NARRATIVE TECHNIQUE IN SELECTED FICTIONAL WORKS BY LUISA VALENZUELA Joy Alyce Cook La Grange, Georgia B.S., University of South Carolina, 1969 M.A., Auburn University, 1988 A Dissertation Presented to the Graduate Faculty of the University of Virginia in Candidacy for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Spanish, Italian and Portuguese University of Virginia May, 1995 I Dissertation Abstract Luisa Valenzuela's fiction has merited the attention of leading literary critics, and many of her novels and short stories have been translated into English. Apropos of the quality of Valenzuela's narrative technique, her name has been linked with Jorge Luis Borges, Julio Cortazar, Gabriel Garcia Marquez and many more. Yet, only two in-depth considerations of her works exist to date. Sharon Magnarelli's critical text, Reflections/Refractions: Reading Luisa Valenzuela, places an emphasis on Language; Juana Maria Cordones­ Cook's study, Poetica de transgression en la novelistica de Luisa Valenzuela, filters Valenzuela's fiction through the lense of post-structural theories of transgression. The present investigation, while not wholly different from the two existing critical studies, is a piece of straightforward criticism that re-examines from a new perspective several works previously analyzed by Magnarelli and Cordones-Cook and attempts to throw light on Valenzuela's latest two novels, recipients, as yet, of scant critical attention. Our objective is dual in purpose: 1 ) to indicate an existing relationship between the works considered within our study, and 2) to relate II these texts to earlier and later ones of a similar kind of intent. In regard to our first purpose, we demonstrate that Valenzuela's technique of portraying oppressor /victim relationships from a numer of different viewpoints results in narratives that are original both in terms of their creation of form and their expression of certain aspects of reality. Our approach is analytical, concentrating on plot structure, presentation of characters, and style. As to our second purpose, we touch upon Valenzuela's writing in relation to both Boom and Post-Boom writers, in the hope of shedding light on what the term Post-Boom might signify. Each of the five chapters of our study treats a particular work by Valenzuela, and the chapters are arranged chronologically, that is in order of the frist publishing date of their respective texts. The works to be included are as follows: Hay gue sonreir, Cola de lagartija, Cambia de armas, Realidad nacional desde la cama, and Novela negra con argentinos. III TABLE OF CONTENTS I. INTRODUCTION............ ......................................................................................... 1 I I . HAY QUE SONREIR................................................................................................ 8 I I I .COLA DE LAGARTIJA ....................................................................................... 57 IV. CAMBIO DE ARMAS............................... ........................................................ 1 i 7 V. REALIDAD NACIONAL DESDE LA CAMA ................................................. 181 VI. NOVELA NEGRA CON ARGENTINOS................... ....................................... 224 VII. CONCLUSION .................................................................................................. 2 5 9 WORKSCITED ....................................................................................................... 270 WORKS CONSULTED ........................................................................................... 2 7 5 IV 'To m3 fatfr.er Jim Frank Cook anain memo '!f of 17l!:Jmotlier Joy Fuson Cook 1 INTRODUCTION Luisa Valenzuela, one of Argentina's most highly regarded writers, shares many of her countrymen's concerns for the sinister arbitrary repression and absurd realities which are products of a dehumanized world. Valenzuela boasts a long careeer in literature and journalism which began at the age of seventeen when she was published 1n several leading Argentine newspapers and magazines: La Nacion, Crisis, Atl6ntida, El Hogar, and Esto es. At age eighteen she wrote her first short story which was published in the magazine Ficci6n, and at twenty-one she wrote her first novel, Hay gue sonreir. To date, her published works include five volumes of short stories: Los hereticos (1967), Aqu1 pasan cosas raras (1975), Libra que no muerde (1980), Camblo de armas (1983), Donde viven las 6guilas (1983), and Simetriast_(l993); and six novels: Hay que sonreir (1966), El 2 gato eficaz (1972), Como en la guerra (1977), Cola de lagartija (1983), Realidad nacional desde la cama (1990), and Novela negra con argentinos (1990). During her distinguished career she has won the National Film Institute award for the script "Clara," based on her novel Hay gue sonrei.r, traveled to Europe under invitation of the governments of Great Britain, France, Italy and Spain (1966), received a Fulbright Fellowship to participate in the International Writers Program at the University of Iowa (1969-1970), conducted writers' workshops at Universidad del Sur, Argentina, and traveled to Ottawa, Canada as a participant in the Inter­ American Conference on Women Writers. In addition, she has conducted a creative writing workshop in Spanish at Columbia University, lectured at Northwestern University, the University of Wisconsin, Holy Cross College, and the Pan American Society of New England. She was a fellow of the Institute for the Humanities of New York University (1981- 1982), a member of the Freedom to Write Corm1ittee of P.E.N. American Center (1982), a Guggenheim fellow, and taught Latin 3 American literature 1n the writing division of Columbia University (1983). Valenzuela's works reflect not only the violent twenty­ eight year period in Argentina's history which began with the exile of Juan Peron in 1955 and continued until human rights activist, Raul Alfonsin was elected president in 1983, but also� the on-going social, economic, and political problems of the country. Her narrative, which 1s primarily concerned with the plight of women and Latin American identity, 1s often characterized as revolutionary in nature due to its constant challenging of complacently accepted Western traditions. During Valenzuela's career as a novelist and writer of short stories, her writing has undergone a transformation in both tone and style. A careful examination of her works ,,will reveal that she has moved from the realistic mode of fiction represented in Hay que sonreir (1996), through a period of radical experimentation that produced El goto eficaz (1972), - i_ / a work technically reminiscent of Boom writing, to a' transitional stage exemplified by Cola de lagartija (1983), 4 during the course of which she combines socio-political concerns with a literary pattern associated with the Boom. Works published from Cambia de armas (1982) on, while remaining somewhat experimental, fall rather clearly into the Post-Boom category, given their preoccupation with the socio­ political aspects of present day Spanish America, their sense of a collective project including feminism, their use of popular forms such as the novela negra and their representation of the exile experience. Luisa Valenzuela's fiction has merited the attention of leading literary critics, and many of her novels and short stories have been translated into English. Apropos the quality of Valenzuela's narrative technique, her name has been linked with Jorge Luis Borges, Julio Cortazar, Gabriel Garcia Marquez and many more. Yet, only two in-depth y considerations of her works exist to date: Sharon Magnarelli's critical text, Reflections/Refractions: Reading Luisa Valenzuela, places an emphasis on language and frequently links the author's style to a mode of writing characteristic of Boom authors; Juana Maria Cordones-Cook's 5 study, Poetica de transgresi6n en la novelistica de Luisa Valenzuela, filters Valenzuela's fiction through the lense of post-structural theories of transgression. The present investigation, while not wholly different from the two existing critical studies, is a piece of straightforward criticism that re-examines from a new perspective several works previously analyzed by Magnarelli and Cordones-Cook and-) i ;--,... ......._.. r-1 t attempts to throw l1ght on Valenzuela's latest tw,,.o novels, recipients, as yet, of scant critical attention. Our objective is dual in purpose: 1) to indicate an existing relationship between the works considered within our study, and 2) to relate these texts to earlier and later ones cf a similar kind or intent. In regard to our first purpose, we will seek to demonstrate that Valenzuela's technique of J portraying oppressor/victim relationships from a number cf different viewpoints results in narratives that are oricina1 both in terms of their creation of form and their express1cn of certain aspects of reality. Our approach will be analytical, concentrating on plot structure, presentation of characters, and styl�.: As to our second purpose, we will 6 touch upon Valenzuela's writing in relation to both Boom and Post-Boom writers, in the hope of shedding light on what the term Post-Boom might signify. Each of the five chapters of our study treats a particular work by Valenzuela, and the chapters are arranged chronologically, that is, in order of the first publishing date of their respective texts. The works to be included are as follows: Chapter 1, Hay gue sonreir; Chapter 2, Cola de lagartija; Chapter 3, Cambia de armas;