The imperfect tense in the poetics of El Jarama by Rafael Sánchez Ferlosio

Abstract

In this paper an analysis of the poetic use of the imperfect tense in El Jarama by Rafael Sánchez Ferlosio is proposed basing on the concept of narrative grounding. The claim made in the paper is that in El Jarama the imperfect is used in a manner that breaks down the narrative foreground-background distinction. As a consequence, the arrangement of the events into a meaningful story line is nullified, which affects the way the narrative is experienced and interpreted.