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Paul Auster En España (1988-1998)

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Paul Auster En España (1988-1998) 1 Universidad de Sevilla Departamento de Literatura Inglesa y Norteamericana TESIS DOCTORAL Paul Auster en España (1988-1998) por Bernardo Muñoz Director: Dr. Ramón Espejo Sevilla, 2015 3 Agradecimientos En el plano profesional, quisiera mostrar mi agradecimiento al personal de la Biblioteca Nacional de España, de la Hemeroteca Municipal de Madrid y, sobre todo, de la Hemeroteca Municipal de Sevilla; a Ana Luisa Martín, con afecto, por su inestimable ayuda a lo largo de todo este tiempo; a todos los profesores y alumnos de universidades españolas con los que mantuve conversaciones telefónicas y me ofrecieron sus puntos de vista acerca de diversas cuestiones pertinentes para este trabajo; al personal de la editorial Anagrama por atender mis consultas y facilitarme un dossier de prensa muy completo acerca del autor; y a todas aquellas personas que en estos años me hicieron llegar datos sobre Auster a los que yo solo posiblemente no hubiese podido acceder. En el plano personal, quisiera mostrar mi agradecimiento a Blanca Mazón, Alejandro Rodríguez, Carmen Criado, Nicolás Pacheco, Irene Zabalo, Bernardo Luis Domínguez, y, muy especialmente, a mis padres: Bernardo Muñoz y Margarita Nicolás. Todas las personas arriba mencionadas constituyen un pequeño porcentaje de todo mi agradecimiento. El resto va dirigido a una sola persona: mi director de tesis Ramón Espejo, a quien estoy agradecido tanto en el plano profesional como en el personal. Naturalmente, si bien este trabajo hubiera sido muy difícil sin la ayuda de cada uno de ellos, cualquier omisión importante o error significativo que pueda hallarse en esta tesis es de mi absoluta y exclusiva responsabilidad. 5 Lista de abreviaturas Nota 1: el sistema de referencias usado en este trabajo sigue las convenciones de la séptima y útima edición del Modern Language Association Handbook for Writers of Research Papers (Nueva York: MLA, 2009). Nota 2: siempre que no se indique lo contrario, las ediciones de las obras de Auster citadas entre paréntesis serán abreviadas de la siguiente forma: CP Collected Prose HM Hand to Mouth: A Chronicle of Early Failure HN Here and Now: Letters 2008-2011 CLT In the Country of Last Things Lev Leviathan MP Moon Palace MV Mr. Vertigo ON Oracle Night SBF Smoke & Blue in the Face AH The Art of Hunger BF The Brooklyn Follies BI The Book of Illusions IoS The Invention of Solitude MC The Music of Chance NYT The New York Trilogy RN The Red Notebook 7 Contenidos Prólogo 11 1. Planteamientos generales 1.1. Vida de Paul Auster 25 1.2. Obra de Paul Auster 36 1.3. Teorías del lector y la lectura 57 1.4. Justificación y objetivos de la investigación 77 1.5. Paul Auster y su edición en España 91 2. Novelas 2.1. La trilogía de Nueva York, o cómo se escribe la soledad 2.1.1. Ciudad de cristal 107 2.1.2. Fantasmas 128 2.1.3. La habitación cerrada 140 2.2. En el país de las últimas cosas: magna civis, magna solitudo 165 2.3. El palacio de la luna, o la aventura de un hombre sin destino 201 2.4. La música del azar y el absurdo neokafkiano 223 2.5. Leviatán: homo homini lupus 251 2.6. Mr. Vértigo, o el misterio de la creación literaria 279 3. Cine, poesía y ensayos 3.1. El cuaderno rojo, Desapariciones, El arte del hambre 311 3.2. Smoke, Blue in the Face, Lulu on the Bridge 330 4. Memorias 4.1. La invención de la soledad 365 4.2. A salto de mata: crónica de un fracaso precoz 376 5. Conclusiones 387 Obras citadas 399 Anexo I: Cronología de Paul Auster 415 Anexo II: Lista de prensa consultada 417 9 Prólogo El trabajo que el lector tiene entre sus manos trata de mostrar la buena acogida que Paul Auster tuvo en España en sus inicios a pesar de la mala prensa que generalmente ha tenido en su país de origen. No estamos ante el típico producto de consumo cultural que ha sido exportado desde los Estados Unidos a Europa; por el contrario, la literatura, la cinematografía, la estética y el universo austerianos han sido un éxito de público y crítica en nuestro país pese a la indiferencia (en el mejor de los casos) del público y la crítica norteamericanos, que aún hoy siguen considerando “europeizante” a un autor nacido en Newark, NJ, en 1947 y que ha hecho de la carretera, la ciudad de Nueva York, los escritores del “American Renaissance” y, sobre todo, el barrio de Brooklyn algunas de sus señas de identidad. Recordemos tan solo algunos de sus títulos más populares, pues quizás tengan algo que decirnos sobre los intereses del autor: The New York Trilogy (1987), The Brooklyn Follies (2005), Sunset Park (2010)… No cabe duda de que Auster es principalmente conocido como novelista. Historias como los enigmáticos relatos que componen su Trilogía, el mundo desolador de In the Country of Last Things (1987), la posibilidad de esperanza que se vislumbra en Moon Palace (1989), el ritmo intenso de la narración en la inquietante The Music of Chance (1990), la reflexión sobre las responsabilidades individuales en Leviathan (1992) o el poder curativo de las aventuras y de la memoria en la alegórica Mr. Vertigo (1994) le han granjeado al autor una posición más que destacable en España en un periodo de tiempo sorprendentemente breve. Sin embargo, Auster también ha estado presente, en mayor o menor medida, en ámbitos muy diversos de la cultura de nuestro país como son la poesía, el cine, la pintura, el teatro, la música o la traducción. Casi todas las artes han estado cerca de un autor que, según José Antonio Gurpegui, 11 catedrático de literatura y ex-director del Instituto Franklin de Estudios Norteamericanos de la Universidad de Alcalá de Henares, pasó a ser, en un intervalo de apenas diez años, “el escritor norteamericano más interesante” (Gurpegui, “Smoke & Blue in the Face”, 12). Esta aceptación tan rotunda del autor es sin duda donde radica mayormente el interés de su estudio. Y es que, por más que pertenezcan a una misma tradición cultural, lo cierto es que los Estados Unidos y Europa son dos mundos bien diferenciados, como si la geografía estuviese por encima de todos aquellos lazos que a lo largo de la historia han tratado de aunar lo que en realidad siempre ha sido distinto; este es el motivo por el que Auster es un escritor que merece no únicamente la atención de los muchos seguidores que lo acompañan desde mediados de los años 80, sino también el estudio y la dedicación de la investigación académica. Creo profundamente en el poder de la literatura para ensamblar culturas que a priori parecen alejadas, y, por ello, estudiar la recepción de este autor en España supone no únicamente profundizar en la manera en que en nuestro país hemos leído, percibido e interpretado la obra del escritor neoyorquino sino también acercarnos al modo en que dos culturas entran en contacto y a cómo cada una de ellas reacciona a tal aproximación. Este trabajo, sin embargo, no hubiera sido posible sin las teorías del lector y la lectura que han abierto el campo de la investigación literaria desde mediados del siglo pasado, logrando expandir el trabajo de los académicos por vías poco exploradas anteriormente y que ahora por fin entienden que la literatura es, independientemente de la naturaleza de cada obra específica, un ejercicio personal que prioriza, por encima de todo, la voluntad de comunicación, pues, como dice el escritor granadino Justo Navarro Velilla, “escribir es prestar atención el mundo” (Navarro, “Deseo de realidades”, web). 12 Si tenemos en cuenta que, desde entonces, se han llevado a cabo en nuestro país numerosos estudios que abordan el texto literario (en concreto el que procede del mundo anglosajón) desde el enfoque de la recepción y de las relaciones culturales, esta tesis cuenta con un marco apropiado para su desarrollo precisamente por seguir una línea ya marcada por los muchos trabajos que la anteceden en la historia de la Filología, o los Estudios Ingleses, en España. Quisiera mencionar únicamene algunos de ellos, como por ejemplo Hemingway and Spain (1968), de Luis Maccanti, La novelística de James Fenimore Cooper y su recepción en España (1973), de José María Bardavío, Presencia de Faulkner en España 1933-1973, su eco en el panorama literario (1974), de María Elena Bravo, Lord Byron en España y otros temas byronianos (1982), de Esteban Pujals, Lewis Carroll en España (1982), de Inés Praga, La presencia de James Joyce en la prensa española (1921-1976) (1997), de Carlos García Santa Cecilia, Censura y recepción de Hemingway en España (2005), de Douglas Edward La Prade, La recepción de Alfred Lord Tennyson en España: traductores y traducciones artúricas (2007), de Juan Miguel Zarandona, o España y el teatro de Arthur Miller (2010), de Ramón Espejo. El número de artículos y otras publicaciones llevadas a cabo en nuestro país en torno a esta misma temática es excesivamente extenso para poder mencionarlos en su totalidad, pero sí quisiera destacar los siguientes: “Joyce, Ulysses, y España”, de Julio César Santoyo, “D. H. Lawrence en España”, de Aránzazu Usandizaga, “Clásicos ingleses en español: el caso de Ben Jonson”, de María José Mora Sena, “Shakespeare in the New Spain or What You Will”, de Manuel José Gómez Lara, o “Death of a Salesman, de Arthur Miller, en España durante los años 50” y “Trayectoria española del teatro de Edward Albee”, de Ramón Espejo. Por otro lado, la investigación académica 13 también ha dado lugar a diversas publicaciones que, si bien no abordan al autor desde el punto de vista de su recepción, sí están directamente relacionadas con la novelística de Auster, como por ejemplo, “The Apocalyptic Urban Landscape in Paul Auster’s In the Country of Last Things” y “La narrativa posmodernista de Paul Auster”, de Jesús Lerate de Castro, “Paul Auster’s City of Glass, José María Conget’s Todas las mujeres, and European Postmodernism”, de Manuel Aguirre Dabán o “Las dos caras de Nueva York en City of Glass, de Paul Auster”, de Ramón Espejo, entre otras publicaciones.
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