Dialogic Aspects of the Cuban Novel of the 1990s

During the last twenty years, there has been growing international interest in Cuba, from its political situation and social-economic milieu, to its cultural and literary production. This interest has resulted in the publication of numerous books by and about Cuban authors, yet few have offered a comprehensive analysis of the narrative produced on and off the island during the 1990s. Hence, the newly published work Dialogic Aspects of the Cuban Novel of the 1990s could not have come at a more essential moment. In this discerning study, Ángela Dorado-Otero moves beyond essentialist notions of identity and prevailing dichotomies, 'inside/outside' and 'male/female,' to delve into a corpus of narrative works produced during the Special Period by novelists living on and off Cuba. She calls for an understanding of Cuban culture as fluid, transnational, diverse and decentered, what she labels as a 'cubanía desterritorializada' (p. 2). As she reiterates throughout the text, Cuban literature cannot be simply divided along political lines or binary cultural divides as many critics have frequently done.