The rhetorics of mythical discourse in the cuban 'novísimos' writers group

Abstract

The so-called “special period” in Cuba and its ensuing severe economic crisis had a great influence in the literary creation of the Cuban youth, particularly in the generation of writers known as the “novísimos” (“the newest”). This paper presents a topic –so far unexplored by literary criticism– found in the narrative of these authors: the insertion and contextualization of mythical references taken from different cultures. The objective is to characterize the rhetorical resemantization of mythical discourse in a representative sample of these Cuban young writers (1993-2003) from a semantic-discursive perspective with the inter- and trans-disciplinary approach inherent in contemporary discourse studies (Charaudeau, 2009). The analysis is made on the basis of various proposals and the selected rhetorical procedures, always taking into account the historical, political and social dimensions of the artistic work. The research reveals that the myth is also an expressive means to portray the hardships the island was undergoing during that historical period.