Inward retreat: Tratado del amor clandestino, by Francisco Proaño Arandi

Abstract

The author proposes in this article, firstly, a critical reflection about a claim for “extraterritoriality” in Ecuadorian literature which, since the 1990’s has become a constant; this absence has prevented Ecuadorian narrative to reach an universal status, since its ties to what is local has bound it, in the opinion of some, to the inability to overcome its ties to the past. Ortega studies this debate under the scope of the Latin American tradition,
where its background and history reside. She even uses the well-known discussion between Peruvian writer J.M. Arguedas and Argentinean J. Cortázar about what the national- local implied, and the cosmopolitan being understood as an option of universality. Secondly, the author analyzes the novel Tratado del amor clandestino, by F. Proaño Arandi to make a contrast about what the debate suggests, and, in some way, prove that the “inward retreat” of the intimate story of the characters’ drama is, at the same time, a motion to what she describes as a journey to “the origin”. This, besides describing the main character as a subject, places him in a story that is shared by other voices, other presences, realities, memories and actors.