Ideología y estructuras narrativas en José Donoso, 1950-1970

The underlying premise of this study is that literature is not only an artistic artifact, but also a particular way of comprehending and reacting to social reality. Thus Achugar proposes to view José Donoso’s narrative from both an intrinsic and extrinsic vantage point. Theoretically his approach is highly sensible and appropriate; unfortunately, it falls short of its goal, for lack of a coherent methodological base. The pivotal notions of ideology and narrative structures are never clearly defined and seem to change from chapter to chapter. Consequently, while the analyses of individual works are often illuminating on their own, they follow no uniform critical-theoretical model. A greater weakness is the failure to make the book’s dual concerns connect and to show convincingly that a vital relationship does indeed exist between the forces working on as well as within Donoso’s narrative. While on much surer ground when referring to its internal, artistic constitution, Achugar’s efforts at relating the latter to socio-political-ideological frameworks are shaky, and although he insists otherwise, do in fact formulate a rather facile relationship among Donoso’s work, his biography, and Chilean social reality. This then is a well-intentioned, but not wholly successful, attempt to go beyond previous, more limited studies of one of Latin America’s foremost writers.