Ambiguity as a literary conceit in the novels of Mario Vargas Llosa, and its antecedents in Faulkner, Mann, and Borges
Kristal, Efraín
Ambiguity as a literary conceit in the novels of Mario Vargas Llosa, and its antecedents in Faulkner, Mann, and Borges - 2019.
68
Seeing ambiguity as a literary conceit is a useful standpoint from which to observe the evolution of Mario Vargas Llosa’s novelistic aesthetic. From this angle, Death in the Andes represents a turning point. Before this novel, the kind of ambiguity most prominent in his novels was inspired by William Faulkner. Since then, the Peruvian novelist practiced a different kind of ambiguity with antecedents in Thomas Mann and Jorge Luis Borges. The first type of ambiguity, which we will illustrate with an example from The Time of the Hero, involves the presentation of a mystery with several possible solutions, but ultimately the mystery itself is more important than its resolution. The second type of ambiguity, typified in The Discreet Hero, involves the presentation of two contradictory options—the first relating to social issues, the second to spiritual ones—, which the reader is obliged to accept simultaneously.
Ambiguity as a literary conceit in the novels of Mario Vargas Llosa, and its antecedents in Faulkner, Mann, and Borges - 2019.
68
Seeing ambiguity as a literary conceit is a useful standpoint from which to observe the evolution of Mario Vargas Llosa’s novelistic aesthetic. From this angle, Death in the Andes represents a turning point. Before this novel, the kind of ambiguity most prominent in his novels was inspired by William Faulkner. Since then, the Peruvian novelist practiced a different kind of ambiguity with antecedents in Thomas Mann and Jorge Luis Borges. The first type of ambiguity, which we will illustrate with an example from The Time of the Hero, involves the presentation of a mystery with several possible solutions, but ultimately the mystery itself is more important than its resolution. The second type of ambiguity, typified in The Discreet Hero, involves the presentation of two contradictory options—the first relating to social issues, the second to spiritual ones—, which the reader is obliged to accept simultaneously.
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