El autor frente al personaje: La “niebla” entre la realidad y la ficción en las obras maestras de Cervantes y Unamuno

• Main Author: Kozlowski, Thomas J
• Format: Dissertation
• Language: Spanish
• Published: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses 01-01-2011
• Subjects: Cervantes Saavedra, Miguel de (1547-1616); Latin American literature
• ISBN: 1124816607; 9781124816609

This thesis is a comparative analysis of Miguel de Cervantes' Don Quijote and Miguel de Unamuno's Niebla with a central focus on the ways in which the authors blur the line between fiction and reality. Bearing in mind the influence and importance of prior literary movements, I will also examine the mechanisms utilized by Cervantes and Unamuno in their departure from traditional, literary norms of their respective eras. By doing so, both authors succeed in creating characters that dominate the action of the fictitious worlds in which they live, while also remaining intimately connected to the world of the reader. In chapter one, I briefly examine the influences of "los libros de caballería" in Don Quijote and, in the wake of losing its last colonies, I also analyze the literature of the Generation of 1898 in Spain, as it relates to Unamuno's nivola. Chapter two involves an examination of don Quijote and Augusto Pérez and how their distinctive characteristics lay the foundation for a type of metafiction that extends itself beyond the limitations of the fictional narrative. Using these character examinations as a foundation, the following chapters explore the methods in which the authors intertwine their characters' worlds with reality. Within the context of this puzzling interaction, I note specifically the roles of the prologues, narration, and content in the disorientation of the reader. Also, these chapters examine how Cervantes and Unamuno obscure and ultimately cross the line between fiction and reality by inserting themselves, explicitly and sometimes more subtly, in their own work. In the last chapter, I analyze the relationship of reciprocity between author and character and the ways in which this interdependence results not only in an ambiguous death for each of the main characters, but also in the immortalization of both creator and creation.