Del subdesarrollo al desarrollo: el viaje sin retorno de Edmundo Desnoes

Abstract

The narrative of the Cuban Edmundo Desnoes describes the social changes that occurred on the island with the triumph of the revolution in 1959. The loss of freedom meant a process of alienation in the individual and society, the gradual degradation of which is observed in the novel Memorias del subdesarrollo (Memories of the underdevelopment) (1965), descending from animalization, in the purest Kafkaesque style, to disintegration. Forty years later, Desnoes publishes Memorias del desarrollo (Memories of the Development) (2007) and describes a main character derived from the previous one, in his evolution after leaving the island and settling in New York. However, life in a developed society will not heal the mortal wounds opened by the repression of the dictatorship, because his identity has been irreparably harmed.