Juan Carlos Onetti Critical Essay | Critical Essay by María Rosa Olivera-Williams

Critical Essay by María Rosa Olivera-Williams

SOURCE: Olivera-Williams, María Rosa. “Between Man and Woman: Onetti and Armonía Somers.” In Onetti and Others: Comparative Essays on a Major Figure in Latin American Literature, edited by Gustavo San Román, pp. 105-20. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1999.

In the following essay, Olivera-Williams concludes that a gender-based difference exists in the storytelling styles of Onetti and his contemporary Armonía Somers.

Estaba también la tramposa, tal vez deliberada, deformación de los recuerdos. [“There was also the deceiving, perhaps intentional, distortion of memories.”]

—J. C. Onetti, “La cara de la desgracia” [The Image of Misfortune] (OC [Obras completas], 1338)

Comprendí que jamás, en adelante, debería comunicar a nadie mi mensaje. … [E]ra necesario liberar también al hombre de mi propio favor simbólico, tan basto como el de cualquiera. [“From that moment, I understood that I must never make my message known to anyone. … [I]t was also necessary to...
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