Carnival and the Novel

less with palaces.' The placement of the noun mofetas at the very end flaunts a semantic 'Q incongruence that travesties the expected alignment of relevance among the words in the title. The components of the title seem to be out of control; there is a discontinuity of the chain of signifiers, for part A (the palace) and part B (the skunks) are not semantically related. The adjective also contributes to the reader's uneasiness, not only for its hyperbolic denotation, but also because of the oxymoronic quality of the combination blanquisimas mofetas. Although skunks can have a white stripe or white spots, a completely white skunk is nonexistent; thus, Arenas' palacio is inhabited by unreal beings, and, as a result of this takeover of the palace by the blanquisimas mofetas, simultaneous upward and downward movements are suggested: as owners of the palace

Art · Humanities · Comparative Literary Analysis and Criticism · Spanish Culture and Identity · Spanish Literature and Culture Studies

• Writing Resistance through Melancholy

  Erica Miller Yozell•Modern Language Notes•2008

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