“Creative Control: Navigating Foreign Presence in Contemporary Dominican and Cuban Narrative and Film”

Abstract

This article participates in debates surrounding the ethics of international travel through analysis of contemporary short fiction by Dominican writer Aurora Arias, and Cubans Alberto Guerra Naranjo and Mylene Fernández Pintado. Through characters who are local and foreign writers and scholars, these works highlight the ethics and politics of mobility existing in transnational encounters, and the ramifications for the creative process of Caribbean cultural workers. I examine what these works communicate about the struggle of Caribbean cultural workers to be recognized and heard by their counterparts based in North America and Europe, as well as a broader readership. Arias and Guerra employ metafictional elements to critique and challenge feelings of illegitimacy, while all three writers use humor to turn the tables on power relations and inspire reflection on the possibility of ethical encounters, and even collaboration, between local and foreign intellectuals.