This dissertation focuses on the influence of political and social history in the novels of Ana María Shua, an Argentine author who critiques her own contemporary society based upon her nation’s history and her Jewish ancestry. It examines the relationships between individuals, such as parents and children, spouses, or friends to demonstrate that people are unable to change their own situation: the circularity of time and the repetition of the past will always haunt the inhabitants and marginalize them.

This work analyzes Shua’s five novels: Soy paciente (1980), Los amores de Laurita (1984), El libro de los recuerdos (1994), La muerte como efecto secundario (1997), and El peso de la tentación (2007). These selected works explore the transformations of the protagonists through their interactions with their environment in order to prove that the individual will remain isolated within the hierarchies and institutions created by contemporary society.

The introduction offers an overview of Shua’s biography and literary works as well as an exploration of the connections between the history of Argentina and the author’s novels. Chapter 1 focuses on the influence of history in the present and future of the protagonists in Los amores de Laurita, El libro de los recuerdos, and La muerte como efecto secundario. Chapter 2 makes use of Michel Foucault’s system of power to explore the way in which society victimizes the protagonists. The chapter studies: Los amores de Laurita, La muerte como efecto secundario, and El peso de la tentación. Chapter 3 analyzes the hierarchies established in the institutions and how they convert the body of the individual into a jail. The novels studied include: Soy paciente, La muerte como efecto secundario, and El peso de la tentación. Chapter 4 demonstrates how the history of Argentina is represented in the political and social institutions of El libro de los recuerdos, Soy paciente, and El peso de la tentación. It connects the contemporary desire of a utopian future with Jewish tradition and the hope of a messiah. The conclusions recapitulate the pessimistic, dystopian future that remains for each of the protagonists.