Exile and failure in Marco Antonio Flores’s Lost Battles
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5377/hcs.v0i12.8828Keywords:
Exile, failure, expatriation, revolution, traumaAbstract
In The Lost Battles, Guatemalan author Marco Antonio Flores (1937-2013) continues his peculiar novelistic mark regarding the use of irreverent language, and the topics of disappointment and failure. Exile and failure, in this novel, are portrayed from the psychological intimacy of the characters and their lives marked by obstacles to an attain success, or to realize their utopian dreams. Thus, the purpose of this paper is the exploration of exile and the failure endured and experienced by the three main characters. The analysis focuses on the setbacks predicted, or unconsciously carried out by the characters through various facets of their lives. This analysis covers a time span that ranges from their abandoned childhood through their adulthood. It is based on the issues of melancholy theorized by Sigmund Freud, and Edward Said’s theoretical framework of the exile.
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