THE SHORT NOVEL AND THE REPRESENTATION OF SUBJECTIVITY:
MANHUNT BY ALEJO CARPENTIER AND MEMORY OF MY MELANCHOLY WHORES BY GABRIEL GARCÍA MÁRQUEZ
Open Access
Author:
Villarreal, Marlene Sofia
Graduate Program:
Spanish
Degree:
Doctor of Philosophy
Document Type:
Dissertation
Date of Defense:
August 15, 2008
Committee Members:
Laurence E Prescott, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor Laurence E Prescott, Committee Chair/Co-Chair Guadalupe Marti Pena, Committee Member Thomas Oliver Beebee, Committee Member Matthew Bennett Restall, Committee Member
Keywords:
short novel representation and subjectivity narrative techniques Boom Post-Boom reader effect
Abstract:
This study examines the Latin American short novel, a poorly studied genre of Spanish American narrative. Although the dissertation focuses on the contemporary short novel, it presents an overview of the formation of this genre in romance literatures until today. The common denominator of the short novel is that this genre allows writers to explore issues in-depth related to the role of individual subjectivity in narrative discourse. Through the analysis of the Boom, Post Boom and contemporary reading of two of the major Spanish American short novels, Carpentier’s Manhunt (1956) and García Márquez’s Memory of my Melancholy Whores (2004), as well as through the study of narrative techniques used in these short novels to represent the individual subjectivity in narrative discourse, the author of the dissertation arrives at interesting conclusions. Those conclusions prove the short novel efficacy in participating actively in social and cultural debates.
