 1984; Anzaldúa, Gloria, Borderlands: The New Mestiza, 1987) have a common denominator, their main preoccupation is the resolution of the border problematics, be it geographical, political, economic, cultural, psychological. The border can be seen as separation or reunion ("brisure" ou "jointure"), the two cultures may remain alien or end up in fusion according to a more or less optimistic or universalistic bias. Here we are studying three different and even conflicting answers, keeping in mind the difference between the concept of border seen as linear separation or boundary and the other, more specifically American concept of a fluctuating, moving limit forever asking to be pushed further, that of the frontier. The border parameter therefore sheds light on over-identification (when the fusion is refused) or des-identification (when fusion is acknowledged). Another strategy consists in taking refuge in the flamboyant syncretism of the Third Zone, thus assuaging confrontation between Mexico and the United-States. |
