Modern Language Studies

Review: [untitled]
Author(s): Margarita Vargas
Source: Modern Language Studies, Vol. 23, No. 3 (Summer, 1993), pp. 105-108
Published by: Modern Language Studies
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3195181
Accessed: 17/08/2010 10:42

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 BOOKREVIEWS

La parodia en la nueva novela hispanoamericana.By Elzbieta Sklo-

dowska. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing
Company, 1991 (xix + 219 pp.).
Sklodowska'sstudy representsa vital addition to scholarships
dedicatedto the functionof parodyas well as an indispensablereference
for the understandingof recent developmentsin the Spanish-American
novel. Indeed, the "Spanish-American" part of the title is trulyaccurate:
at least seven different Latin Americancountriesare represented.She
scrutinizescriticaland theoreticalinvestigationsof the parodicform and
establishesa workingterminologythathelps her define novels published
between 1960 and 1985. For the most part, Sklodowska refreshingly
chooses to focus on texts which have not received as much critical
attentionas those publishedby the membersof "theboom" (principally
Julio Cortizar, Carlos Fuentes, Gabriel Garcia Mdrquez,and Mario
VargasLlosa). She does, however, appraiseVargasLlosa'sPantale6ny
las visitadoras and Jose Donoso's La misteriosa desaparicidn de la
marquesitade Loria.Otherrenownedwritersshe incorporatesare Isabel
Allende, Reinaldo Arenas, Guillermo Cabrera Infante, Jorge
Ibargfiengoitia,Vicente Lefiero,Nestor Sinchez, and LuisaValenzuela.
Authorsand works that would otherwise form part of her study have
been omittedbecauseSklodowskaneitherwantsmerelyto fill in the gaps
left by other criticsnor to duplicatework alreadydone.
Even though Sklodowska places the twenty-five novels she
analyzes under the umbrellaof the parodic, she groups the novels in
such a way that five main categoriesprevail:the historicalnovel, meta-
fiction,postmodernism,the detective novel, and femininewriting.In the
firstchaptershe aptly defines the concept of parody, tracesits historical
evolution, and situates it within the literarytrajectoryof the Spanish-
Americannovel.
In this historicalexpositionthe transformationof the concept of
parody is elucidating.Whereasthe classics considered it a lesser form
becauseof its emulativequality,in the lastthirdof the nineteenthcentury
criticsreappraisedit and classifiedit as a rhetoricalartifice.Whatensued
from these two positionswere numerousmodifications.The one Sklo-
dowska deems most usefulis that of the Russianformalists.Throughout
her study she returnstime and again to Viktor Shklovsky'sconcept of
defamiliarization.She finds that in deforming literarynorms, parody
breaks with the "automatization"of perception, unmasks familiar
sources,and thus makespossible the reinvigorationof triteforms. More
recent perspectiveson parody assumeopposing stances:some still con-
sider it a rhetoricalfigure which merely ridicules certain themes and
ideas, while othersemphasizeits complexityand demandfor competent
readers.In additionto the formalists,Sklodowskaalso adheresto Linda

105
Hutcheon'stheorieson parody.She adopts from Hutcheonhercombina-
tion of parody'srhetoricalstrategies(irony, comicalness,exaggeration)
and its pragmaticeffects (self-reflection,criticalor creativetransgression
of the model, satire,ideologicalsubversion).
In the subsequentchaptersSklodowskaaccomplishesher intent
to "capturethe strategiesof parody and theirfunctionin the production
of aestheticeffect and ideologicalmeaning,theirrole in the revaluation
of the literary'archeology'and its role in the activationof the reader"
[captarlas estrategiasde la parodia y su funci6n en la producci6n del
efecto estetico y significadoideol6gico, su papel en la revalorizaci6nde
la 'arqueologia'literariay su papel en la activaci6ndel lector] (p. 14).
Chapter 2, "The Historical Novel Revisited: Parody and Rewriting,"
encompasses theoretical observations on the historical novel, on
historicity,and on historiographyas well as the analysisof five novels:
Alejandro Paternain'sCr6nica del descubrimiento, Abel Posse's Los
perros del paraiso, Reinaldo Arenas's El mundo alucinante, Jorge
Ibarguiengoitia'sLos reldmpagos de agosto, and Gustavo Alvarez
Gardeazibal'sPepe Botellas.These novels incorporatehistoricalevents
in order to reflect on theirmetaliteraryor metahistoricalpossibilities,to
questiontheirveracity,or to rewritethe SpanishAmericanpast. In every
case parody is used to divulge the false venerationpaid to Historyand
to demythicizethe official history.
Variousviews on metafiction,especiallythoseof LindaHutcheon,
RobertC. Spires,and PatriciaWaugh,inform Chapter3, "Ethosludens
and the Total Parody."The novels Sklodowskamaps out are:Trestristes
tigres by GuillermoCabreraInfante, C6mico de la lengua by Nestor
Sanchez, and Cuadernosde gofa by Hugo Hiriart.Emphasizingthe
narcissisticqualityof the three novels, SklodowskaclassifiesTres tristes
tigres as an archetypeof iconoclasticwriting determinedto bite its tail
up to the point of self-destruction.She also argues that the dominance
of the metafictionalmode in all three novels threatensto obscure the
parodic trait.
Chapter 4, "From Anachronism to le Scriptible: Parody as
Renovation,"does not engage any particulartheoreticaldiscussionother
than that related to the functionof parody. The objective of the novels
scrutizinedin section4.2 (AlvarezGardeazdbal'sEl bazarde los idiotas,
MarcoTulio AguileraGarramufio's Breve historiade todaslas cosas, and
Federico Arana'sEnciclopedia de latinoamericanaomnisciencia)is to
disclosethe formalexcessesand the "epistemologicalfallacies"of magical
realism,especiallythatof GarciaMarquez,in orderto satirizethe boom's
literaryenterprise.
In section 4.3 Sklodowskasituatestwo novels underthe traditional
definitionof parodyas parasiticand repetitive:Huge Hiriart'sGalaorand
Donoso'sLa misteriosadesaparici6nde la marquesitade Loria.The first
one parodieschivalricnovels and the second the euphuisticstyle of the
Spanish-AmericanModernists.For her, both novels are mere exercises
of playful self-consciouswriting.
The last section of Chapter4 highlightsparodic satires:Vargas
Llosa'sPantaledny las visitadoras,Humberto Constantini'sDe dioses,
106
 hombrecitosy policias, and Lefiero'sEvangelio de Lucas Gavildn.The
most obvious authorialintent in these novels, accordingto Sklodowska,
is the confrontationof social problems: Vargas Llosa ridicules Peru's
militarystructures,ConstantinisatirizesArgentina'soppressivepolice and
military system, and Lefiero, though not interested in transgressing
biblical norms, sets out to reform currentreligiouspracticeshoping to
recover the original meaning of Christianity. Within their specific
agendas,all the novels in this chapterhave a similargoal:"tovitalize the
staleness of an aesthetics and liberate the writer from a perceptive
automatization"[superarel agotamiento de una est6tica y liberar al
escritorde un automatismoperceptivo] (p. 91).
As the title indicates, "ParodicTransgressionof the Detective
Formula,"Chapter 5 undertakesa reading of novels that via parody
transcendthe popular and conventionaldetective novel genre. Before
interrogatingindividual novels, Sklodowska surveys the role of the
detective novel in Spanish America, provides a list of its general
characteristicsproposed by John G. Cawelti, Tzvetan Todorov, Stanco
Lasic, and Desiderio Navarro, and discusses major SpanishAmerican
figures who have written in this mode. The five objects of her study
includeMempo Giardinelli'sLunacaliente,Ibargtiengoitia's Las muertas
and Dos crimenes,Paco IgnacioTaibo'sDe paso, and OsvaldoSoriano's
Triste,solitarioy final. One of the main objectives of these writersis to
denounce corruption,whether it be by questioningthe honesty of the
legal system or exposing fraudulentgovernmentalactions. Each of the
novels demands competent readers willing to fill in the blanks and to
reconstructpuzzles that may well have pieces missing.To complicate
matters,mysteriousevents are not organizedin a logical order and the
novels contain an internalcomplexity hidden by an apparentlysimple
structure.The manipulationof these techniques along with the un-
expected use of humor surprisethe reader and reinforcethe sensation
of modernity'suncertaintyand chaos.
The last chapter,"FeminineWriting:Parody Againstthe Grain,"
examinesfour novels: Allende'sLa casa de los espiritus,LuisaValenzu-
ela'sComo en la guerra,MireyaRobles'sHagiografiade Narcisala Bella,
and Diamela Eltit's Lumpirica. Sklodowska is aware of Elaine
Showalter'swarning that women writers should not be studied as a
separateentity underthe suppositionthat they all write alike. Neverthe-
less, and in spite of the many points in contact with the male writers,
she groups all the women in this chapter claiming that their "femino-
centrism"represents an ideological rupture from the masculine dis-
course. Sklodowska finds that these women are interestedin recover-
ing lost ground, in satirizingmachismo, in denouncingwomen unable
to overcome their oppressive condition, and in exorcising their
literarydemons.
Because of her reflections on historiography,metafiction,post-
modernism,the genericcomponentsof the detective novel, and feminine
writing,Sklodowskaadvancesimmenselythe study of the new Spanish-
American novel. She orchestrates what must have been a delirious
number of notes to create a well-composed symphony of literary
107
analyses.Two minorobjectionsare that women writersdo not form an
integralpartof the study (placingthem at the end seems almostan after-
thought) and that quotationsfrom non-Spanishtexts are not provided
in the originalalong with her translations.Otherthanthat,Sklodowska's
book is a welcomed and valuablestudy.

MargaritaVargas
State Universityof New Yorkat Buffalo

Ibsen's ForsakenMerman:Folklore in the Late Plays. By Per Schelde

Jacobsen and BarbaraFass Leavy. New York and London: New
YorkUniversityPress,1988 (xiv + 350 pp.).

Ibsen'sinterestin folkloreis well known.In an articleon the heroic

ballad and its significance for modem poetry (1857), he claimed that
because they expose us to a world that is "at once naturaland super-
natural"we still respond to the spirit that animates the old ballads.
Drawing extensively on the medieval Scandinavianballad traditionin
three of the plays he wrote in the 1850's(St. John'sNight, The Feast at
Solhaug,and Olaf Liliekrans),he attemptedto prove this thesis.In 1862
he went on a two-monthtrip in ruralNorway to collect folk balladsand
folktales,and in Peer Gynt (1867)he uses trollsto define the self-seeking
"Gyntianself": Peer remains ever true to the troll's motto-"Troll, to
thyselfbe enough!"If he is "saved"at the end of the play, it is onlybecause
he has been true to his humanself in Solveig'sfaith,hope, and love. "To
live,"Ibsen wrote in an often-quotedquatraina decade later,"isto battle
with trolls/ in vaultof the heartand the brain."Thispithy formulashows
thatby this time he saw folkloriccreaturesas embodying all of the sub-
human (or all-too-human)psychic forces that tend to prevent us from
achieving full selfhood. In other words, Ibsen came to realize that the
supernaturalworld of elves, huldrefolk,and trollswas rooted in a kind
of folk wisdom about psychic conditionsin the naturalworld.
Jacobsen and Leavy believe that while the folkloric materialin
Ibsen's early plays is mere applique, in the late plays it is "projected
inward"(p. 131);thereforethey set out to prove thathis lastseven plays-
thatis, everythinghe wrote between Rosmersholmand WhenWe Dead
Awaken-embody the same kinds of characters,as well as the same
thematicoppositionsand alternativechoicesthatoccurin folk narratives.
The division of labor in this book promises to produce fruitful,
interdisciplinarycross-fertilization: Jacobsenis an anthropologistwith a
knowledge of Norwegian;Leavy is an Englishprofessorwith an interest
in the reanimationof folkloricmaterialby nineteenth-centurywriters.In
the preface to the book (p. xii) they identify the basic story that they
believe underliesso much of Ibsen'swork: that of a humanwho forms
an amorousrelationshipwith a being from anotherworld. To prove their
point they apply rigid folkloric templates to the late plays. But as
108