Deconstructive rereadings of polycentric spaces in the Caribbean: the counter-hegemonic decolonial proposal in two novels: Papi by Rita Indiana Hernández and Corazón que ríe, corazón que llora by Maryse Condé

Abstract

In this article the hegemonic colonial rhetoric which operates as a cultural imaginary in polycentric spaces in the Caribbean and its implications in literature are explored. Two novels are selected. Novels by Caribbean authors who question and reinvent the historically established paradigms and mandates that intersectional thinking aims to dismantle: Papi, by Rita Indiana Hernández and Corazón que ríe, corazón que llora by Maryse Condé. These narratives make a decolonial critique of differences in race, class, gender, among others, appealing to a deconstructivist stance of hierarchical stereotypes founded on the European colonies in Latin America. Using the methodological basis of cultural studies and literary criticism, proposals that dismantle the cultural hegemony around the reality of Latin American peoples are exposed.