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Nota Critica 13 Autor y Lector Como Personajes
Nota Critica 13 Autor y Lector Como Personajes
incertidumbres que pueden ser interpretadas en diversos grados cuando la introducción de autor
y lector en el universo ficticio abre una fisura en el mundo del texto, esto es, el universo
referencial de la obra .
Estrella distante (1993) , de Roberto Bolaño, comienza con una nota del autor en la cual aclara
para el lector las circunstancias de producción de la novela. La nota termina con esta afirmación:
“Mi función se redujo a preparar bebidas, consultar algunos libros, y discutir, con él y con el
fantasma cada día más vivo de Pierre Menard, la validez de muchos párrafos repetidos” (11). El él
mencionado en esta nota es el destinatario de la obra, de cuya inconformidad con otra novela de
Bolaño surge la escritura de Estrella distante. Este destinatario (narratario, en tanto aparece
mencionado) tiene referencias directas en esa novela anterior. La nota firmada por Bolaño, sin
embargo, se dirige a los lectores reales. Por otra parte, la alusión a Pierre Menard es un indicio
intertextual, pues es una alusión al cuento de Jorge Luis Borges, “Pierre Menard, autor del
Quijote”. Estos elementos introducen problemas metaficcionales para la interpretación del
estatuto de autor y lector en tanto aparecen inmersos en el universo narrativo, y esta condición
metaficcional marca la apreciación de la totalidad de la obra.
Las acotaciones anteriores, válidas también para la figura del autor y para la catalogación del
texto, cobran especial importancia para los Estudios de la Recepción Literaria, en todas sus
vertientes, pues pretenden indagar sobre las funciones de estos elementos de la comunicación
literaria. Asimismo, estas posturas integradoras generan formulaciones que recogen momentos de
confluencia en la actividad de distintos agentes, promoviendo un acercamiento plural a los
fenómenos, un modelo cooperativo de la comunicación literaria, según conviene en nuestro caso.
En este sentido, autor y lector no son únicamente agentes empíricos de esta comunicación, sino
como plantea Umberto Eco (Lector in fabula. La cooperación interpretativa en el texto narrativo,
1987), estrategias textuales e hipótesis de interpretación. Estrategias textuales, en tanto autor y
lector se prefiguran en el texto a la manera de instrucciones de distinto nivel que componen
imágenes modélicas. Hipótesis de interpretación, en tanto las circunstancias de enunciación
promueven la actualización intencional en función de las estrategias textuales.
En segundo lugar, la intrusión de referencias a personas reales en el relato instala una paradoja de
la interpretación, la cual no puede resolverse en una lectura histórica o biográfica, ni en una
lectura de ficcionalización absoluta del referente.
Por último, autor y lector instalados en el horizonte de la referencia textual son siempre imágenes,
trabajadas por distancias, del lector y el autor real. El trabajo sobre estas distancias, a su vez,
marca en el texto lugares de indeterminación, a veces vacíos, que son objeto de la interpretación
mediante inferencias, las cuales confluyen en la apelación de entidades intermedias entre los
agentes reales y los agentes ficcionales, respectivamente, Autor Modelo y Lector Modelo (ver Eco,
Lector in fabula. La cooperación interpretativa en el texto narrativo, 1987).
Podemos considerar, entonces, que el personaje puede constituirse, más allá del poder que se le
confiere tradicionalmente como actor dentro del relato, en un eje operativo y funcional de la
representación como componente fundamental de la dimensión referencial del espacio literario
cuando éste se instituye dentro de la narración, al adquirir cierta densidad dramática. Es vehículo
de las percepciones del mundo narrativo, es informante de conexiones escenográficas, es
portador de la tematización de su valor corporal, y es elemento problematizador del estatuto
ontológico del relato.
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Los invito, amigos, a leer el cuento “Pierre Menard, autor del Quijote” para que, a través de la
observación de su narrador (que es un personaje también) y del referenciado Menard, comiencen
a explorar las implicaciones que el rol de personaje puede explorar en el vasto universo de las
representaciones ficcionales.
The frontiers between reality and fiction are problematized and instead significant uncertainties
appear that can be interpreted to varying degrees when the introduction of author and reader in
the fictitious universe opens a fissure in the world of the text, that is, the referential universe of
the work.
Estrella distante (1993) , by Roberto Bolaño, begins with a note from the author in which he
clarifies for the reader the circumstances of production of the novel. The note ends with this
statement: "My function was reduced to preparing drinks, consulting some books, and discussing,
with him and Pierre Menard's ghost each day more alive, the validity of many repeated
paragraphs" (11). The interlocutor mentioned in this note is the recipient of the work, from whose
disagreement with another novel by Bolaño (La literatura nazi en América, 1996) arises the writing
of Estrella distante. This addressee (narrator, as mentioned, and to some extent characterized in
the text) has direct references in that earlier novel. The note signed by Bolaño, however, is
addressed to real readers. On the other hand, the allusion to Pierre Menard is an intertextual
indication, since it is an allusion to the story by Jorge Luis Borges, "Pierre Menard, author of
Quixote". These elements introduce metafictional problems for the interpretation of the status of
author and reader insofar as they appear immersed in the narrative universe, and this
metafictional condition marks the appreciation of the totality of the work.
Transgressions of this type demonstrate the nature that has conventionally been attributed to the
author and reader, insofar as they are located in perfectly delimited areas: reality for authors and
readers, and fiction for the characters. In the same way, these transgressions demonstrate
problems to which the Reception Theory has been applied since the sixties of the last century,
when contemplating the work as a cooperative process. The activity of the author and the reader
are thus conditioned by reciprocity in the task of constructing the meaning of the text. The text,
for its part, is the setting for this activity, the most characteristic aspect of which is to provide
opportunities for participation.
This change of perspective in analytical considerations leads to the unfolding of the work as a
conglomerate of uncertainties, an unfinished product that is realized aesthetically and
ideologically in the reading. In fact, concepts mentioned above as implied reader and virtual
reader, among others, are, for Dietrich Rall, in search of the text. Theory of literary reception
(1987: 5), answers that "have given other current semiotic currents, with comparable and
complementary approaches (...) that try to capture the characteristics of that instance foreseen in
the texts and necessary to give them life".
The previous notes, valid also for the figure of the author and for the cataloguing of the text, take
on special importance for the ReceptionTheory , in all its aspects, since they intend to investigate
the functions of these elements of literary communication. Likewise, these integrating postures
generate formulations that gather moments of confluence in the activity of different agents,
promoting a plural approach to phenomena, a cooperative model of literary communication, as is
appropriate in our case. In this sense, author and reader are not only empirical agents of this
communication, but also textual strategies and hypothesis of interpretation, as Umberto Eco
(Lector in fabula. La cooperación interpretativa en el texto narrativo, 1987) suggests. Textual
strategies, as author and reader are prefigured in the text in the manner of instructions of
different level that compose model images. Hypothesis of interpretation, insofar as the
circumstances of enunciation promote intentional updating in function of textual strategies.
"The distant Star" example outlined above prescribes an approach of this nature, since author and
reader appear situated at the fictional level. We are not only faced with the use of an ancient
license of enunciation, by the way, but also with the metafictional exposition of a problem of
representation, with important analytical consequences.
First of all, making the reference in the act of reading means considering the ontological frontiers
between reality and fiction. As for the characters, the limits of the narrative universe are affected
when references to real beings are introduced into that universe.
Secondly, the intrusion of references to real people in the story installs a paradox of
interpretation, which cannot be resolved in a historical or biographical reading, nor in a reading of
absolute fictionalization of the referent.
Finally, author and reader installed in the horizon of the textual reference are always images,
worked by distances, of the real reader and the real author. The work on these distances, in turn,
marks in the textindeterminations, sometimes empty, that are the object of interpretation
through inferences, which converge in the appeal of intermediate entities between the real agents
and the fictional agents, respectively, Model Author and Model Reader (see Eco, Lector in fabula.
La cooperación interpretativa en el texto narrativo, 1987).
We can consider, then, that the character can be constituted, beyond the power that is
traditionally conferred on him as an actor within the story, in an operative and functional axis of
representation as a fundamental component of the referential dimension of the literary space
when it is instituted within the narrative, by acquiring a certain dramatic density. It is a vehicle for
the perceptions of the narrative world, an informant of scenographic connections, a vehicle for the
thematization of its corporal value, and a problematizing element of the ontological status of the
story.
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I invite you, friends, to read the story "Pierre Menard, author of Quixote" so that, through the
observation of his narrator (who is also a character) and the referenced Menard, you begin to
explore the implications that the role of character can explore in the vast universe of fictional
representations.