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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/70968
Description
Title
The Fiction of Clemente Palma (Peru)
Author(s)
Kason, Nancy Marie
Issue Date
1983
Department of Study
Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese
Discipline
Spanish
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Keyword(s)
Biography
Literature, Latin American
Abstract
Clemente Palma (1872-1946) is an important, yet little recognized, figure in the transition of Peruvian letters from the derivative forms of Romanticism and Modernism to a truly original, more contemporary expression. However, even in his own country, he is not widely viewed as a key author of this transitional period. In his search for greater artistic freedom and originality, Palma anticipated several aesthetic concerns of contemporary Spanish American fiction, but only recently has been accorded the recognition that he deserves as the father of the modern short story in Peru and the initiator of Fantastic literature in that country.
In this dissertation, the approach used for the analysis of his thirty-two short stories and two novels focuses on several critical and theoretical essays written by Clemente Palma and the author's practical application of those ideas in his fiction. Several discrepancies are noted between the artistic trends and themes which he severely censured in his articles, such as Modernism, Decadence, the supernatural, spiritism and satanism, yet creatively extolled in his fiction.
Chapter One presents a biographical summary of the author's life, serves as an introduction to his entire literary production, describes his position in the fin de siecle literary ambience and reviews previous criticism of his work.
Chapter Two examines Palma's essays of literary theory and criticism in order to ascertain what he perceived as the predominant tendencies in the literature of his time.
Chapter Three surveys the author's entire short story production, with particular attention given to their most important thematic and structural features. To facilitate the analysis of Palma's cuentos, a quadripartite classification was established: (1) The Modernist pieces; (2) the narratives which treat religious themes; (3) the Decadent works; and (4) the Fantastic stories.
Chapter Four analyzes Palma's two novels, Mors ex vita (1918) and XYZ (1934). The former combines several techniques of the Fantastic with Decadent themes, while the latter belongs to the genre of Science Fiction.
Chapter Five summarizes many paradoxes between what the author had morally and socially condemned yet creatively extolled, and offers several possible explanations for these discrepancies.
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