Camacho c'est moi: Parodia social y géneros literarios en "La tía Julia y el escribidor." (review)

Abstract

This study, resulting from Falcón Paradí’s doctoral dissertation, could be useful to both scholars interested in the influences of Artaud on Latin American theatre and to those interested in the theatre of Montes Huidobro within the context of Cuban theatre and the theatre of exiled Cuban playwrights. While the material can at times be repetitive, the author indeed adds to the scholarship on Montes Huidobro by demonstrating in a lengthy study, for the first time, the indebtedness of the playwright to Artaud’s theatre of cruelty. REGAN POSTMA University of Kansas Wendorff, Liliana Tiffert. Camacho c’est moi: Parodia social y géneros literarios en “La tía Julia y el escribidor. ” Lima: San Marcos, 2006. 274 pp. Since its publication in 1977, Mario Vargas Llosa’s novel La tía Julia y el escribidor has been the subject of numerous studies by well-known as well as less famous critics and a popular topic for dissertations and conference presentations . Nevertheless, Liliana Wendorff goes beyond an analysis of soap operas and self-reflexive literature to present a creative reading with innovative ideas worthy of consideration. In her introduction she explains that she will examine Vargas Llosa’s novel as a postmodern work that utilizes extensive parody of both popular and canonical literature. She presents a clear and fascinating explanation of the different definitions and uses of parody and of its importance to the postmodernist movement. Chapter 2 consists of a meticulously researched review of the previous critical work concerning La tía Julia. This chapter is important for two reasons: (1) to remind readers of the huge impact the novel has made to Latin American literature of the Boom and beyond and (2) to set the background for the originality of Wendorff’s own study. She states that the primary focus of prior criticism of this novel has been on the nature of writing and literary creation itself but that the theme of her own book will be “el uso de la parodia de géneros literarios y populares para comentar sobre la praxis de la escritura” (43). Following her two introductory chapters, Wendorff proceeds to analyze in five subsequent chapters Vargas Llosa’s use of parody in the soap opera, the romance novel, the detective novel, the novel of chivalry, and the autobiography . Using the analogy of Chinese boxes (cajas chinas) or Russian nesting dolls, she explains how the Peruvian author structures his novel as a meta-literary story within a story within a story . . . provoking readers to look beyond a mere superficial reading in order to find the deeper (and as María Salgado suggests in her prologue to Wendorff’s critical study, “subversive”) aspect of the novel. Chapter 3, “Sintonice el próximo episodio . . . parodia de los ra120 Reseñas 109-124 Reseñas copia 13/9/10 11:12 Página 120 dioteatros,” includes a brief synopsis of each of the seven soap operas in the novel and discusses these serials as the representation of the “demons” of their fictional writer, Pedro Camacho, as well as the vehicle through which the real author, Vargas Llosa, expresses “. . . arte popular como otra alternativa escapista a la vida verdadera . . . y como recurso válido en la vida real y en una obra artística” (117). In Chapter 4, “Los amores imposibles: parodia de la novela rosa,” Wendorff discusses the subversion of popular Latin American romance novels with their handsome and young heroes and appealing female characters. She notes that the plots and characters invented by Camacho form a grotesque parody of what is considered the traditional novela rosa and that, through these characters and their fictional creator, Vargas Llosa criticizes “misoginia, la marcada división entre los géneros y los tabúes de la sociedad occidental, predominantes en el Perú” (154). In Chapter 5, “El detective atrapado: parodia social como novela de detectives ,” Wendorff explains how readers of Pedro Camacho’s second serial novel are treated to a description of awkward, bungling police ruled by racism and a distinct lack of tolerance for any individual who does not conform to the expectations of society. Beneath the superficial slapstick type of comedy lies a serious reflexion by...