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AN APPLICATION OF THE LITERARY THEORIES OF GEORG LUKACS TO THE PROSE OF ENRIQUE AMORIM Item Type text; Dissertation-Reproduction (electronic) Authors Gerling, David Ross, 1941- Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 26/09/2021 15:04:55 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/289350 INFORMATION TO USERS This material was produced from a microfilm copy of the original document. While the most advanced technological means to photograph and reproduce this document have been used, the quality is heavily dependent upon the quality of the original submitted. 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It is customary to begin photoing at the upper left hand corner of a large sheet and to continue photoing from left to right in equal sections with a small overlap. If necessary, sectioning is continued again — beginning below the first row and continuing on until complete. 4. The majority of users indicate that the textual content is of greatest value, however, a somewhat higher quality reproduction could be made from "photographs" if essential to the understanding of the dissertation. Silver prints of "photographs" may be ordered at additional charge by writing the Order Department, giving the catalog number, title, author and specific pages you wish reproduced. 5. PLEASE NOTE: Some pages may have indistinct print. Filmed as received. Xerox University Microfilms 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106 76-14,545 GERLING, David Ross, 1941- AN APPLICATION OF THE LITERARY THEORIES OF GEORG LUKACS TO THE PROSE OF ENRIQUE AMORIM. The University of Arizona, Ph.D., 1975 Literature, Latin American Xerox University Microfilms, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106 THIS DISSERTATION HAS BEEN MICROFILMED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED. AN APPLICATION OF THE LITERARY THEORIES OF GEORG LUKACS TO THE PROSE OF ENRIQUE AMORIM by David Ross Gerling A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the DEPARTMENT OF ROMANCE LANGUAGES In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY WITH A MAJOR IN SPANISH In the Graduate College THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA 19 7 5 THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA. GRADUATE COLLEGE I hereby recommend that this dissertation prepared under my direction by David Ross Gerling . entitled AN APPLICATION OF THE LITERARY THEORIES OF GEORG LUKACS TO THE PROSE OF ENRIQUE AMORIM be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement of the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY <y\' / v> 5-/7-JT- Dissertation Director Date. After inspection of the final copy of tha dissertation, the follov/ing members of the Final Examination Committee concur in its approval and recommend its acceptance: •'* —? f K/C / h - ' - V/ This approval and acceptance is contingent on the candidate's adequate performance and defense of this dissertation at the final oral examination. The inclusion of this sheet bound into the library copy of the dissertation is evidence of satisfactory performance at the final examination. STATEMENT BY AUTHOR This dissertation has been submitted in partial fulfillment of requirements for an advanced degree at The University of Arizona and is deposited in the University Library to be made available to borrowers under rules of the Library. Brief quotations from this dissertation are allowable without special permission, provided that accurate acknowledgment of source is made. Requests for permission for extended quotation from or reproduction of this manuscript in whole or in part may be granted by the head of the major department or the Dean of the Graduate College when in his judgment the proposed use of the material is in the interests of scholarship. In all other instances, however, permission must be obtained from the author. SIGNED To my wife Maribel iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS It is with sincere appreciation that I wish to express my gratitude to Professor Robert R. Anderson for his generous and untiring guidance. Without his dedicated help, I would not have been able to accomplish this task. I would also like to sincerely thank Professor Renato Rosaldo and Professor Charles Olstad for their advice and continued help. I would like, finally, to express my deepest gratitude to my wife, Maribel, for her encouragement and patience during my long years of study and to my parents for their constant faith and support. iv TABLE OP CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT vii CHAPTER I. PREVIOUS CRITICISM 1 Introduction 1 Literary Histories and Anthology Criticism 6 Journal Criticism . 16 Book Criticism . 29 Specific Studies on Amorim 33 II. AN OUTLINE OF THE ESSENTIAL LITERARY TENETS OF GEORG LUKACS 53 III. THE MODERNIST WORKS OF ENRIQUE AMORIM 90 Part 1: Early Short Stories 90 "Las quitanderas" 90 Tangarupci 93 Horizontes y bocacalles ........ 98 La trampa del pajonal 101 La carreta 105 Part 2: Later Novels 122 El paisano Aguilar 122 El caballo y su sombra ......... 133 La luna se hizo con agua 144 IV. THE STALINIST-ZHDANOVIST ILLUSTRATING LITERATURE OF ENRIQUE AMORIM 155 Nueve lunas sobre Neuqu§n 158 La victoria no viene sola 169 V. THE SOCIALIST REALIST WORKS OF ENRIQUE AMORIM 178 "Veintitan dias" 178 "La madre polaca" • 181 Corral Abierto 182 Los montaraces 195 v vi TABLE OF CONTENTS—Continued Page VI. CONCLUSION 201 SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY 212 ABSTRACT The twentieth century Uruguayan writer Enrique Amorim based the majority of his novels and short stories on the lives of his country's rural working class. Although the proletariat is the common denominator of his major works, the novels and short stories can be grouped into distinct periods that reflect the author's ideological evolution. In the process of defining the various artistic and ideological stages of Amorim's prose, an extensive examination of his critics and of those whose literary theories are applicable reveals that the literary theories of Georg LukScs are the most accurate and comprehensive, particularly those developed in The Theory of the Novel, Realism in our Time, Studies in European Realism, and Writer and Critic. The prose written by Amorim between 1923, the date of his first publication, and 1944 falls within the category that Lukcics calls Modernism. During the modernist stage of his writing Amorim portrays his country's proletariat as the helpless victim of a dehumanizing socioeconomic system. The protagonists of the novels and short stories are static individuals who either do not or can not attempt to change the infrahuman conditions of their lives. In La carreta, Amorim's most typical example of Modernism, character vii viii development is lacking. Instead, the author reveals his protagonists as aimless, fragmented, hollow men and women who seek relief from the monotony, loneliness, and in­ dignity of their existence through escapes that eventually lower them to the status of animals. Between 1945 and 1952 Amorim's works changed radically. His membership in the Communist Party led to a militant type of writing which names and directly attacks those systems that produce capital by means of the exploita-^ tion of the proletariat. The Lukcicsian term, Stalinistr- Zhdanovist illustrating literature, is applicable to these works. The stories and novels from this period are just as one-sided in their interpretation of reality as Modernism, The protagonists are one-dimensional puppets whom the author manipulates in an attempt to illustrate Communist Party dogma. He also sacrifices plot development to sermonizing and propagandizing, which in turn leads to an imbalance between form and content. The most famous work from this period is La victoria no viene sola, whose title Amorim attributes to a saying by Stalin. Coinciding with the year of Stalin's death in 1953, Amorim's prose begins to treat the problems of the pro­ letariat from a perspective based on the movements of historical materialism. The works from Amorim's final period, which ends with his death in 1960, are representa­ tive of that literature which LukScs refers to as Socialist ix Realism. Here we find the author's most successful combina­ tion of form and content. He uses the best descriptive elements from his modernist works and the ideological background of his Stalinist-Zhdanovist illustrating novels, but neither form nor content exists to the detriment of the other. Amorim's portrayal of the coming to socialist awareness on the part of the proletariat is distinct from the propaganda found in Stalinist-Zhdanovist illustrating literature. In Los montaraces, Amorim's best example of Socialist Realism, the author presents the protagonists as capable of choosing meaningful alternatives to their un­ desirable situation instead of restricted to seeking psychopathological escape. Once they are aware of their needs, Amorim allows them to work out their destiny in accordance with the dialectical laws of historical materialism. CHAPTER I PREVIOUS CRITICISM Introduction Enrique Amorim (1900-1960) was a versatile Uruguayan writer who published both prose and verse.

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