The purpose of this dissertation is to reflect upon those novels that stand out as milestones of Ecuadorian literary tradition in the twentieth century. At the same time, I am interested in the reading strategies that Ecuadorian literary criticism has built around the novel. Part of my aim is to identify how some writers have been read within the perspective of legitimizing a critical discourse and a new form of intellectual conscience within the frame of a history of appropriations and disputes upon which a new field of knowledge, a critical tradition and a memoir of literary affiliations have been consolidated. Within this context, it is important to distinguish the cultural and political scenarios and the emotional bonds that have coincided in the emergence of both a new aesthetic and critical literary projects.
Within the field of novels of the first half of the century, several questions guide my reading: How does the representation of nature affect the traditional tension of civilization-barbarism and tradition-modernity? What is the meaning of the intersection of space, culture and identity? How should one think about the foundation and defense of one´s own place from the margins of the civilized system? What is the sense of community in the face of an institutional violence that pushes more vulnerable subjects to live outside the law? How does the leitmotif of displacement relate to the fracturing of social, ethnic and gender interactions within the national map?
The aim of the second part of the dissertation is the production of novels and literary essays of the second half of the century. I distinguish the representation of the intellectual subject whose practice is defined in the long-sought alliance with the subject of popular origins. This alliance is a problematic encounter that defines itself, in some cases within the framework of a revolutionary political project, and in others, within a context of failure and disappointment. Reflections on realism, questions about nation, dialogue channels and the mutual “contaminations” between critical discourse and that of fiction all are instances that guide my reading of the Ecuadorian novel throughout the twentieth century
