Open AccessEn busca de una definición genérica: los cuentos espiritistas de Octavio Mancera
Author(s) -
Diana Vanessa Geraldo Camacho
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
literatura mexicana
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2448-8216
pISSN - 0188-2546
DOI - 10.19130/iifl.litmex.2021.1.26855
Subject(s) - narrative , art , realism , magic realism , humanities , literature , magic (telescope) , reading (process) , chose , character (mathematics) , art history , philosophy , linguistics , physics , geometry , mathematics , quantum mechanics , political science , law
This essay examines the genre of two short stories by the Mexican writer Octavio Mancera: “Caridad” and “Un crimen,” both published in Cuentos diáfanos (1897), his only collection of short narratives. Due to the multi-faceted character of this book, I chose to narrow my study to these texts which the author called fantastic tales. I question this genre placement arguing from their discursive narrative that, although termed fantastic, they belong more fittingly to magic realism because of their peculiar spiritist formulation. I propose the term spiritist realism as a new theoretical terminology for the study of these texts. In search of a definition, this article analyzes these two stories through an interpretative reading of the genre category to which they respond.