AbstractsLanguage, Literature & Linguistics

From 1492, when the first European invaders set foot on the island known today as Hispaniola, until 1965, the year of the April Revolution, the multi-faceted repercussions of invasion have been a prevalent theme within the Dominican Republic’s literature. This thesis examines how the country has amalgamated a roller-coaster past to reflect this in its writing. It starts by evaluating the Spanish invaders’ extermination of the Tainos, its generational influence and the continued impact of Trujillo’s legacy, highlighting the issue of gender within the Resistance movement. It presents a rigorous analysis of writers’ opinions, as transmitters of peoples’ views – from the pirate attack by Francis Drake, to the use of theatre by Independence fighters as a weapon of propaganda against the Haitian invasion; the resilience of peasant-culture represented in the guerrilla movement against the first U.S. invasion of the 20th century; to the exposition of novels to depict a dictator as an ‘invader from within’ and the use of poetry to face the bullets of the U.S. invasion of 1965. By analysing the literary images, expressions, statements and social commitment of the writers throughout their work, this study shows how the various invasions which occurred in the Dominican Republic have been rooted in Dominican discourse. It emphasises that these very struggles against invasion are at the core of its vibrant literature, providing its silent themes and serving to illuminate both the nation as a whole and the individuals within it.