The Idiosyncratic Narrator in␣Javier Cercas’s Soldados de Salamina

Abstract

One of the key components of Javier Cercas’s novel Soldados de Salamina (2001) is its unreliable narrator, whose name is also Javier Cercas. This article proposes that we need to take a closer look at the psychology of this character as it is delineated in the text, not only because he turns out to be a more complex individual than is usually recognized, but also because his particular psychology has a significant bearing on the nature of his narratorial unreliability and how it manifests itself. Several categories of personality traits are identified: self-deprecating; libidinous/indiscreet; opinionated; superior; punctilious; over-precise; and error-prone, and then each is illustrated and analyzed in turn. Having established this psychological profile, of an idiosyncratic, quirky, and inconsistent individual with several internally contradictory features, we can contrast it with the various pronouncements made by the real Cercas about his fictional self, determine how these traits interact with the notion of the “relato real” favored by the narrator, and appreciate how, ultimately, this profile contributes substantially to the sense of contingency and undecidability that permeate the novel.