I is another: notes on the narrator and his immortality in Bomarzo, by Manuel Mujica Lainez

Abstract

This work departs from considering the publication of Bomarzo (1962) by Manuel Mujica Lainez as a cultural milestone that imposed itself as a great challenge to the reading canons of the period. The difficulties in the reception of the book have been reflected in contemporary critical testimonies, and there is even evidence of its persistence years later. In that background, it is pertinent to analyze the configuration of the narrator, since in his specificity resides a great part of the novel's innovation. To this end, in addition to taking into account his fantastic component, we will approach the work as an autofiction that challenges the historiographical assumptions sustained, largely, by the traditional historical novel.