Thematic Content and Style in the Narrative of Alfredo Bryce Echenique

384 Pages·2016·14.34 MB·English

Thematic Content and Style in the Narrative of
Alfredo Bryce Echenique (1990-2002): A
Consideration of Fantasy
Helene Price
University College London
Dissertation submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy
October 2005
Contents
1. Introduction
• Biography 1
• Justifications and Aims 6
• Overview of Style and Thematic Content 10
Recurrent Themes in Bryce's Fiction 10
Steme: A Major Influence 14
Oral Register and Digression in Bryce's Fiction 18
Forms and Uses of Humour and Irony 25
2. Socio-Political Background 31
• The Oligarchy in Lima 32
• Political Climate in Peru 1948-1990 49
• Velasco's Manifesto 65
3. Dos senoras conversan 70
• The Symbolic Function of Death in the Novella 75
• Circular Time and Object-Memory Stimuli 85
• The Onslaught of Modernity: The Beginning of the End 92
• La Crisis: The Spheres of the Public and Private Collide 99
• Racism and Resistance: Maintaining the Status Quo 102
• Retrenchment and Nostalgia: History Repeated 107
• Popular Culture 112
• Literary Allusions: Interpretations and Misinterpretations 117
• Conclusion or Back to Page One 122
4. No me esperen en abril 128
• Continuations 129
• Alienation and the Sanctuary of the Imagination 135
• Autobiographical Echoes 141
• The Function of Dialogue 143
• Oligarchic Attitudes: Nostalgia, Exclusion, Snobbery, Racism... 148
• Unmasking Reality: Humour and Irony 151
• Popular Culture and Identity Formation (1) Cinematic Influences 156
• Popular Culture and Identity Formation (2): Musical Influences 161
• The Many Sides of Love 165
• Internal Migration and Fear of Contamination 172
• The Lower Classes: Tales of Non-Identity 179
• Political Backdrop 181
• The Demise of the Oligarchy: The Inability to Forget the Past/ 192
Move Forward
• The Demise of Manongo Sterne: The Inability to Retrieve the 197
Past/Go Back
• The Convergence of Life and Literary Creation 206
• The Function of Literature 208
• Conclusion 215
5. Reo de nocturnidad 218
• Origins of a Novel: Autobiography, Memory and a Short Story:
The Convergence of Life and Fiction 222
• Writing the Self: Oral Register and the First-Person Narrator 228
• Self-Reflexivity 234
• Humour and Literature as Therapy 238
• Memory: Catharsis and Deception 241
• Alter-Egos and The Double 245
• The Destructive Potential of Love 250
• Theatrical Metaphors and Music: Fictionalising the Self 254
• The Anguish of Exile: Marginalisation and Nostalgia 263
• The Camivalesque and Alienation 270
• Constructing the Text: The Osmotic Nature of the Fictional
and Non-Fictional Worlds 276
• Conclusion: Psychological and Geographical Dislocations
Reconciled 283
6. El huerto de mi amada 285
• Oral Register and Heteroglossia: The Clamour for the Parole 292
• Reader as Interlocutor 299
• The Meta-Narrator 302
• Aural and Visual Narrative Strategies 307
• Intra and Intertextual References: The Reader's Role in the 311
Construction of the Text
• Popular Culture and Music 322
• Parody 327
• Fantasy in El huerto de mi amada 335
• Socio-Political Reality in El huerto de mi amada 344
• Conclusion: The Past Reconciled 351
Conclusion 355
Works Cited 365
Chapter 1: Introduction
Biography
Alfredo Marcelo Bryce Echenique was born in Lima on 15 February 1936 into 'el
seno de una vieja familia aristocnitica del Peru' (Ferreira & Marquez (eds), p.l5).1
His father was the director of the Banco Internacional del Peru, whilst his mother
was a descendent of the Basque family, Vera del Bidasca, who counted amongst her
ancestors a Peruvian viceroy and a president, Jose Rufino Echenique (1808-1879).
Perhaps as a result of his illustrious ancestry, Bryce has been constantly typecast as a
member of the Peruvian elite. However, far from embracing his heritage, Bryce has
said of the former President who governed from 1851 to 1855, 'no solo ya hubo un
presidente con mi apellido, sino que fue el peor' (Coaguila, p.74).2 In the same vein,
Bryce has consistently tried to distance himself from the label of 'oligarch' that has
been bestowed upon him, even alluding in an interview to his decision during his
youth to make a, 'rompimiento profundo con [su] clase social' (Coaguila, p.17).3 It is
repeated comments such as these that have led to Bryce being perceived as the
'enfant terrible' of the Peruvian oligarchy, a label that the events surrounding the
publication of his first novel further contributed to.
In his compilation of 'anti-memoirs', aptly entitled Permiso para vivir (1993),4
Bryce humorously describes the controversy surrounding the appearance of Un
1 Cesar Ferreira & Ismael P. Marquez (eds), Los mundos de Alfredo Bryce Echenique nuevos textos
criricos (Lima: Pontificia Universidad Cat6lica del Peru, 2004).
2 Angel Paez, 'Entrevista: Soy un escritor mas rebelde que nostalgico' (1991), in Jorge Coaguila (ed.),
Entrevistas escogidas (Lima: Fondo Editorial Cultural Peru ana, 2004), pp.71-77.
3 Cesar Hilderbrandt. 'Entrevista con Alfredo Bryce' (1972), in Jorge Coaguila. Entrevistas escogidas
(Lima: Fondo Editorial Cultural Peruana, 2004), pp. 13-23. In another interview Bryce has described,
'la distancia que con el tiempo he ido tomando frente a esa clase social', Ruben Barreiro, 'Entrevista
con Alfredo Bryce Echenique', in Ortega & Lander (eds), Alfredo Bryce Echenique: ante Ia crltica
(Caracas: Monte Avila Editores, 2004), p. 32.
4 Alfredo Bryce Echenique. Permiso para vivir(antimemorias) (Barcelona: Anagrama, 1993).
1
mundo para Julius (1970). Having appeared in print just two years after the
Revolutionary Government of the Armed Forces (1968-1975) seized power in Peru,
Un mundo para Julius found itself caught up in what Bryce terms 'un malentendido'
(Bryce, Permiso, p. 53), when the military government, with its 'antiimperialista y
antioligarcico' (Bryce, Permiso, p.52) ideology, declared the novel, with its scathing
critique of the upper classes, as representative of their regime. Bryce was
subsequently deemed 'un intellectual verdaderamente comprometido en el proceso
peruano' (Bryce, Permiso p. 52), despite the fact that the novel was, as Bryce
assures, written 'sin la mas minima intenci6n polftica' (Bryce, Permiso, p.53). As
Juan Angel Juristo recalls, the Minister of Education pronounced the novel as having
done more for 'la colectivizaci6n en el Peru que muchas revoluciones' (Juristo,
p.17). One of the repercussions of this was that Bryce was awarded the Peruvian
National Prize for Literature in 1970. Bryce recounts this particular event and some
of its hilarious consequences in an essay entitled 'Confesiones sobre el arte de vi vir y
escribir novel as ':
En esa epoca se da el golpe militar del general Velasco, de la revoluci6n
peruana del 68, la reforma agraria del 70, y me sucede algo tota1mente
inesperado, yes que se me otorga el Premio Nacional de Literatura en el Peru.
Mi madre fue una persona absolutamente feliz, puesto que Prous~ vivfa
en Paris y fue a recibir el premio en mi nombre, feliz de la vida, cuando el
ministro de Educaci6n de entonces dijo que entre el general Velasco,
presidente de la Republica, y Alfredo Bryce habfan destruido a la oligarquia
peruana. Mi madre fue sacada en camilla y me convertf en una especie de
vergiienza proustiana. (Ferreira & Marquez (eds), Los mundos, p. 32).6
Bryce's mother was passionate about the works of Marcel Proust. Bryce acknowledges that she was
5
'una apasionada de la obra de Marcel Proust' and that he was 'su escritor preferido'. in Juan Angel
Juristo & Alfredo Bryce Echenique, Para que duela menos (Madrid: Editorial Espasa Calpe, S.A.,
1995), p.15.
6 Alfredo Bryce Echenique, 'Confesiones sobre el arte de vivir y escribir novelas' (1982), in C6sar
Ferreira & Ismael P. Marquez (eds), Los mundos de Alfredo Bryce Echenique: nuevos textos criticos,
pp.29-44.
2
When Bryce refused to attribute a revolutionary voice to Un mundo para Jui/us,
however, the Anned Forces Administration and the country's left-wing Peruvian
intelligencia, 'labelled him as a reactionary author maintaining his links with the
oligarchy into which he was born, and virtually black-listed him' (Wood, The
Fictions, p.2).7 The above account of the events surrounding the reception of Un
mundo para Julius illustrates the fashion in which Bryce's works have often been
misinterpreted and caused controversy, a fact that has led him to be considered an
enigmatic and contradictory figure in socio-political and cultural terms, in that he
consistently resists pigeon-holing.
Yet even on that most basic of points, his class of birth, there is little agreement and
this is recently proving to be a bone of contention amongst Brycean scholars. Bryce's
close personal friend the poet, Abelardo Sanchez Le6n, for example, disagrees with
this over-simplified portrayal of Bryce as a representative or spokesperson for
Lima's oligarchy, when he argues:
En el caso de Bryce, debemos recorder que no hay elementos
biograficos que 10 asocien directamente a la esfera oligarquica,
ni como propietario de tierras ni vinculado al circuito commercial
en areas precapitalistas del Peru. En el, probablemente no hay
siquiera conciencia ni prop6sito de convertirse en la expression
de este grupo social. (Ferreira & Marquez (eds), Los mundos, p.570)8
Sanchez Le6n suggests that it is Bryce's status as 'limeiio, relativamente adinerado,
ilustrado, con modales chapados a la antigua' (Ferreira & Marquez (eds), Los
mundos, p.70) that renders him vulnerable to this type of label. According to Sanchez
Le6n, Bryce's oligarchic identity is due to genealogical factors rather than the life he
7 David Wood, The Fictions ofA lfredo Bryce Echenique (London: Kings College London Hispanic
Series, 2002).
Abelardo Sanchez Le6n, 'Un cierta imaginario oligarquico en la narrativa de Alfredo Bryce
8
Echenique', in Cesar Ferreira & Ismael P. Marquez (eds), Los mundos de Alfredo Bryce Echenique:
nuevos textos criticos, pp. 569-603.
3
leads. These factors have proved to be a double-edged sword for Bryce, having both
trapped him into a rigid stereotypical identity whilst also giving him the very
possibility of dedicating himself to writing works of literature, which began with his
degree in Letras at the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos.9
At once possibly the most prolific and popular Peruvian writer of our day, having
displaced Mario Vargas Llosa since the latter's antagonistic departure to Europe, he
is at the same time perceived as an often distant, even aloof character by his fellow
country-men, with a reputation firmly grounded in his eccentric life-style. Despite
proclaiming, on constant occasions, his pride in being Peruvian and his desire to
reside permanently in his native city of Lima, his current (2005) country of residence
is Spain and he recently claimed in a journalistic article that Lima was 'demasiada
sucia' to be conducive to his novelistic production. In an article in El Comercio's
Revista Somos, July, 2001, the magazine supplement with the city's principal
broadsheet, on the city of his birth, he muses:
Neblina. Limefia ... Humedad. Frio. Que horror ... Faltan arboles
a gritos. No hay color verde. Vida. i,Dijo usted medio ambiente?
No, yo dije contaminaci6n ambiental. Gases. Micros. Choferes
asesinos como si nada. Tnifico. Ley de la selva en el desierto ...
Y asi tambien la crisis. Y el Peru es un pais con muchas leyes
pero sin ley. (Revista Somos, July 2001)10
9 Bryce has. in typically self-derrogatory fashion, stated that it was not until his entrance to San
Marcos that he began to feel that he was truly living in Peru: 'AI obligarme a ingresar a San Marcos
para ser abogado. yo ingrese en el Peru, realmente. Alii conoci el Peru que me habea estado oculto en
mi dorada vida familiar ... En San Marcos encontre las razas y las clases de Peru. volvfa a casa
diciendole a mi padre "encontre a un negro que estudiaba"'. As we shall see in Chapter 2. one of the
characters, a black chauffeur's son goes to university, much to the disgust of the upper class masters.
See Alfredo Bryce Echenique. 'EI compJicado oficio de escribir', in EI Comercio. Suplemento
Dominical, Lima, 23 April 1995. Bryce explains: 'AI obligarne a ingresar a San Marcos para ser
abogado yo ingrese at Peru que me habia estado oculto en mi dorada vida familiar y en el ridiculo
intern ado britanico, del que volviamos los fines de semana ... En San Marcos encontre las razas y las
clases de Peru, vol via a easa diciendole a mi papa "encontre a un negro que estudia'" . See Carlos
Franz, 'El complicado oficio de escribir', in EI Comercio, Suplemento Dominica/, Lima, 23 April
1995.
10 Alfredo Bryce Echenique, 'EI invierno es mejor un cuento triste', in EI Comercio, Revista Somos,
Lima. July 2001.
4
Conversely, he has spoken positively of 'esta Europa que tanto me ha dado' in his
'antememorias' (Bryce, Permiso, p.15), and Bryce has lived the majority of his adult
life in the European cities of Paris, Montpellier, Barcelona and Madrid. In this Bryce
has self-consciously followed the trend adopted by many Latin American writers,
leaving Peru at the age of twenty-five. Yet Bryce has consistently reaffirmed his
identity as a Peruvian and has said: 'Paris es una ciudad que no sirve para otra cos a
mas que para mostrarle a uno hasta que punto es extranjero, hasta que punto es
peruano' (Ferreira & Marquez (eds), p.34).11 Perhaps this is why Peruvians share a
possessive feeling of nationalistic pride when it comes to Bryce, as if, in some way,
he is part of their cultural heritage, a national treasure belonging personally to them.
In 1963 Bryce simultaneously completed a degree in law, which he had been forced
to undertake by his authoritarian father and a degree in literature, the latter which he
12
undertook of his own choice. The title of his undergraduate thesis was 'Funci6n
del dialogo en la narrativa de Ernest Hemingway', and the importance of
J3
Hemingway's narrative strategies and mechanisms cannot be underestimated in the
influence they were to have upon the whole of Bryce's literary output. The study was
an early indicator of Bryce's interest in narrative styles and literary techniques. The
influence of Hemingway, his self-confessed 'modelo a seguir' (Juristo, p.15), on
Bryce's narrative style will be studied in Chapter 2. Bryce was guided in his passion
II Alfredo Bryce Echenique, 'Confesiones sobre el arte de vivir y escribir novelas', in C~sar Ferreira
& Ismael P. Marquez (eds), Los mundos de Alfredo Bryce Echenique: nuevos textos cr(r;cos, pp. 29-
44.
12 Juan Angel Juristo writes: 'El dia en que decide hablar de su vocaci6n en casa se arma tal revuelo
que su padre Ie manda a estudiar Derecho a San Marcos'. Para que duela menos (Madrid: Editorial
Espasa Calpe. 2004), p. 15.
13 Alfredo Bryce Echenique, 'Funci6n del dililogo en la narrativa de Ernest Hemingway' (unpublished
tesis de bachiIIer) (Lima: Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, 1963).
5
for literature by a young teacher named Mario Vargas Llosa, whom he credits with
nurturing his passion for Peruvian literature. In 1964 he left Peru for Spain in a boat
belonging to the US mining company Marcona and went to live in the Latin quarter
of Paris, where he made the acquaintance of fellow Latin American writers.14 In
Paris he began a doctoral thesis on Henri de Montherlant, despite having had the
intention to write upon Maeterlinck, having mistaken the former for the latter. 15 On a
summer vacation in 1965 to Perugia in central Italy, Bryce finally embarked on his
vocation to be a writer, when he completed the first manuscript of Huerto cerrado
(1968). The collection of short stories was to be Bryce's first incursion into the world
of professional authorship, and set him on the path to becoming one of the most
critically-acclaimed and well-loved authors of Peru and Latin America in the
twentieth century.
Bryce has been admitted to the French Ordre des Lettres et des Arts (1995), was
given the title of Doctor Honoris Causa by Lima's Universidad NacionaI Mayor de
San Marcos (1999), and was made a member of Spain's Orden de Alfonso X EI
Sabio in the year 2000. Bryce Echenique currently resides in Madrid and was
14 Bryce has always remained grateful for the encouragement and friendship afforded to him by other
Peruvian writers, such as Mario Vargas Llosa and Julio Ram6n Ribeyro. In a chapter entitled 'Retrado
del artista por un adolescente' , in Cr6nicas persona/es, pp. 92-111, he describes the support and input
that both authors gave him when writing his first work, Huerto cerrado. See Alfredo Bryce
Echenique, Cr6nicas personales (Barcelona: Editorial Anagrama, 1988), p. 10 1.
15 In 'Instalar el humor en el coraz6n mismo de la tristeza', Bryce explains: 'Incluso me doctore en
literatura por error, cosa que descubri muchos aDos despu6s. Yo quer£a muchisimo a mi abuel0
matemo, y quise doctorarme sobre un autor que 61 leia muchisimo, pero 61 entonces ya habfa fallecido,
su biblioteca habfa sido destrozada, yo estaba fuera del Peru. y a un professor en la SOIuona Ie hable
de un doctorado sobre un escritor, y no recordaba bien el nombre, recordaba libros, la editorial
Bamier de Paris. y Ie dije: "Algo asf con m, Monter, Manter". Me dijo "Montherlant" y termine
haciendo una tesis sobre un detestable escritor frances llamado Henri de Montherlant, un cavemario,
arist6crata, hasta colaboracionista durante la Guerra, mis6gino y detestable. Despues descubrf que el
autor que lefa mi abuelo era Maeterlinck, 0 sea que 16gicamente todo esto me obligaba ya a empezar a
reirme un poco de mi mismo. de mi formaci6n. de mi familia, de mi abuelo, de mi padre, de todas las
cosas del mundo que me habia tocado vi vir' (Nuevo Texro Cririco, ano IV, nO 8, 1991. p. 59).
6