Coded Messages: Costa Rican Protest Literature, 1970–1985

Abstract

This chapter posits that the 1970s in Costa Rica was a period of sociological revolution whereby dominant ideas of national identity began to be openly challenged. It analyses the protest literature of this period written by three key authors: Quince Duncan, Carmen Naranjo, and Alfonso Chase. Firstly considering Duncan’s Los cuatro espejos, it explores this novel as an example of the harmful practices of stereotyping and the internalisation of norms. It then considers the feminist subtext of Naranjo’s short stories ‘Simbiosis del encuentro’ and ‘A los payasos todos los quieren’, before moving on to analyse homosexual codes apparent in Chase’s short stories ‘La lluvia. El Silencio. La Música’.