Spanish and Portuguese Language and Literature Commons^™

Between Confession And Realism: Lack, Vision, And The Construction Of Identity In Rafael Arévalo Martínez’S Una Vida And Manuel Aldano, Maria Spitz

School of American and Global Studies Faculty Publications with a Focus on Modern Languages and Global Studies

The present study explores the relationship between generic ambiguity in Una vida (1914) and Manuel Aldano (1922) by the Guatemalan Rafael Aróvalo Martínez, and the Darwinian/Spencerian discourse with which the narrator attempts to construct an identity that will grant him a legitimate speaking subjectivity in the face of his inability to adapt to the changes in the Spanish American letrado’s role within societies at the periphery of modernization. Through an analysis of the narrator’s development and the emerging relationships between sexuality, language, genre, and vision in Arévalo Martínez’s short novels, the reader will note the irresolute tension between confession and …