Book contents
- The Cambridge History of Cuban Literature
- The Cambridge History of Cuban Literature
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction Unfinished Histories
- Part I Literature in the Early Colony
- Part II Cuban Literature’s Long Nineteenth Century
- Part III Literary and Intellectual Culture in the Twentieth-Century Republic
- Part IV The Revolution’s Literary-Cultural Initiatives and Their Early Discontents
- 22 Beginnings
- 23 Imagining Cuba’s New Revolutionary Communities Through Film (1959–1989)
- 24 Shaping New Cultural Literacies
- 25 The Social Life of Music in Cuban Literary Culture
- 26 Casa de las Américas and Revolutionary Configurations of Latinoamericanismo
- 27 The Travels of Fiction in the Cuban Diaspora
- 28 Cuba’s Poetic Imaginary (1959–1989)
- 29 The Artistic Worlds of Guillermo Cabrera Infante
- 30 The Diasporic Odysseys of Reinaldo Arenas and His Writings
- Part V Cuba and Its Diasporas into the New Millennium
- Epilogue
- Select Bibliography
- Index
- References
30 - The Diasporic Odysseys of Reinaldo Arenas and His Writings
from Part IV - The Revolution’s Literary-Cultural Initiatives and Their Early Discontents
Published online by Cambridge University Press: aN Invalid Date NaN
- The Cambridge History of Cuban Literature
- The Cambridge History of Cuban Literature
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction Unfinished Histories
- Part I Literature in the Early Colony
- Part II Cuban Literature’s Long Nineteenth Century
- Part III Literary and Intellectual Culture in the Twentieth-Century Republic
- Part IV The Revolution’s Literary-Cultural Initiatives and Their Early Discontents
- 22 Beginnings
- 23 Imagining Cuba’s New Revolutionary Communities Through Film (1959–1989)
- 24 Shaping New Cultural Literacies
- 25 The Social Life of Music in Cuban Literary Culture
- 26 Casa de las Américas and Revolutionary Configurations of Latinoamericanismo
- 27 The Travels of Fiction in the Cuban Diaspora
- 28 Cuba’s Poetic Imaginary (1959–1989)
- 29 The Artistic Worlds of Guillermo Cabrera Infante
- 30 The Diasporic Odysseys of Reinaldo Arenas and His Writings
- Part V Cuba and Its Diasporas into the New Millennium
- Epilogue
- Select Bibliography
- Index
- References
Summary
Framing Reinaldo Arenas’s memoir Antes que anochezca [Before Night Falls] as “the best-known Cuban book to have never been published in Cuba,” this chapter explores the relationship to imagination, literary history, desire, pleasure, and death that pervades its author’s entire oeuvre. With readings, along with the memoir, of the fictions Celestino antes del alba (1967), El palacio de las blanquísimas mofetas (1982), Viaje a La Habana: Novela en tres viajes (1990), La loma del Ángel (1987), and El color del verano o nuevo jardín de las delicias (1991) and with allusions to other works, the chapter sees Arenas’s work as successive acts of revenge against all conformity and against all that sought to constrain imaginative freedom. This underscores his importance for individuals and communities composed of queer, dissident, and marginalized individuals in Cuba and worldwide.
Keywords
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Cambridge History of Cuban Literature , pp. 469 - 484Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2024