Technified Muses

Examining representations of the female

body in postrevolutionary genre literature

In

this volume, Sara Potter uses the idea of the muse from Greek mythology and the

cyborg from posthuman theory to consider the portrayal of female characters and

their bodies in Mexican art and literature from the 1920s to the present. Examining

genres including science fiction, cyberpunk, and popular fiction, Potter finds

that "technified muse" figures often appear in these texts at moments of

violence and sociopolitical transformation.

Potter

begins by looking at two avant-garde movements that emerged in the aftermath of

the Mexican Revolution: the Estridentistas and the Contempor?neos. Moving to the

"Mexican Miracle," a midcentury period of economic prosperity, she considers the

work of surrealists Leonora Carrington and Remedios Varo within their cultural

and political climates. She then addresses the aftermath of the 1968 student

massacre in Tlatelolco as explored in Fernando del Paso's Palinuro de M?xico and Juan Garc?a Ponce's Cr?nica de la intervenci?n. Finally, Potter engages with the era that

began with the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement and Zapatista

rebellion, drawing from Bernardo Fern?ndez's Gel azul, Guadalupe Nettel's El

hu?sped, and Karen Chacek's La ca?da

de los p?jaros.

Technified Muses shows that during

these key periods, writers created muse-like characters that interact with the technological

discourses of their times. These figures reflect the increasing emphasis on

science and progress throughout the twentieth century, embodying the

modernization of Mexico while offering parallel narratives that challenge official

portrayals of the nation's history.



Publication

of this work made possible by a Sustaining the Humanities through the American

Rescue Plan grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.