INFORMATION TO USERS This manuscript has been reproduced firom the microfilm master. UMI films the text directly firom the original or copy submitted. Thus, some thesis and dissertation copies are in ^ewriter face, while others may be from any type of computer printer. The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleedthrough, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely afiect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send UMI a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Oversize materials (e.g., maps, drawings, charts) are reproduced by sectioning the original, beginning at the upper left-hand comer and continuing from left to right in equal sectionssm all overlaps.with Each original is also photographed in one exposure and is included in reduced form at the back of the book. Photographs included in the original manuscript have been reproduced xerographically in this copy. Higher quality 6" x 9" black and white photographic prints are available for any photographs or illustrations appearing in this copy for an additional charge. Contact UMI directly to order. UMI University Microtilms International A Beil & Howell Information Company 300 North Zeeb Road. Ann Arbor. Ml 48106-1345 USA 313.761-4700 800.521-0600 Order Number 9130474 The prose fiction of César Vallejo and Vicente Huidobro Fisher, Jeftey Charles, Ph.D. The Ohio State University, 1991 Copyright ©1991 by Fisher, Jeffirey Charles. All rights reserved. U-M-I SOON. Zeeb Rd. Ann Arbor, MI 481G6 THE PROæ TîîCrrCM OP CSSAR VALLEJO AND VICEN1E HÜIDOERO DISSERTAJTCN Presented in Partial Pulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of the Ohio State University By Jeffrey Charles Pisher, B.A., M.A. ***** Ihe Ohio State University 1991 Dissertation Committee; Approved by Jaime Giordano Josaphat Kubayanda Advl^r Abril Trigo-Ehlers Department of Spanish and Portuguese Copyri^t by Jeffrey Charles "Pisher 1991 To My ■Pamlly, Especially Diane ii ACKNCWLEDGETENTS I wish to express my sincerest gratitude to Dr. Stephen Sunmerhill for the special attention he gave to this project and, most especially, for his unremitting encouragement without which this study would still be only an idea. I would also like to thank Dr. Grinor Rojo for his frequent guidance and valuable input as well as for the initial stimulus to write about the prose fiction of César Vallejo and Vicente Huidobro. I am truly indebted to Dr. Jaime Giordano for his willingness to agree to direct a thesis already in progress and, most particularly, for giving so graciously of his time and considerable expertise. Many thanks go also to Dr. Josaphat Kubayanda vôio despite having plenty to deal with still found time to read my manuscript and offer valuable direction. Let me express, too, my appreciation to Dr. Jorge Abril Trigo-Ehlers for kindly consenting to serve on my Reading Committee. This project could not have been entirely canplete if it had not been for the Tiriker Foundation Travel Grant which I received in 1986 and which permitted me to travel to Peru, Chile and Argentina that same year. During my visit I was graciously received and assisted by Dr. Alberto Escobar, in Peru, and by Mr. Vicente Huidobro Portales, in Chile. I also had the generous help of Dr. Hugo Montes, respected authority on Vicente Huidobro. Finally, none of this would have been possible without the love, patience and good faith of my parents, my wife, Diane, and my daughters, Sarah and Amy. iii Y l T k May 20, 1 9 5 1................ B o m - Columbus, Ohio 1 9 7 4 ........................... B.A., Chlo State University, Columbus, Ohio 1977-1986 . ............. Graduate Teaching Associate, Spanish and Italian, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 1 9 7 9 ........................... M.A., Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 198 6...................... Recipient Tinker Foundation Travel Grant 1986, 1 9 8................. 7 Graduate Teaching Associate Latin American Studies, Chio State University, Columbus, Ohio 1987 ...................... Graduate Administrative Associate, Translator Spanish and Italian, Columbian Quincentenary Committee, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 1986-1988 ................. Visiting Instructor, Wittenberg University, Springfield, Œiio FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field: Spanish and Portuguese Studies in Narrative Genre, Spain and Spanish America: Professors Grinor Rojo, Stephen Sunmerhill, Salvador Garcia and Margarita Levisi Studies in Colonial and Nineteenth Century Latin American Literature: Professor Grinor Rojo Minor Field: Italian Language and Literature iv TAELE OE C Œ S m ïS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS...................................... iii VITA ................................................ iv PREFACE ........................................... 1 CHAPTER PAGE I. JNTRGDÜCTICN ................................ 9 Latin-American Development frcxn the Final Decades of ttie XIXth Century until the 1930 ’ s ....... 9 Literary H i s t o r y .......................... 22 Avant>-Garde Narrative...................... 34 César Vallejo and Vicente Huidobro as Writers of F i c t i o n ................................ 57 II. THE PROSE FICTTCN OF CESAR VALLEJO................. 77 Circumstances of Production.................. 77 Critical Reaction.......................... 82 Parameters of Itextual An a l y s i s ............... 86 Escalas melografiadas (1923) and Fabla salvaje ( 1 9 2 3 ) ..................... 90 Hacia el reino de losSciris (1924-1927) .... 110 Tungsteno (1931) and the subsequent unpublished short stories (1931-1934): remnants of the avant-garde............................ 125 III. THE PROSE FICTION OF VICENTE HÜ I D O E R O ............. 163 Circumstances of Production................. l63 Critical Reaction......................... l67 Mlo Cid Campeador. Hazaha (1929)........... 173 Ca^iostro. Novela-film Tl934)............. 197 Satiro o El poder de las' palabras (1939) .... 218 CONCLUSIŒ .......................................... 244 BIBLIOGRAPHY........................................ 248 PREPACE The purpose of this dissertation is to contribute to the clarification of the origins and nature of the Spanishr-Merican avant-garde of the -twenties and thirties by undertaking a careful s-tudy of the novels and short fiction of two central figures of the Spanish-American avan-t-garde : César Vallejo and Vicente Huidobro. It is believed that original analyses of these represen-bative works of Spanish-American a-vant-garde prose fiction, concentrating on what is unique to their production, will serve to explain both the indi-vidual works and the -yanguardis-ta phenomenon. Ihe li-fcerary avan-t-gardes of the 1920’s and 1930’s and the abstract theoretical constructs Modernism/the Avant>-Garde formula-fced to contain them have been, especially in recent years, the subjects of much scholarship. In Latin America, the tendency toward theoretical abstraction and Eurocentrism in this debate prompted some critics to counter with the question: VIhat is the peculiar na-fcure of the Spanish-American avant-garde? As early as 1928, José Carlos Maria-tegui sou^t to answer this question as he put forward a new theory of Peru-vian li-cerary history in "El proceso de la literatzira," the seventh essay of his Siete ensayos de in-terpre-tacion de la realidad peruana. Employing the methods of historical ma-terialism, Mariategui concluded that the cosmopolitanism of the Peruvian avan"t- 1 2 garde represented not a form of servile imitation but, rather, an important step toward artistic independence and the forging of a national literature. Because a cosmopolitan importation of European and U.S. literary techniques and content promoted the breakdown of longstanding colonialist ties with mother Spain it exerted a liberating effect upon local authors. As a corollary, the experimentalist climate created by the avant-garde led full circle to the intensification of interest in local forms and techniques. ]ji the final paragraph of his essay, Mariategui summarized his analysis as follows: . cosmopolitismo se traduce, en la imitacion entre otras cosas de no pocos corrosivos decadentismos occi­ dentales y en la adopciôn de atérquicas modas fini- seculares. Pero, bajo este flujo precario, un nuevo sentimiento, una nueva revelaciôn se anuncian. Por los caminos universales, ecuménicos, que tento se nos repro- chan, nos vamos acercando cada vez mas a nosotros mismos.^ And, it was for these same reasons that Mariategui declared, in assessing the importance of Peruvian writer César Vallejo's experimental poetry, that: Este arte senala el nacimiento de una nueva sensi- bilidad. Es un arte nuevo, un arte rebelde, que rompe con la tradicion cortesana de una literatera de bufones y lacayos. Este lenguaje es el de un poeta y un hcxnbre. El gran poeta de Los Keraldos Negros y de Trilce— ese gran poete. que ha pasado ignorado y desconocido por las calles de Lima tan propicias y rendidas a los laureles de los juglares de feria — se présenta, en su arte, ccxno un precursor del nuevo espîritu, de la nueva conciencia.^ 3 Mariategui's Siete ensayos inspired a fundamental réévaluation of Latin American reality vôiich continues to this day. Literary critics who have strived to continue his line of analysis include Juan Marinello, Roberto Fernandez