This study examines Carlos Fuentes' reflection on the interpretation of the past as well as on its fictional representation. For this purpose we study Terra nostra (1975), the Mexican writer's most ambitious novel, because it breaks with the main concepts of historiography and the historical novel. With a circular gallery of text-mirrors structure, the novel is meant to represent the simultaneous aspects of reality, and to present to the reader different interpretations of the past. Fashioned from the concept of intertextuality, the terms "intertemporality" and "interdiscursivity" are used to define the notions of time and the discursive composition of history, integrated in the novel. With the term intertemporality, we examine how Fuentes deconstructs the chronological notion of time, creating instead a simultaneous and dialectical relation between past, present, and future. With the term of interdiscursivity, we see how Fuentes, in his quest to examine Spain's history, integrates in Terra nostra the thought from Giambattista Vico, Erasmus, Americo Castro, and Michel Foucault, as well as important literary figures (James Joyce, Julio Cortazar, Miguel de Cervantes, and Jorge L. Borges). The integration of these thinkers and writers ables the reader to create an interdiscursive notion of history that establishes a dynamic relation between the different discourses on history. From an image used by Borges in "Las ruinas Circulates", an epistemological structure quite different from the one suggested by the three parts of the novel emerges, allowing the reader to read a more open work. Aura (1962) is also studied, because in many ways, it is a prelude to Terra nostra, and because it is an early reflection on the relation between history and fiction. Finally, using the concepts of the double and the other, we also study Una familia lejana, which examines the relation between France and Mexico. We conclude on some paradoxes brought up by those novels, especially Terra
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.36041 |
| Date | January 1999 |
| Creators | Montano Rodríguez, Rafael. |
| Contributors | Boruchoff, David A. (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | sp |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Doctor of Philosophy (Department of Hispanic Studies.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001738036, proquestno: NQ55362, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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