Abstract

NOVAU, Julieta. "La isla que se repite" and ways of "bregar": slavery and dynamics of transgression in Cecilia Valdés (1882) by Cirilo Villaverde . CELEHIS [online]. 2019, n.37, pp.1-5. ISSN 2313-9463.

Our reading analyses the textual construct of the slavery (urban and rural) and certain dynamics of transgression in Cecilia Valdés (1882) by Cirilo Villaverde, in the context of "the repeating island" (Benítez Rojo 1989) articulated to the "Plantation" as an iterative axis within the historical slavery shared in the Caribbean area. In the novel, the "Plantation" and the area of "Contraplantation" (Benítez Rojo 1989) acquire special relevance, because they are presented as paradigmatic sites to narrate the diverse inflections that include both the exercise of slave violence and the resistance practices in the daily "fight" (Díaz Quiñones 2000) of the black and mulatto subjects (enslaved and freedmen). We investigated about some areas of enclave and of transit and intersection, and the peculiar stereotypy of characters constructed on fiction, which works like nuclear and sinuous points where identities are elaborated in their heterogeneity by the several ways in which they demarcate convergences and breaks, alliances and tensions.

Keywords : Cuba; antislavery narrative; slavery; transgression; Cirilo Villaverde..