El mundo alucinante: History and Ideology

Abstract

Reinaldo Arenas's novels have been considered primarily self-referential rather than correspond- ing to an external historical reality. Yet, even when they seem to be escaping from history, they are recap- tured by it, as the narrative structures that comprise these become meaningful within the context of history. In El mundo alucinante the relationship of Servando to what is represented as reality takes place within circumscribed ideological limits, undermining an interpretation of the text from the point of view of historical relativism. No matter how many times Servando escapes from prison, he continues to find his im- age in the mirror of a dominant ideology in the imaginary dimension of his being. El mundo alucinante thus can be read as a symbolic structure that refers to the interrelationship between ideology, society, and the bour- geois revolutionary subject in Castro's Cuba.