The Fall of the Patriarchs in Cristina García's "King of Cuba"

Jennifer Harford Vargas’s paper, “The Fall of the Patriarchs in Cristina García’s King of Cuba,” will examine the figure of the patriarch as dictator in Cristina García’s King of Cuba to argue the novel stages the... [ view full abstract ]

Jennifer Harford Vargas’s paper, “The Fall of the Patriarchs in Cristina García’s King of Cuba,” will examine the figure of the patriarch as dictator in Cristina García’s King of Cuba to argue the novel stages the death of both octogenarian main characters as a way to articulate the desire for an alternative future for Cuba. Analyzing the literary technique of foil characters, she examines how the novel demythologizes the celebratory narratives of the Revolution and the Freedom Fighters that have dominated the Cuban diaspora. She suggests that by re-centering the novel’s female Cuban American character alongside other defiant second generation Cuban American daughters of the conservative exile generation, we can envision an alternative articulation of revolution and art in the service of a decolonial critique.

Panel 37