Entre intelectual y pseudo-intelectual. La imagen autorial en las obras y las entrevistas de Augusto Monterroso

Abstract

This paper focuses on the representation of the image of the author, and the representation of the image of authorship, in two works of fiction and a few literary interview of the Guatemalan writer Augusto Monterroso. After the introduction of the writer, and his categorization according to various researchers, the two selected works of fiction are presented: Movimiento perpetuo and Lo demás es silencio. Furthermore, the paper explains the concept of the literary interview as a literary genre that has been studied very little. The innovative element of this paper lies in the combination of the analysis of both fictional and non-fictional texts, without the intention to find an affirmation of the ideas expressed in the interviews within the fictional works. In the theoretical framework, two key concepts in the work of Augusto Monterroso are introduced: irony and metafiction. These concepts are used to analyze how the author approaches the subject of authorship in the corpus. The paper explains that the image of the author expressed in the interviews is different from the image present in the two books, and exemplifies this difference using various examples. On top of that, it is explained how the irony in the two fictional works differs, and the role of the metafictional elements in the irony is touched upon. Finally, a suggestion for further research is presented.