Reimaginando el neoliberalismo: cuentos mexicanos finiseculares del siglo XX que subvierten la retórica neoliberal

This dissertation examines neoliberal discourse’s construction and its impact represented in short stories published during the late 1980s and 1990s in the northern and central part of Mexico. Focusing primarily on short stories by authors Luis Humberto Crosthwaite, Rafael Saavedra, Oscar de la Borbolla, and Rosario Sanmiguel, this study analyzes how re-imagined, in their literary texts, the immediate aftermath of neoliberal policies in Mexican’s society, economy, culture, and politics. By re-imagining neoliberalism, I propose that each text creates a dialogue with and a juxtaposition of reality to the rhetoric constructed by the state apparatuses; and, at the same time, by exploring Mexicans’ daily lives, each text offers a different perspective on neoliberalism’s effects on them. Each chapter draws on an interdisciplinary theoretical framework to provide a complete understanding of the origin of neoliberalism, its discursive evolution, its implementation in Mexico, its benefits and consequences, and its influence on the transformation of language, culture, politics, and feminism. Part I discusses the linguistic transformations on the Mexican side of the border after the arrival of neoliberal policies in areas of commerce, as presented in the short stories by Luis Humberto Crosthwaite and Rafael Saavedra. The conclusion of this analysis is that a kind of transitory bilingualism has emerged and, eventually, has become part of Tijuana’s linguistic identity. Part II explores the transformation of Mexico City represented in the book of Ucronías of Oscar de la Borbolla. In this part, I propose that these texts are ucronías políticas (political uchronies) –hybrid, humoristic news reports– that subvert neoliberal discourse by staging the negative effects of neoliberalism through the portrayal of marginalized spaces to make visible those forgotten by an apparently progressive rhetoric. Part III presents a rereading through an economic lens of Callejón Sucre y otros relatos, by Rosario Sanmiguel. The primary argument is that although the short stories in this book present feminist characters, some of them are neoliberal feminists. Neoliberal feminists are women in a privileged position of agency and empowerment; they can or need not accept patriarchal norms, and some characters in these stories decide to accept them.