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Dissertation
Vuelos perdidos
University of Iowa
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), University of Iowa
Spring 2025
DOI: 10.25820/etd.007825
Abstract
This dissertation consists of two interrelated parts: a personal essay and a creative project.
The first section offers a personal reflection on the literary form of the novella, examining its unique affordances and constraints as a genre situated between the short story and the novel. Drawing from a selection of Latin American and global texts, as well as theoretical approaches to narrative structure, temporality, and voice, the essay outlines the conceptual and stylistic foundations that informed my creative process. The second section presents Vuelos perdidos, an original novella that explores the psychological and temporal dislocation of a protagonist who, following an unanticipated extension of his trip, finds himself estranged from the coordinates that once defined his life. Set in Madre de Dios, a region deeply entangled in the environmental and social crises of the Amazon’s extractive economies, the narrative investigates the porous boundaries between memory and present, place and self. What begins as a physical journey to reconnect with a friend from his formative years becomes a reckoning with the forces—both personal and historical—that have shaped his identity and decisions. Together, the critical and creative components of the dissertation engage with questions of belonging, transformation, and the poetics of in-betweenness that define the novella form.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Vuelos perdidos
- Creators
- Sebastián Lores
- Contributors
- Ana Merino (Advisor)Brian Gollnick (Advisor)Horacio Castellanos Moya (Committee Member)Roxanna Curto (Committee Member)Denise Filios (Committee Member)
- Resource Type
- Dissertation
- Degree Awarded
- Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), University of Iowa
- Degree in
- Spanish
- Date degree season
- Spring 2025
- DOI
- 10.25820/etd.007825
- Publisher
- University of Iowa
- Number of pages
- vi, 126 pages
- Copyright
- Copyright 2025 Sebastián Lores Fernández
- Language
- Spanish
- Date submitted
- 04/26/2025
- Description bibliographic
- Includes bibliographical references (pages 54-57).
- Public Abstract (ETD)
- This dissertation brings together personal reflection and creative writing through a two- part project. The first part is an essay that explores the literary genre of the novella—its in- between nature, its brevity, and its intensity—and reflects on how certain texts shaped the writing process of the second part: an original novella titled Vuelos perdidos. The story follows a character who, after an unexpected extension of his trip, finds himself unmoored from the familiar patterns that once guided his life. The setting is Madre de Dios, a region in the Peruvian Amazon deeply marked by the environmental and social impacts of extractive industries. The trip becomes both a physical and emotional journey, prompting the protagonist to revisit a formative friendship from his youth and to confront the deeper forces—personal, social, and historical— that have shaped his path. Together, the essay and the novella offer a meditation on memory, dislocation, and the quiet transformations that occur when we lose our way.
- Academic Unit
- Spanish and Portuguese
- Record Identifier
- 9984831230302771
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