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De sobremesa, 1887–1896 : José Asunción Silva: El poeta novelista

Salamanca, Pilar Álvarez LU (2004) In Études Romanes de Lund 72.
Abstract
José Asunción Silva is a Colombian poet most known for having renewed the metrics in Spanish poetry during the 19th century. José Asunción Silva’s only novel, De sobremesa 1887-1896 [After dinner, 1887-1896] written in 1896 is a significant and representative modernist novel in the tradition of Latin-American modernismo.



Silva’s novel has been considered as a structureless, narratively disordered and chaotic text by many literary critics since its first publication in 1925. The text presents a great deal of fragmentation on the surface level: the story is presented by means of temporal discontinuity and multiple narrative voices and its thematic richness seems to be endless. The characters reveal multiple perspectives... (More)
José Asunción Silva is a Colombian poet most known for having renewed the metrics in Spanish poetry during the 19th century. José Asunción Silva’s only novel, De sobremesa 1887-1896 [After dinner, 1887-1896] written in 1896 is a significant and representative modernist novel in the tradition of Latin-American modernismo.



Silva’s novel has been considered as a structureless, narratively disordered and chaotic text by many literary critics since its first publication in 1925. The text presents a great deal of fragmentation on the surface level: the story is presented by means of temporal discontinuity and multiple narrative voices and its thematic richness seems to be endless. The characters reveal multiple perspectives and a plurality of discourses.



This dissertation determines and analyzes the formal and thematic aspects of the text that underlie its apparently disordered structure. The analysis focuses on the study of the referentiality of the text and some of its narrative components. It examines how the different fragments of the story, which are apparently neither logically nor thematically ordered on the surface level, are associated and integrated in the novel as a whole.



Silva as a novelist makes use of some of the conventions of poetry and the techniques he applied to his poems. Contrast, association, assimilation and parallelisms are ways of creating new organizational forms of expression in his prose work. The protagonist of the De sobremesa, himself a poet, also plays the role of “author”, “narrator”, “narratee” and “reader” of his own prose work, his personal diary. This is a very particular feature in the context of Latin-American modernist novels written between 1882-1902. The study analyzes the different roles of the character in the story to prove that the sense of unity is built by centering the text technically and thematically on the protagonist in its different roles. Silva makes the protagonist the point of convergence of the whole text.



This dissertation suggests that there is an organized structure underlying the apparent disorder and incoherence of the text. The basis for Silva’s text is diversity and ‘the different’ where even the smallest part proves to correspond with a bigger one. For a text of the 19th century, this is an innovative and experimental way of writing that seek to create unity out of disorder and fragmentation.



Key words: Latin-American modernismo, modernism, fragmentation, structure, genre, referentiality, narratology, “author”, “narrator”, “narratee”, “reader”, unity, assimilation, contrast, parallelism, correspondence, association. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
supervisor
opponent
  • professor Tovar, Francisco, Universidad de Lérida
organization
publishing date
type
Thesis
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Spanish and Portuguese language and literature, Portugisiska och spanska (språk och litteratur)
in
Études Romanes de Lund
volume
72
pages
148 pages
publisher
Lunds universitet, Romanska institutionen
defense location
Sal L 604, Språk- och litteraturcentrum, Helgonabacken 12, Lund
defense date
2004-12-11 10:00:00
ISSN
0347-0822
ISBN
91-975423-0-X
language
Spanish
LU publication?
yes
id
d68104a2-bb7e-4cb3-90c9-2c3d3f857cc7 (old id 21688)
date added to LUP
2016-04-01 16:14:57
date last changed
2019-05-21 13:57:18
@phdthesis{d68104a2-bb7e-4cb3-90c9-2c3d3f857cc7,
  abstract     = {{José Asunción Silva is a Colombian poet most known for having renewed the metrics in Spanish poetry during the 19th century. José Asunción Silva’s only novel, De sobremesa 1887-1896 [After dinner, 1887-1896] written in 1896 is a significant and representative modernist novel in the tradition of Latin-American modernismo.<br/><br>
<br/><br>
Silva’s novel has been considered as a structureless, narratively disordered and chaotic text by many literary critics since its first publication in 1925. The text presents a great deal of fragmentation on the surface level: the story is presented by means of temporal discontinuity and multiple narrative voices and its thematic richness seems to be endless. The characters reveal multiple perspectives and a plurality of discourses.<br/><br>
<br/><br>
This dissertation determines and analyzes the formal and thematic aspects of the text that underlie its apparently disordered structure. The analysis focuses on the study of the referentiality of the text and some of its narrative components. It examines how the different fragments of the story, which are apparently neither logically nor thematically ordered on the surface level, are associated and integrated in the novel as a whole.<br/><br>
<br/><br>
Silva as a novelist makes use of some of the conventions of poetry and the techniques he applied to his poems. Contrast, association, assimilation and parallelisms are ways of creating new organizational forms of expression in his prose work. The protagonist of the De sobremesa, himself a poet, also plays the role of “author”, “narrator”, “narratee” and “reader” of his own prose work, his personal diary. This is a very particular feature in the context of Latin-American modernist novels written between 1882-1902. The study analyzes the different roles of the character in the story to prove that the sense of unity is built by centering the text technically and thematically on the protagonist in its different roles. Silva makes the protagonist the point of convergence of the whole text.<br/><br>
<br/><br>
This dissertation suggests that there is an organized structure underlying the apparent disorder and incoherence of the text. The basis for Silva’s text is diversity and ‘the different’ where even the smallest part proves to correspond with a bigger one. For a text of the 19th century, this is an innovative and experimental way of writing that seek to create unity out of disorder and fragmentation.<br/><br>
<br/><br>
Key words: Latin-American modernismo, modernism, fragmentation, structure, genre, referentiality, narratology, “author”, “narrator”, “narratee”, “reader”, unity, assimilation, contrast, parallelism, correspondence, association.}},
  author       = {{Salamanca, Pilar Álvarez}},
  isbn         = {{91-975423-0-X}},
  issn         = {{0347-0822}},
  keywords     = {{Spanish and Portuguese language and literature; Portugisiska och spanska (språk och litteratur)}},
  language     = {{spa}},
  publisher    = {{Lunds universitet, Romanska institutionen}},
  school       = {{Lund University}},
  series       = {{Études Romanes de Lund}},
  title        = {{De sobremesa, 1887–1896 : José Asunción Silva: El poeta novelista}},
  volume       = {{72}},
  year         = {{2004}},
}