Familiar Estrangements: Toward a Genre Theory of Latin American Speculative Fiction

Abstract

ABSTRACT:The past several years has seen an increase in Latin American literary texts that embrace multiple genres. In response, the term "speculative fiction" has gained traction as a tool for talking about them. However, a majority of the existing critical analysis on speculative fiction has been developed through readings of anglophone science fiction. This presents two hurdles as the term grows in popularity among scholars of Latin American literature. The first is the need to adapt theories of speculative fiction to the Latin American literary tradition, and the second is to ensure that this theory registers the broad array of genres under the speculative fiction umbrella. This article moves towards a theory of Latin American speculative fiction by drawing out a thread that runs through several of those genres. I argue that the slipstream phenomenon, previously ascribed in the Latin American tradition only to science fiction, is a defining feature of Latin American speculative fiction more broadly. Taking as a case study Horacio Castellanos Moya's Baile con serpientes, I examine the shifts in genre that occur when speculative forms slip into an otherwise realist Central American noir novel. I conclude that various non-realist genres represented by the umbrella term "Latin American speculative fiction" use slipstream as a tool to recast genre boundaries. The essay moves towards a theory of Latin American speculative fiction that recognizes the shared patterns of impact created by diverse non-realist genres on the landscape of Latin American literature.