Posted: September 13th, 2017
The Death of Artemio Cruz
II. Carlos Fuentes, The Death of Artemio Cruz.
a. Is this text a novel? Try to list (briefly!) the specific features of the novel as a genre and then show why (or why not) this book satisfies the genre’s basic requirements. Take into account its formal experimentation, its use of linguistic shifts (from 1st person to 3rd person, from prose to poetic flow), and its characters. Consider as well any deviations from norms and definitions. Use specific examples: For instance, how Fuentes recycles Octavio Paz’s thoughts on the verb chingar (see Octavio Paz) quotation in Manual).
b. Write an essay on The Death of Artemio Cruz as a meditation on history. First define, as best you can or insofar as you can, Fuentes’s concept of history. Then, as you consider the various ideas about history Fuentes includes in his text, you may want to rethink the double meaning of the word historia we considered important in One Hundred Years of Solitude. Rulfo’s Comala may be a vision of Mexico relevant to Fuentes: consider it. The passage in Carpentier’s novella on tasks (at the end) may also come to the point. Feel free to use it in your essay.
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