En este trabajo se estudian los aspectos más relevantes de la novela “Los cachorros”, del escritor peruano Mario Vargas Llosa. En primer lugar, se establecen las diferentes categorías narratológicas que articulan la estructura del relato. En segundo lugar, se identifican las principales prácticas significantes que operan a nivel de contenido y que contribuyen a dotar al relato de complejidad de sentido. El método de análisis es semiótico textual interpretativo y el análisis documental del texto. Posteriormente se elaboró un modelo interpretativo propio. Se concluye que “Los cachorros” es una novela altamente innovadora desde el punto de vista narratológico. Sin embargo, estas innovaciones trascienden la mera transgresión de cánones narrativos tradicionales y plantean una visión testimonial de toda una generación de peruanos.
Palabras clave: Mario Vargas Llosa, narratología, adolescencia.
PICHULITA:
Narratological approaches to “The pups” (“Los Cachorros”), by Mario Vargas Llosa.
Dr. Alberto Quero
University of Zulia
(English version by the author)
ABSTRACT.
In this paper, the most relevant aspects of “The pups” [Los cachorros], a novel by Peruvian writer, Nobel prize winner Mario Vargas Llosa, are studied. Firstly, different narratological categories, which articulate the structure of the plot are established. Secondly, the main significant practices, which operate in the contents level and bestow complexity and meaningfulness to the text, are identified. The method of analysis is semiotic and textual interpretative, the main focus was set on the narrative part. On such basis, a proper interpretative model was elaborated.
The conclusions is that “The pups” is a highly innovative novel from the narrative point of view. In fact, the narrative situation proposed by Vargas Llosa can be defined as a supposed autodiegetic narration. We must think of a “supposition” for the reader can infer the presence of a first person in the collective narrator. This narrator is always present but subsumed in a broader group which contains it. Yet more interesting, such narrator it is never depicted as an isolated character, so we can deduce any character in the initial group could have uttered such information.
The story is told using very colloquial language, which makes it come closer to the oral language. This adds the novel an extra worth, for it makes the text more dynamic and more credible. It was the author’s explicit intention to create a text which should appear to be a spoken tale rather than a traditional novel.
However, these innovations transcend the mere transgression of traditional narrative procedures and set a testimonial vision of a whole generation of Peruvian youngsters. Besides, this novel can also portray the lives and values of all Latin American upper-class society in the middle of the XX century, as most countries in this region share many common features in their social values
Key words: Mario Vargas Llosa, narratology, adolescence.