Paper short abstract:

My paper investigates the representation of Cubaness in Padura Fuentes' novels as a construction based on symbolical images, cultural and social practices. Considering a nation as an imagined community I investigate the elements that form Padura's complex image of contemporary Cuban identity

Paper long abstract:

My paper will investigate the representation of Cubaness as an imagined construction in Leonardo Padura Fuentes' novels.

Once the creation of a new Cuban nation was declared in political terms, the revolution started the creation of the new nation in terms of common identity. Considering a nation as an imagined political community, I argue that, form 1960s, the government edified a new national imaginary, using cultural symbols to give a image of unity and communion to the Cuban population and create the cultural base for the realization of the national project.

Cultural perception and social imagination are central to the composition of Padura Fuentes' narrative. I will show how the author exposes the effects that the creation of this national imaginary had on his characters' life. I will explain how the manipulation of collective imagination led first to the creation of a collective utopia and then to a harsh disillusion when the reality failed in complying with the imagined model. Finally I will analyse how different characters that do not fit in the revolutionary imaginary model of Cubaness are represented by Padura Fuentes. I will focus my attention on some characters representing strong violations of the official image of Cubaness (such as exiles and dissidents) to study how different Cuban identities confront themselves with the revolutionary imaginary notions of identity and nation. The paper, thus, will analyse how Padura Fuentes critiques the stereotyped revolutionary image of Cubaness, presenting Cuban identity as a wider, hybrid and plural imaginative construction.