UNIVERSIDAD COMPLUTENSE DE MADRID FACULTAD DE FILOLOGÍA DEPARTAMENTO DE FILOLOGÍA INGLESA II TESIS DOCTORAL The cross-cultural roots of contemporary micronarratives: journeys across the Atlantic Rim Las raíces multiculturales del microrrelato contemporáneo: viajes a través del Atlántico MEMORIA PARA OPTAR AL GRADO DE DOCTORA PRESENTADA POR Evelina Saponjic Jovanovic DIRECTORA Asunción López-Varela Azcárate Madrid, 2018 © Evelina Saponjic Jovanovic, 2017 UNIVERSIDAD COMPLUTENSE DE MADRID FACULTAD DE FILOLOGÍA DEPARTAMENTO DE FILOLOGÍA INGLESA II THE CROSS-CULTURAL ROOTS OF CONTEMPORARY MICRONARRATIVES: JOURNEYS ACROSS THE ATLANTIC RIM LAS RAICES MULTICULTURALES DEL MICRORRELATO CONTEMPORÁNEO: VIAJES A TRAVÉS DEL ATLÁNTICO TESIS DOCTORAL DE: EVELINA SAPONJIC JOVANOVIC DIRIGIDA POR Prof. ASUNCIÓN LÓPEZ-VARELA AZCÁRATE Madrid, 2017 2 DEDICATION To the memory of my loving mother 3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First, let me express my sincere thanks and gratitude to my wonderful supervisor Professor Asunción López-Varela, for her encouragement and kind words. Her support has been invaluable for the writing of this dissertation. I have enjoyed the opportunity to learn from her knowledge and experience, her insights, patience, support, availability, interest and enthusiasm, and constructive feedback. I also need to thank my boyfriend and my best friends for offering me support and comprehending of what this project has meant to me, for cheering me up and cheering me on. Lastly, a thank you to my mother Ljiljana, to whom which I dedicate this thesis. Thank you for believing in me every step of the way and being my guiding light through my entire life. Your glow faded too fast and I shall always keep you in my heart. 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS DEDICATION¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼4 ABSTRACT Y RESUMEN (ENGLISH/SPANISH)¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼ 6 INTRODUCTION ¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼ 9 SECTION I. Short Story Lands¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼..¼¼¼..21 SECTION II. Sites ¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼..¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼................ 48 SECTION III. Hybrid scenarios of the short story¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼..¼¼102 SECTION IV. Prose-Poetry in Horacio Quiroga (1878-1937)¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼ 138 SECTION V. Julio Torri (1889-1970)¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼180 SECTION VI. Futurist aesthetics and the re-emergence of the fragment. Ramón Gómez de la Serna (1888-1963) .¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼209 SECTION VII. The Fragments of Surrealism: Leonora Carrington (1917-2011)¼¼.230 SECTION VIII. Angela Carter (1940-1992)¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼....278 SECTION IX. Margaret E. Atwood (1939-)¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼305 SECTION X. Conclusions¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼326 REFERENCES¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼.337 GLOSARY OF TERMS¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼...362 RESUMEN EN ESPAÊOL¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼¼..372 5 ABSTRACT This doctoral dissertation examines the progressive surfacing of a new genre in the literary world: a micronarrative, and the growing tendency of an increased fragmentation of the literary unit as a whole. I argue that short fiction is always the dichotomy of itself since it can always teleport anywhere/turn into anything owing to the stylistical resources that facilitate it to become something else, as well as due to the interpretation of the reader. This is why, at the same time, I underline the role of a recipient as a key part, and stylistic resources such as double-entedre, metaphors, symbols, irony and sarcasm, that grease the wheels as far as creation of hints is concerned. The literary phenomenon of today is being displayed as an incessant game of chess in which the creator and the recipients move their pieces equivalently, contributing by equal shares. This type of narrative always incessantly creates itself, depending on who has been reading it, constantly generating new contextual meanings a creating new forms. In order to demonstrate the incessant dismemberment of the totality of the literary form, six authors, three from Spanish-speaking and three from English-speaking countries have been analysed for traces of fragmentation in their works and seeds of microfiction. The Spanish-speaking writers are, as follows: Horacio Quiroga (Uruguay) and his Los arrecifes del coral, Julio Torri (Mexico) with aphoristic and humoristic brief approach in Ensayos y Poemas De Fusilamientos and Prosas dispersas, and Ramón Gómez de la Serna, father of la greguería. 6 As for the English speaking authors, three female writers have been approached, namely, Leonora Carrington (UK) and her surreal stories from The Oval Lady, specifically -The debutante., Angela Carter (UK) with The Bloody Chamber0s -Snowchild. and, ultimately, Margaret E. Atwood (Canada) with her short story prose collections and recently created Flash Fictions. KEYWORDS: Fragments, Fantastic, Micronarratives, Short Fiction, Horacio Quiroga, Julio Torri, Ramón Gómez de la Serna, Leonora Carrington, Angela Carter, Margaret Atwood RESUMEN Esta tesis doctoral examina la progresiva aparición de un nuevo género en el mundo literario: el microrrelato, y la creciente tendencia de fragmentación incrementada de la unidad literaria en su conjunto. Argumento que la ficción corta es siempre la dicotomía de sí misma ya que siempre puede teletransportarse en cualquier lugar/convertirse en algo distinto, debido a los recursos estilísticos que le facilitan para llegar a ser algo nuevo, así como debido a la interpretación del lector. Por eso, al mismo tiempo, subrayo el papel del destinatario como parte clave, y los recursos estilísticos como el doble-entedre, las metáforas, los símbolos, la ironía y el sarcasmo, que engrasan las ruedas en cuanto a la creación de pistas El fenómeno literario de hoy se muestra como un incesante juego de ajedrez en el que el creador y los receptores mueven sus piezas de manera equivalente, contribuyendo por partes iguales. Este tipo de narrativa siempre se crea incesantemente, dependiendo de quién lo ha 7 estado leyendo, generando constantemente nuevos significados contextuales y creando nuevas formas. Para demostrar el desmembramiento incesante de la totalidad de la forma literaria, se han analizado seis autores, tres de habla hispana y tres de países anglófonos para detectar rastros de fragmentación en sus obras y semillas de microficción. Los escritores de habla hispana son los siguientes: Horacio Quiroga (Uruguay) y Los arrecifes del coral, Julio Torri (México) con un enfoque breve y humorístico en Ensayos y Poemas, De Fusilamientos y Prosas dispersas, y Ramón Gómez de la Serna, padre de la greguería. En cuanto a los autores de habla inglesa, me he acercado a tres escritoras, Leonora Carrington (Reino Unido) y sus historias surrealistas de The Oval Lady, específicamente "The debutante", Angela Carter (UK) con "The Snowchild" de The Bloody Chamber y, en última instancia, Margaret E. Atwood (Canadá) con sus colecciones de cuentos cortos en prosa y tres micro-relatos recientemente creados. PALABRAS CLAVE: Fragmentos, Fantastico, Micronarrativas, Ficción corta, Horacio Quiroga, Julio Torri, Ramón Gómez de la Serna, Leonora Carrington, Angela Carter, Margaret Atwood 8 INTRODUCTION This doctoral thesis takes us on a long and arduous journey in search of the cross- cultural roots of contemporary micronarratives. Being petite, compressed streak of texts, short short stories were once ice cube chunks that used to form a part of an iceberg, before breaking off and beginning free roaming all across narrative seas. Their mere existence is a consequence of literary fragmentation and alienation from the long narrative vein. In such a small story-like space, there is no place for complete development of a well-thought out plot, thorough characterization of protagonists or detailed description of sceneries. Short short stories strive towards conciseness, and such textual condensation is achieved through the economy of language. Only the essential words are used and rarely will you see a miniature story excessively laden with adjectives or adverbs. Merely bare necessities are present; location where the story is occurring is solely hinted and sometimes not even that, since it might be irrelevant. Nouns and verbs are dominant, divulging the names of participants and the action that is taking course. Often, for the protagonists0 characterization, dialogue is used. The objective is to pile up as many informative facts in as little words as possible. Such literary nakedness prods readers to fill in the gaps that he or she might feel necessary for better comprehension of the story. Micro-narratives are fully open to readers, allowing them to enlist their imagination, directly interact with the text. The reader becomes the author; constantly reconstructing the micronarrative and editing it in the interpretative effort. The meaning of the story is multiplied thousand-fold under the 9 scrutiny of worldwide uncountable readers with distinct perceptions of the material lying in front of them. Largely, they are the ones that give meanings to a text, generating new, similar and yet different, short short stories after each read. Divided in nine sections, the journey to the roots of contemporary micro­ narratives takes us, is made up of fragments and segments of writing within the larger narrative piece. Section I deals the characteristics of these fictional works of extreme brevity and the ontology of modern short fiction, with its roots in the fragment and its symbolical alienation value. The plural nature of micro-narratives is reflected in their multiple names: from short fiction to short short story and flash-fiction, and more recently Six-Word Story, Twitterature (140-character