This is part eight from a forthcoming book called Collected Essays: Volume Two.
**********************
I quote the texts in the original
Spanish. This will be harder for non-Spanish speakers (the vast majority of my
meagre audience) – apologies.
Imaginary worlds are appealing for
a number of reasons. The yearning for alternate worlds goes as far back to
antiquity, with the Babylonian Tales of Gilgamesh and in the Greek world with
Homer. The real world is often not satisfying and we recourse to imaginary
worlds to find respite. Imaginary worlds can disrupt physical laws, be a
vehicle for self-realisation and fantasies and they can create a parallel world
that creates a microcosm, mirrors our own and comments on the political arena. Latin
America has a rich history of literature and it finally rose to international
prominence in the 1960s. Latin American fiction has been notorious for its use
of fantasy and surrealism and the way in which this is merged with realism. As
well as this aspect, it has also been notorious for its political commitment.
This essay will look at five authors – the Argentinean writer Jorge Luis
Borges, the Argentinean writer Julio Cortázar, the Uruguayan writer Juan Carlos
Onetti, the Mexican writer Juan Rulfo and the Chilean writer José Donoso. It
will examine the ways in which these authors create imaginary world, their
qualities, how they disrupt physical and temporal laws, how they are vehicles
for self-realisation and how they comment on politics.
Latin
America became a major continent in the literary world in the 1960. In the
1960s and 1970s, Latin American writers were in the international spotlight for
the first time (Saizar 2000). It was a commercial event, although it did
coincide with the writings of ‘great novels.’ Authors like Gabriel Garcia
Marquez, Mario Vargas Llosa, Julio Cortázar and Carlos Fuentes sold millions of
books and made a deep impression. These books merged fantasy and reality and
they were socially conscious. Many critics threw the label ‘magical realism’
around, though it is hard to define. Initially, Jorge Luis Borges wrote many
fantastical short stories, though he claimed that even realist literature is
fantastic, as it is still artifice (Brestia year, p. 5). Movements which were
prevalent in Europe, such as modernism, arrived later in Latin America. Aspects
such as stream of consciousness emerged later because those modernist books
were translated later. Additionally, fantastical and surrealist elements became
almost synonymous with ‘Latin American fiction.’ The most famous example of
this would be One Hundred Years of Solitude (1968) by Gabriel Garcia
Marquez. These novels often comment on political situations and many of the
writers were politically committed. Many supported the Cuban revolution,
although many, such as Mario Vargas Llosa, later retracted their support. (He
later run for the presidency of Peru on a centre-right ticket.) Magical realism
is notoriously hard to define, although some of characteristics include the
‘transgression’ of physical laws and superhuman sensory experiences (Bennette
1999, p. 21). The 1960s and the 1970s were a golden period and these novels
were promptly translated into other languages (Saizar, p.11). Exceptional
writers worked independently from each other and in different countries (p.
31). The magical realism of Marquez was an act of ‘individual agency,’ although
magical realism was interpreted as a portrait of ‘Latin American
exceptionalism’ (p. 46). It was an act of individual imagination, but it has
since been interpreted as representative of the region (p. 46).
This
essay will now turn to analyses of three short stories by Jorge Luis Borges.
The short story ‘Tlon, Uqbar, Orbis Tertuis’ is set in an ‘idealist’ planet –
that is, a planet made up of thought rather than energy and matter. In this planet,
language, religion and letters and metaphysics are all idealist (Borges 1944, p.
22). Indeed, a major divide in philosophy for many years was between idealism
and empiricism, as the latter argues that sense-perception is dependent on
experience. The former is epitomised by George Berkeley who took as it as far
as it could go. Berkeley argued that all of reality is the product of the mind
and anything that is not encountered by the mind is created by God. Other
philosophers did not go this far, such as Immanuel Kant, who mixed idealism and
empiricism. The latter strain is epitomised by David Hume who argued that all
perception and knowledge is dependent on experience. According to Borges’
story, everything that Berkeley writes about is true in Tlon. It is a series of
‘independent heterogenous acts’ (p. 23). It is temporal, not spatial (p. 23).
Perception is wholly mental and nothing happens spatially; everything happens
in a temporal way: ‘Los hombres de ese planeta conciben el universe como una
series de procesos mentales, que no desenvuelven en el espacio sino de modo
sucesivo en el tiempo’ (p. 24). Thought often associates related ideas: ‘La
percepción de una humareda en el horizonte, después del campo incendiado y
después del cigarillo a medio apagar’ (p. 25). Indeed, materialism is
‘scandalous’ in Tlon (p. 27). However, one school of thought in Tlon rejects
the concept of time and they argue that the present is undefined, the future
has no reality and the past has no reality (p. 26). In this story, Borges
constructs an imaginary world which is based on western metaphysics. The
writings of George Berkeley and even sometimes Kant, Hegel and Schopenhauer
sometimes seem counterintuitive, but the whole fabric of this planet is made up
of thought, perception and ideas.
This
essay will now look at the short story ‘Las ruinas circulares’ (‘The Circular
Ruins’) by Jorge Luis Borges. The short story is about an old sage who goes to
a circular temple, sleeps, dreams and creates another human in another temple. It
later transpires that he has been dreamed up in another temple by someone else,
so this is why the ruins are ‘circular.’ The village that he arrives at is
described thusly: ‘Donde el idioma no está contaminado de griego y donde es
infrequente la lepra’ (1944, p. 36). The language is ‘uncontaminated’ by Greek,
so it is clearly otherworldly, as most European languages are derived from
Greek. Borges also writes: ‘Nadie lo vio desambarcar’ (p. 56). This is
reminiscent of the old philosophical adage – if no-one saw it, how could it
happen? The temple is described thusly: ‘El recinto circular […] tuvo alguna
vez el color del fuego y ahora el de ceniza’ (p. 56). It was once active, but
it is now perishing and the sage is going to reanimate it and bring it back to
life. Indeed, Borges writes: ‘Devoraron los incendios antiguos,’ (p. 56) which
clearly shows that the temple was once fully active a long time ago. The sage
goes to sleep: ‘Durmio […] sino por determinación de la voluntad’ (p. 56).
Sleeping is usually a passive process, but in this case it is a highly active
one which requires ‘will’ and ‘determination.’ There have been other temples
and other gods which have been burned and killed: ‘Río abajo, las ruinas de
otro templo propicio, también de dioses incendiados y muertos’ (p. 56). He
wants to dream a man with ‘meticulous integrity’ (p. 56). It is clearly a
supernatural project which transcends normal physical laws, as he calls it a
‘magical’ project: ‘Proyecto mágico’ (p. 57). The task of dreaming and sleeping
is usually passive, but in this case it is creative. Indeed, it is even called
‘dialectic’: ‘Al principio fueron caóticos, después fueron de naturaleza
dialectica’ (p. 57). Dialecticism involves a proposition, another
counter-proposition and a synthesis of both arguments. Again, it emphasises
that the dream is a proactive, strenuous and intellectual activity. It is a
dialectical engagement with ghosts and spirits. Eventually, students start to
study his work: ‘Alumnos estudian su doctrina’ (p. 60). His dreams are
incoherent and difficult to decipher. He starts to dream his heart: ‘Sono con
un corazón que latía’ (p. 60). He ends up creating a human body. He perceives
him: ‘Lo percibía, lo vivía’ (p. 61). He creates his heart and lungs and the
rest of his body (p. 61). His son is born in an identical circular temple.
However, he realises that he is just a projection: ‘Descubriera de algún modo
su condición de mero simulacro’ (p. 64). He realises that, conversely, he has
also been dreamed by another sage in another temple: ‘No ser un hombre, ser la
proyección del sueno de otro hombre. […] También era una apariencia, que otro
estaba sonandolo’ (p. 64). The whole story is about dreaming and about creating
another human, but it transpires that he is been dreamt by another magician.
This is why the story is about ‘circular’ ruins. The process is called
‘dialectical,’ but although he is on his own dreaming, he is interacting with ghostly
figments. Dreaming is an active, creative, determined and willed process in
this case, although he does describe it as ‘incoherent.’ This imaginary world
is oneiric, but there are also allusions to magic and sorcery. It is surrealistic
and fantastic and there are no traces of the real world whatsoever, which is
unlike the ‘magical realism’ of Marquez.
‘The
Aleph’ is one of Borges’ most famous stories and this essay will now look at
it. The protagonist’s wife has been dead for many years and he visits her
brother every year so that they can discuss poetry. This character has an
‘aleph’ in the basement of his house. This device contains all points in space
in the universe, seen from all angles: ‘Uno de los puntos del espacio que
contienen todos los puntos’ (p. 187) […] Todos los lugares del orbe, visto
desde todos los angulos’ (p. 188). Naturally, the character thinks that this is
crazy. Retrospectively, he says that language cannot describe the experience:
‘Cómo transmitir a los otros el infinito Aleph, que mi temerosa memoria apenas
abarca?’ (p. 188). The Aleph is a tiny sphere (p. 188) in which everything is
an infinite number of things. The Aleph is constant breadth, expansion,
multiplicity and infinity. The character describes all the things that he sees
in a very long sentence that goes on for a couple of pages:
‘Vi la noche y el día contemporaneo
(p. 193) […] Vi a los sobrevivientes de una batalla. […] Vi a todas las
hormigas que hay en la tierra […] Vi convexos equatoriales y cada uno de sus
granos de arena […] Vi la circulación de mi oscura carne […]’ (p. 193).
The sphere contains all points in
time and space and Borges describes the experience over a long paragraph. Unlike
the other two stories that this essay looked at, it starts off realistically,
but it veers off into fantasy. ‘The Aleph’ is a reference to the Arabic
alphabet, in which the first letter contains all of the other letters. It is an
imaginary world and it is almost a microcosm within the story. In the beginning
of the story, Borges has a Shakespeare quote from Hamlet: ‘Oh God, I
could be bounded in a nutshell and count myself a king of infinite space.’ The
whole story is about infinite space bound in a small object. The story is also
short – it is not a novel – and it describes something vast and infinite.
Indeed, Borges never wrote a novel and considered a lot of novels superfluous.
Julio
Cortázar also wrote short stories and they are also classics within the genre.
Cortázar wrote highly surrealistic and absurd stories which defy interpretation.
This essay will now look at three of his stories and it will start with ‘Carta
a una senorita en París.’ The story is about a character who vomits rabbits. He
writes: ‘Me duele ingresar en un orden cerrado, construido’ (1951, p. 19). He
cannot enter a closed and constructed order, but the whole story thrives on
disorder and the unexpected. The story is written as a letter to the owner of
the flat and she is in Paris. He is actually writing the letter because of the
bunny rabbits, ‘los conejitos.’ He writes: ‘Todo es higienico, transcurre en un
brevisimo instante. Saco todos los dedos de la boca, y en ellos traigo sujecto
por las orejas a un conejito blanco’ (p. 19). This is a quick and hygienic
process in which jerks out a white rabbit. Eventually, he decides to kill the
bunnies, but he does not do it. He writes: ‘De día duermen. Hay diez. De día
duermen’ (p. 22). They come out at night and wreck the entire flat: ‘El
destrozo insalvable de su casa’ (p. 27). They break the curtains, the chairs, paintings
on the wall, leave the carpet full of hair and they keep shrieking (p. 27).
This story is highly oneiric, as the bunnies come out at night and they are
possibly a metaphor for the unconscious being let loose. The story is
completely surreal, bizarre, jarring, surprising, absurdist and quite humorous
as well. It is similar to surrealism in other art forms, such as Luis Bunuel in
film and Salvador Dalí in painting.
This
story will now look at Cortázar’s short story ‘Continuidad de los parques.’ The
story is about a businessman who reads a novel during the weekend. The short
story ends with the characters in the novel becoming real and the protagonist
ends up in his living room. Indeed, he wants to read the novel, but he has
abandoned it because he is so busy at work: ‘Había empezado a leer la novela
unos días antes, pero la abandono por negocios urgentes’ (p. 13). He wants to
read the novel in his leisure time, he is very wealthy and he has a butler. In
this context, reading the novel is an act of escapism from a busy schedule. He
reads the book in the tranquillity of his study: ‘Volvío al libro en la
tranquilidad del estudio’ (p. 13). He is immersed in the novel: ‘La ilusión
novelesca lo gano en seguida’ (p. 13). The story describes a woman with a lover
and she leaves him and walks towards the house. She carries a knife. Cortázar
describes the house, which is quiet and empty. The dogs do not bark and the
butler is not in. She goes into the room and discovers a man reading a novel.
He describes the room: ‘La puerta del salón, y entonces el punal en la mano, la
luz de los ventanales’ (p. 13). She finds the character reading his novel: ‘La
cabeza del hombre en el sillón leyendo una novela’ (p. 13). The man reads the
book and imagines the story until the woman arrives at his house where he is
reading. The story is self-referential meta-fiction, as it refers to itself.
The man reads a book and the story comes to life in the world that he is living
in. It is an act of escapism from his busy schedule, but the work of fiction
becomes real. It is set in the real world, but the story recreates the
subjectivity of reading and the emotional reactions that it provokes. The act
of reading is a subjective mental experience, but in this case it becomes
palpably real. The implication is that he is going to get murdered, as she is
carrying a dagger.
This
essay will now look at Cortázar’s short story ‘Axolotl.’ The protagonist looks
at an aquarium full of fish in a zoo and ends up becoming a fish. He writes:
‘Quadaba horas mirándolos. […] Ahora soy un axolotl’ (p. 151). He writes that
he has a connection with the fish: ‘Estábamos vinculados’ (p. 151). There is
something unfathomable which links the fish with the protagonist of the story:
‘Que algo infinitamente perdido y distante seguia sin embargo uniendonos’
(p.152). They have golden eyes and they look at the man who stares into the
aquarium, as he scrutinises their body and face. He writes: ‘Abolir el tiempo y
el espacio con una inmovilidad indiferente’ (p. 153). They abolish time and
space with their ‘indifferent mobility.’ Once more, the story is highly
subjective and the character loses his sense of time and space. He writes that
their eyes are similar to human eyes: ‘Diversos peses me mostraban la simple
estupidez de sus hermosos ojos semejante a los nuestros’ (p. 153). They show
him another
way of looking at
things: ‘Me decian de la presencia de una vida diferente, de otra manera de
mirar’ (p. 154). The character is entranced in his heightened subjectivity, as
he thinks about a different way of living whilst he glues his head to the
glass. Indeed, the guard of the zoo is disconcerted by his strange behaviour
(p. 154). He eventually becomes one of the fish: ‘Antes de ser axolotl’ (p.
154). There is a sense of anthropomorphism here, but it is inverted. In
anthropomorphism, the animals acquire human characteristics, but in this case
the human acquires animal characteristics. However, he does write that they
evince human characteristics: ‘Si piensan como los hombres, sera porque los
axolotl piensan como hombres’ (p. 157). Cortázar spoke about ‘fisulas’ in
interviews, which are surreal and fantastical moments which transcend the
mundane and which surprise us. The character looks at an aquarium and becomes
transfixed by the fish and becomes one of them. Again, the story is very
subjective and it is all about his interior experience.
Juan
Carlos Onetti was one of the precursors of ‘the boom’ and his stories mingled
fantasy and reality. His novel La Vida Breve (1950) (A Brief Life)
is about a man who keeps a scenario in his draw at work. He ends up living
inside it, in a place called ‘Santa María.’ The last chapter of the novel takes
place in that imaginary world. In this world, there is nothing surreal or
supernatural. Cortázar’s stories have surreal elements in them, but they often
– as in ‘Axolotl’ and ‘Continuidad de los parques’ – describe subjective
experiences in the real world. Onetti’s ‘Santa María’ takes place in a
mythical/parallel reality, but there is nothing supernatural about it. Indeed,
the writing is almost naturalistic: ‘El negocio está ahora abierto y el sol
ilumina las narices, los bigotes, las telas sedosas del escaparate’ (p. 404).
He refers to a character that he is infatuated with as ‘Ustéd’ and English character
as ‘Inglés.’ It is an imaginary world that reinforces his own preferences,
predilections and he does not have to bestow other people with names. It is
mostly comprised of subjective descriptions of what happens: ‘Usted examina los
vestidos. […] tan rapidamente que mis ojos confunden los colores’ (p. 405). Although
Santa María is a fictional parallel world, there are still references to real
cities. Santa María is posited between Buenos Aires and Montevidoe and is in
some ways a composite of both. Additionally, this imaginary world is still
imbued with political slogans: ‘Un largo paredon donde han pintado leyendas
politicas con altas letras blancas’ (p. 423). Additionally, this chapter is
subjective, it is from the first person and it has a lot of interior monologues
which ruminate about other characters. Everything seems to be an amorphous blur
and it is not clearly defined: ‘Confudimos calles, risas, músicas, faroles’ (p.
424). He does not reply to the greetings of strangers called Albano since, like
the streets, most of the people inhabiting Santa María are not concretely
defined and most people are called Albano. He describes a scene thusly: ‘En una
plazoleta de barrio, sin estatuatas ni verja, con un enorme pino central’ (p.
427). The park does not have statues and just one giant tree. Once more, the
imaginary world is not as concretely defined as the real world. He walks with a
woman aimlessly: ‘Alcanzamos la esquina y remontamos la desierta calle
arbolada, sin huir de nadie, sin buscar ningún encuentro, arrastrando un poco
los pies, más por felicidad que por cansancio’ (p, 428). He finds meaning with
a woman and he creates an imaginary world about finding serenity and happiness.
This imaginary world is not as surrealistic as Cortázar, but although it is set
in a parallel world it has more realistic elements. Although it has more
realistic elements, few characters are given names and the surroundings are
sketchy.
Like
Onetti, Juan Rulfo was a precursor to the Boom and he was also a big influence
on these writers. In the novel Pedro Páramo (1955), the character Juan
Preciado goes to a town called Comala. His mother, on her death bed, tells him
to go there because his father Pedro Páramo lives there. As soon as he gets
there, he finds that Comala is a ghost town and that all of its inhabitants are
dead. The novel jumps about in time and chronicles Comala and the autocratic
reign of Pedro Páramo. When he gets there, he is told that no-one lives there:
‘Aquí no vive nadie’ (p. 13). He is told that Pedro Páramo has been dead for
years: ‘Pedro Páramo murio hace varios anos’ (p. 13). It is an imaginary world
and, additionally, the novel is not linear and jumps about in time. The novel
takes place in a ghost town in which all the characters are dead. As such, a
universal clock is lost. It creates an imaginary world in which the political
world is mirrored. Pedro Páramo represents a Latin American ‘caudillo,’ an
autocratic tyrant who imposes his will on the population. Rulfo also recreates
the rural poverty that had been endemic in Latin America. He describes events
in different moments in time. Water is a recurring motif: ‘En el hidrante las
gotas caen una tras otra’ (p. 29). In one scene, a character wakes up and Rulfo
describes how he wakes up: ‘Adormecido, plastado por el peso del sueno’ (p.
29). This has an oneiric quality to it. Rulfo does not describe the physical
characteristics of his characters; they are all vague and ghost-like: ‘Vio cara
de una mujer oscura recotrada contra el marco de la puerta, oscurecida todavía
por la noche, sollozando’ (p. 30). She says: ‘Tú padre ha muerto’ (p. 30). He
says: ‘Y a ti quien te mató, madre’ (p. 30). It is a dream-like environment, as
the character wakes up from dreaming. The son has to remind her that she, too,
is dead. Everyone is dead and death is omnipresent. There is a sense that
families are perishing and there is a lot of talk about parents, mothers and
dying. There is a sense of history, families and lineages coming to an end, but
it is all in a perpetual stand-still as they are all perpetual ghosts. In
another scene, revolutionaries want to kill Pedro Páramo and aim to take
possession of his land. Tartamudo, a humble peasant with a stutter talks to the
autocratic strongman. Pedro Páramo asserts himself: ‘Y qué esperas? Por qué not
te mueves? Anda y diles a esos que estoy para que se les ofrezca. Que vengan a
tratar conmigo’ (p. 101). He is clearly an authoritarian leader who will deal
with anyone and he is willing to deal with subversive revolutionaries. He is
also willing to use harsh methods in dealing with them. He asserts his
authority over Comala, a fictional town that clearly resembles many Latin
American places. At one point in the novel, Pedro Páramo says: ‘We are the law’
(p. 105). There is no law constraining him and there are no checks and
balances. Rulfo creates a world in which there is no universal clock because
all the characters are dead. Themes of death, decay, ghostliness, familes and
lineages are present. Rulfo also recreates the political environment, with its
rampant poverty and its authoritarian leaders asserting themselves.
This
essay will now look at El obsceno pájaro de la noche (1970) (The
Obscene Bird of Night) by José Donoso, possibly one of the strangest novels
ever written anywhere, let alone this time and period. The novel is about a
schizophrenic character called ‘Mudito’ (‘Mutey’) who is assistant at a care
home, a law student, assistant to an aristocrat, an aspiring writer and he
oversees a castle of monsters. The novel flits through all of these
perspectives. Together with the maid Peta Ponce, they conceive the mutant child
‘Boy’ in an act of witchcraft. His father, the aristocrat Azcoíta, is repelled
by him and transfers him to a castle of mutants so that he grows up in a normal
world. Additionally, Mudito likes to get into sacks and a co-worker at a care
home, Inés, who is always pregnant, carries him around like a baby. The whole
novel is bizarre, oneiric and surreal. There is one striking scene when the
monsters operate on Mudito so as to turn him into a monster. All of the
monsters drag him away: ‘Sus deformidades como si no tuvieran verguenza de
ellas’ (p. 271). In this parallel world, the monsters are normal and Mudito is
the exception, so they are not ashamed of their deformities. They never leave
the castle, but Mudito can: ‘No sale nunca de la Rinconada […] no pueden salir,
como yo tengo permiso para salir’ (p. 271). Mudito flits in and out of this
castle of monsters. The paragraphs are very long and, as they are stream of
consciousness, they capture Mudito’s warped thinking and he is clearly
psychotic. In this warped world, being a normal human is in itself strange.
These monsters find him disgusting: ‘Demasiado asqueroso […] asquerados de mi
persona’ (p. 272). They want to complete a blood transfusion on him and put
monstruous blood into Mudito. Mudito says: ‘Me estan monstroficando’ (p. 272).
This translates as ‘they monstrofying me’ and Donoso employs a neologism here.
The blood comes from different monsters and they have different qualities:
‘Como si tuvieran sabores distintos que reconozco’ (p. 273). He loses his form:
‘He perdido mi forma’ (p. 273). They completely change who he is: ‘Me deforma
hasta que ya no soy yo’ (p. 273). He is no longer Humberto Penaloza and loses
his identity: ‘Me están quitando la identitad’ (p. 275). Indeed, a major theme
in the novel is how the self is annulled and how individuals have to assume different
social roles in different situations. Mudito has so many different social roles
that he is schizophrenic. In this particular instance, monsters take away his
identity by turning him into one of them. Mudito writes that he has never
really had a stable identity: ‘Además ya no soy quien fui si es que algúna vez
fui alguien’ (p. 275). They have completely annulled his identity, but Mudito
assumes so many social roles in so many different situations that he wonders
whether he ever really had one in the first place. This is clearly a psychotic
hallucination and the castle of monsters is clearly a figment of his
imagination. This imaginary world is created in the novel by the aristocrat
Azcoíta because he wants his mutant son to grow up in a world in which he is
not a freak. This imaginary world is completely surrealistic, bizarre and
comedic, but it is also an interior monologue and a stream of consciousness. It
is also the record of a psychotic and disorganised mind.
Borges
disrupts physical laws in ‘The Aleph,’ but his stories are also set in parallel
realities with their own physical laws. ‘Tlon’ is a mythological planet based
on metaphysical idealist philosophy. ‘Tlon’ and ‘Ruins’ are parallel worlds,
but they are self-enclosed and do not comment on the political world. Cortázar
disrupts physical laws, such as in the story about vomiting rabbits, but they
describe subjective experiences. They are often a vehicle for self-realisation,
as in ‘Axolotl’ in which the character becomes a fish. Cortázar is often oblique
and the three stories that this essay looked at do not have political
commentary. Onetti breaks physical laws, as Santa María is the product is the
product of the protagonist’s mind, though the territory does not break physical
laws. It is definitely a vehicle for self-realisation, as the character keeps a
screenplay in his draw and ends up living it. He populates it with women that
he finds attractive. It is a parallel world, but it has echoes of Buenos Aires
and Montevideo. In Juan Rulfo, the novel disrupts temporal laws, as all the
characters are dead and the novel jumps about in time. The novel is a parallel
world and it comments on the political realm. The eponymous character embodies
the autocratic ‘caudillo’ and there are depictions of revolutionaries. The
novel by José Donoso disrupts physical laws, as a girl is always pregnant,
there is a castle of mutants and Mudito is turned into a mutant. In many ways,
there are aspects of self-realisation as these are all Mudito’s hallucinations.
He has to be a lawyer, even though he wants to be a writer. He has to serve the
aristocrat Azcoíta and he gets shot trying to save him. In many ways, these
fantasies are a form of psychotic self-realisation since he is deeply
repressed. The novel does have political commentary, since the maid Peta Ponce
is part of an underclass and controls the upper crust. Azcoíta is a wealthy
aristocrat and he is dependent on many people such as Mudito to serve him, so
this comments on Chile’s class-divided society. The protagonist always assumes
different personalities depending on the social context and he is schizophrenic
as a result. These are all the ways that these Latin American writers create
imaginary worlds.
Works Cited
Bennett,
Caroline Jane. (1999) The Politics and the Poetics of Latin American Magical
Realism. PhD thesis for University of London.
Borges,
Jorge Luis. (1949) El aleph. Madrid: Alianza editorial.
Borges,
Jorge Luis. (1944) Ficciones. Madrid: Alianza editorial.
Brescia, Pablo. (2008) A. J. ‘A Superior
Magic: Literary Politics and the Rise of the Fantastic in Latin American
Fiction.’ In Scholar Commons. 4.
Cortázar, Julio. (1956). Final
del juego. Madrid: Alfaguara.
Cortázar,
Julio. (1951) Bestiario. Madrid: Punto de lectura.
Donoso,
José. (1970) El obsceno pájaro de la noche. Santiago: Alfaguara.
Onetti,
Juan Carlos. (1950) La vida breve. Barcelona: Edhasa.
Rulfo,
Juan. (1955) Pedro Páramo. Barcelona: Editorial Planeta.
Sáizar, Consuelo. (2021) ‘Constructing
Hegemony: The Latin American Boom and the Book Industries of Spain and Mexico:
1963-1967.’ PhD thesis for the University of Cambridge.
