Una lectura de Baldomera

Abstract

The author makes a sociological analysis of Pareja's novel, supported by the criteria of critic Lucien Goldmann. The fictionological categories which serve as guidelines are: the narrator, space, time and characters. The focus is on an analysis of the three spaces that Pareja relates in the novel: countryside, city (identified by its poverty, crime, and abuse of authority) and the outside world (barely referential, but a force at the beginning of the nation's modernization). It reviews the characters and thought patterns of the author. It concludes that the book presents a different style of novel, tonally like that of the European Avant-Garde, though it shows an unchanging social reality (Baldomera is born poor, and bounces between the brothel, the bar, the hospital and, finally, prison). The book is more than just a simple diary thanks to the design of the main character: despite her physical disfigurements which signify disgrace, Baldomera expresses at the same time the values of fidelity, maternal love and solidarity.