An Argentine Nivola

Sensing perhaps the incompleteness and stark unadorned structure of his two works of fiction, Niebla and Abel Sdnchez, Miguel de Unamuno dubbed them nivolas. Writing a slim volume of fiction with the same lightly humorous touch as Niebla, Manuel Gailvez refers to his work, Las dos vidas del pobre Napoledn, as a capricho. Both might possibly better be called parables. Both have a certain philosophical preachment to convey and both are concerned with the realness of fictional characters. The continuing preoccupation of Unamuno was his desire for immortality-a desire constantly frustrated by his inability to believe in the possibility of attaining it. Casting about to see who or what could lay claim to immortality, he hit upon the idea that great fictional characters such as Hamlet or Don Quijote come very close to attaining the immortal state. Indeed, today they overshadow their creators, Shakespeare and Cervantes, insofar as being intrinsically real to us. To an extent the fictional character not only has attained immortality, he has just about killed off his author creator. In the famous closing passages of Niebla the fictional hero, Augusto, goes to Salamanca to consult with his creator, Don Miguel. Here author informs character that he is to die and is much surprised when poor Augusto objects-for had he not intended to suicide anyway? But Augusto protests

Art · Literature · Comparative Literary Analysis and Criticism · Latin American Literature Studies · Spanish Philosophy and Literature