Anatomias De La Nacion: Hacia Una Satira Posmoderna En Cuatro Novelas De Brasil Y Mexico (1993 2001).

This study examines the use of satire in four postmodern novels from Brazil and Mexico. These novels form a diverse corpus of works published in the indicated period including the Brazilian novels Poligono das Secas (1995) by Diogo Mainardi and A Casa dos Budas Ditosos (1999) by Joao Ubaldo Ribeiro, and the Mexican novels El gran elector (1993) by Ignacio Solares, and Trajinar de un muerto (2001) by Susana Pagano. All of these works act as types of transgressive psychoanalyses, which paradoxically both reject and embrace different aspects of each respective nation. The authors of these novels appropriate national myths and complexes to satirize what they see as elements of society that are detrimental to the national conscience. Utilizing postmodern narrative strategies, these satirical novels identify and ridicule social ills without necessarily offering any clear remedy. While this study carries out a close analysis of the different manifestations of satirical and postmodern tendencies in the selected works, it also delineates general characteristics of this type of novel.