«El curioso impertinente»: Nuevas perspectivas críticas

In the present revision of «El curioso impertinente», which includes a survey of the History of its Reception in the course of the last twenty years, the results of four critical readings are compared with that of the author of this article. The critical re-reading of these interpretations, all of which adopt different perspectives, is developed in three stages: first some suggestions concerning the sources of the novella are examined, without giving up the conviction that the tale of «El curioso» is a profoundly original text; subsequently, the four interpretations, which share the tendency of give priority to the analysis of content, are commented on; finally the point is made that it is necessary to overcome an interpretation limited to questions of plot development, in order to look more closely at narrative and discursive aspects