Lo esperpéntico en Pareja Diezcanseco: precursores y continuadores

Abstract

Ecuadorian criticism has had a wide range of opinions on Alfredo Pareja's sense of humor. On sorne occasions, it has come close to and then run away from that of Pablo Palacio; Proaño notes that, in this regard, the absurd and grotesque arise fundamentally from a situation, more than the characters; not so with Pareja, whose humor feeds off of the characters and their interactions with the world, closely resembling the Spaniard Ramón del Valle Inclán's idea of the esperpento style. Two works are analyzed in which nonsense expresses, and confronts at the same time, a certain existential anguish. Hechos y hazañas de don Balón de Baba (The Lite and Times of Mr. Spitball) shows us a central character that moves
from the ridiculous to the tragic; Las pequeñas estaturas (Those of Small Stature), to "insignificant people playing a disproportionately large role», of "body parts adjusted to fit the soul». 80th works allude to an inversion of recognized order, the advent of a carnival-like chaos, directed by creatures removed to the shadows and scarred by deformity.