University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses

The mystery of Peru: Investigations of Mario Vargas Llosa

(USC Thesis Other)

The mystery of Peru: Investigations of Mario Vargas Llosa

PDF

Download

Open document

Flip pages

Download a page range

Download transcript

Copy asset link

Request this asset

Transcript (if available)

Content THE MYSTERY OF PERU: INVESTIGATIONS
OF MARIO VARGAS LLOSA
by
Haiqing Sun
A Dissertation Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
SPANISH
May 2002
Copyright 2002 Haiqing Sun
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
UMI Number: 3093422
Copyright 2002 by
Sun, Haiqing
All rights reserved.
®
UMI
UMI Microform 3093422
Copyright 2003 by ProQuest Information and Learning Company.
All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against
unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code.
ProQuest Information and Learning Company
300 North Zeeb Road
P.O. Box 1346
Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
The Graduate School
U niversity Park
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA 90089-1695
Th i s d is s e rta tio n , w ritte n b y
U n d e r th e d ire c tio n o f h ..f.L . D is s e rta tio n
C o m m ittee, a n d ap p ro ve d b y a ll its m em bers,
has been p re s e n te d to a n d ac ce p te d b y The
G rad u ate School , in p a rtia l fu lfillm e n t o f
req u irem e n ts fo r th e degree o f
Haiqing Sun
D O C T O R O F P H IL O S O P H Y
*can o f G rad u ate Studies
D a te
.August & r 2 W 2
D I S S E R TA T IO N C O M M IT T E E
C hairperson
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Dedication
To Meixiang, Shizhou, Haiying,
Annie and Jim, with love.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Acknowledgments
I thank my academic advisor Professor Roberto I. Diaz
for guidance and help in so many ways to complete the
doctoral program. I thank Professors Lucille Kerr, Mabel
Morana, Theodore Sackett, Paul Ilie, Mario Saltarelli,
and Bruce Burningham for providing me a precious
experience in Hispanic studies. I also thank Director
Gayle Vierma and Martha Galvan for their generous help
during my work and study at USC.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
iv
Contents
Dedication ii
Acknowledgments iii
Abstract v
Introduction 1
Chapter 1 Mystery: Genre and Reading 9
Chapter 2 Mystery as the Writing of Latin 62
America
Chapter 3 Diluting the Solution: A Case in La 120
ciudad y los perros
Chapter 4 Anti-genre: The Mystery in Quien 17 6
mato a Palomino Molero?
Chapter 5 Lituma en los Andes: The Mystery of 228
Loss and the Lost in Mystery
Conclusion 284
Bibliography 295
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Abstract
Mystery and its major literary expression,
detective fiction, constitute arguably one of the major
poetics of our time. With its representation of various
social and cultural fields throughout the twentieth
century, mystery has become a "classical" resource for
literary production; meanwhile the detective genre
itself has become a "mystery" in literary consumption.
This study examines the criminal cases in three of Mario
Vargas Llosa's novels: La ciudad y los perros, Quien
mato a Palomino Molero, and Lituma en los Andes,
following a survey of mystery writing among "mainstream"
Latin American writers, and the critical
conceptualizations by Vargas Llosa and others regarding
mystery in fiction. The three texts each address some
major problems in both the constructions of their crime
mystery and their writing of the Peruvian world. They
can be viewed as a whole, representing a thematic and
structural expansion beyond the traditional detective
genre. My research follow on problems surrounding the
detective figures, questions of justice and punishment
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
posed by the solutions to criminal cases, the
manipulations of power and the police procedure as a
literary function in the textual system, the textual
relationship between myth and mystery, and the reader's
participation and re-investigation of the problematic
solutions. All the above aspects constitute a path to
access the literary workings of the narrative and Latin
America's cultural and literary realities. The
mysteries in the three texts provide some answers to the
question of how to write mysteries in a world where the
social conditions and the modus operandi are different
from the central places of the West, since they
represent, on the one hand, certain directions in which
mystery narrative takes within and beyond the generic
dimension, and on the other, the task of writing Latin
America that undergoes transformations and challenges in
different cultural scopes.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
1
Introduction
Mystery and its major literary expression,
detective fiction, constitute arguably one of the major
poetics of our time. Through its representation and
exploration of various social and cultural fields
throughout the twentieth century, mystery has become a
"classical" resource for literary production. Because
the generic elements of mystery have been widely adopted
and expanded by writers from all over the world, the
perception of mystery in a wider range of narrative
literature, instead of solely within the detective
genre, constitutes an angle from which to examine the
workings and meanings of the textual world. This
dissertation takes the study of the detective genre as a
starting point to examine three of Mario Vargas Llosa's
novels. I focus on the influence of the generic
components of detective fiction in his writing, as well
as on the literary utterances he sets forth with the
mystery-centered texts. Through a comparative study of
Vargas Llosa and some of his contemporaries, this study
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
2
also seeks to detect the trends of mystery writing as a
contribution to the interpretations of Latin America's
cultural and literary realities.
This study does not see Vargas Llosa's novels
generically as an extension of detective fiction, but it
demonstrates that no matter how far away these novels
deviate from the detective genre's traditions, they owe
much to the influence of this genre in modern times, and
at the same time, they allow a critical rethinking the
genre. Vargas Llosa is obviously not one of the major
mystery creators in Latin America; thus, studying his
works will not cover a whole scope of mystery in the
literature of the New World, nor would I use this writer
alone to interpret the trends of crime mystery writing
on this side of the Atlantic. Compared with works by
those writers who adopt certain social environments only
to develop crime mysteries, during the peak time of his
career, the writings of Vargas Llosa, even as they show
a strong intention of experimental practice with styles
and themes found in detective fiction, are concerned
more with the political realities and living conditions
of the people in Peru. His works are primarily of Latin
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
3
America. He is a better sample than those who are
dedicated solely to create "mystery," to disclose how
generic factors are extended, developed, and transformed
in the mainstream of contemporary Latin American
writing. Analysis of crime mystery will provide a
gateway to understand Vargas Llosa's literary world and
the representation of Latin America.
The influence of detective fiction, then, is the
first emphasis of the study, since this genre has not
only enriched but also challenged both the production
and reception of literature. My study does not focus
solely on mystery as a central notion for detective
fiction, but also on the genre itself as a "mystery" in
literary consumption.
The first chapter also searches for the aesthetic
implications of mystery offered by the detective
narratives through the last century. The aesthetics of
mystery writing is trusted by critics with different
literary inclinations and interpreted by writers through
their works inside or outside the canon of the detective
genre. An analysis of their approaches to crime mystery
will provide an explanation of my research direction as
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
4
well as a critical reference for reading Vargas Llosa's
texts.
The second chapter makes a survey of mystery
writing among "mainstream" Latin American writers, and
introduces the critical conceptualizations by Vargas
Llosa and others regarding crime mystery in fiction.
This part of my work provides a supporting background
for the case studies of Vargas Llosa's novels, as crime
mystery is not only a component in Latin American
fiction but also, arguably, a perspective on which
writers— as well as readers— may rely to examine Latin
America as a literary construct.
The central work of the dissertation focuses on the
criminal cases presented in three novels: La ciudad y
los perros (1962), Quien mato a Palomino Molero (1986),
and Lituma en los Andes (1993). The three texts
together set forth a representation of crime crisis-
crossed with themes such as guilt, victimization,
investigation, violence and mystery solving, all of
which constitute a path to access the literary workings
of these narratives. Meanwhile, each of these texts
provokes an interrogation as to how one should perceive
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
5
the generic elements of popular mysteries adopted by a
canonical writer. The study of La ciudad y los perros
views the open-ended mystery in the story as a narrative
strategy in which the basic structure of the detective
genre is de-constructed to achieve the author's goal of
an omnitext, and aims to reach a solution beyond the
crime mystery and within an implied text through the
analysis of the narrative structure. For Quien mato a
Palomino Molero, the focus is on the significance of
failure in the detectives' work and the challenge then
produced on the mystery readers, who may wander between
the detection of a pseudo-genre and the criticism of a
banal story. The mysteries in Lituma en los Andes are
examined as the poetic mystification of a nation's
problematic reality and social components, where
criminal cases contain both social and poetic scopes and
provide a chance for the reader to examine the crisis
that the author himself faces as both the member of a
social elite and a critic.
My research follows on themes cultivated by Vargas
Llosa in the presentation of crime mystery, including
problems surrounding the figures of the detective and
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
6
the victim, questions of justice and punishment posed by
the solutions and potential solutions to criminal cases,
the ruling power and the police procedure as a literary
function within the textual system, the anti-genre
presentation of investigation through the narrative, and
the textual relationship between myth (in a national or
racial sense) and mystery (in a social sense). The
research is carried out in the light of the author's
attention to Peru's social condition and historical
backgrounds, which is also a significant link among the
literary utterances of these three texts and the
author's previous novels. To understand more broadly
the function of mystery in constructing the narratives
of the three novels, I also invoke works by other Latin
American writers—such as Borges, Garcia Marquez and
Carpentier, as references or "mirror texts." The
comparison between Vargas Llosa's and these other
writers' approaches to crime mystery also provides an
access into the influence of the detective genre in
Latin America's canonical writings— a phenomenon that
many critics have virtually ignored, yet one long
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
7
developed with the literary representations and
interpretations of the New World.
As to the possibe question of what theory or
methodology of criticism will be taken as guide and
support to this study, I would note that, just as the
research on crime mystery which will not cover a broad
scope for fiction studies, no theory would be inclusive
enough to monopolize the totality of a writer, a text,
or a genre. We are in a situation of chaos with
theories and philosophical guidance today, but this does
not mean that I will not seek help from any literary
theories and criticisms. The following study will show
that different theories and critical works regarding
textual interpretation, especially on crime mystery and
narrative discourse, have helped the formation of my
work. Borges, Calvino, Cawelti, Eagleton, Eco, Iser,
and Symons are among those whose theoretical or critical
approaches to literary production have revealed to me
some profound comprehension on natures of both generic
writing and narrative literature in general.
Ultimately, this study is inspired by the detective
genre, for, even its own definition and typology have
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
become problematic by today, it reveals along with its
development some truth of literature in a metaphoric yet
concise way, a way that a theory or criticism cannot
afford to have.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
9
Chapter I
Mystery: Genre and Reading
The detective story is such a pervasive
phenomenon of the contemporary world— not only
in books but in many other media— that it is
difficult both to imagine what our culture
would be without it and ... to understand why
this is so.
— John G. Cawelti ("Canonization, Modern
Literature, and the Detective Story" 5)
Mario Vargas Llosa is read and studied worldwide as
one of the major figures in the Boom of contemporary
Latin American literature.1 His literary works— novels,
short stories, essays, and dramas— are universally among
the representative texts from the Hispanic world. But
the contacts between his fiction and the detective
genre, which is the focus of my dissertation, is less
well known. My study begins with a consideration of the
generic elements of detective or criminal fiction— I
will be using both terms here--among others, rather than
the eminent position his works occupy in Latin American
literature.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
10
Crime mystery as a type of story can be traced back
to the time of ancient mythologies. It carries
different cultural images in different historic and
literary ages, and there are examples of it through the
picaresque novels in the Spanish Golden Age, the English
gothic romances in the eighteenth century, and of
course, the detective since the mid-nineteenth century.
Aside from these various genres, works that involve
themes of crime are ubiquitous through literary history.
The term "mystery" comes from the Greek "mysterion",
which means "secret ceremony." In the twelfth century,
"mystery" took on its modern meaning of "secret,
inaccessible to reason" (Corripio 306). The modern
meaning of the term "mystery" implies both a hidden
truth and an object of curiosity or investigation. This
meaning coincides with the construction of "mystery" in
the fictional text: the narrative is based on both the
inquiry and the absence of an answer or a solution to
the mystery. The idea of "mystery" and the logical
structure of the mystery story have been central to the
development of the genre we have come to know as
detective or criminal fiction. Specifically, detective
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
11
stories have arguably constituted the best known
provider of mystery in our modern cultures.
Many critics believe that the modern detective
genre has an Anglo-American origin. As John Irwin
records, in 1856, when the Goncourt brothers first read
the mystery stories by Edgar Allen Poe, they described
Poe's stories as "'a new literary world,' bearing 'signs
of the literature of the twentieth century— love giving
place to deductions ... the interest of the story moved
from the heart to the head ... from the drama to the
solution'" (1). This comment successfully foresaw the
popularity of detective fiction in the twentieth
century, even as it remained sufficiently open for all
the critical debates that have affected the genre.
Indeed, criminal fiction is viewed and valued
differently among various critics. Some basically
underscore its function of entertainment and its
structural self-perfection, while others have been more
concerned with its influence in literary production in
general, significantly in those fictional forms that are
perceived as "high" literature.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
12
Edgar Allan Poe is commonly considered a forefather
of the modern detective genre, and in his stories,
according to Dorothy Sayers, "the general principles of
the detective story were laid down for ever" (352).
Poe's emphasis on the detective's talent for observation
and reasoning developed into the so-called "golden age"
of detective stories by Anglo-American writers before
the Second World War— such classics as Sir Arthur Conan
Doyle, Agatha Christie and G. K. Chesterton.2 Related to
the Auguste Dupin figure created by Poe, other detective
prototypes include Sherlock Holmes by Conan Doyle,
Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple by Christie, and Father
Brown by Chesterton, characters that have become the
trademark of the detective genre and helped to support a
vast market. The stories centered on the detective, as
we will discuss later, also rebuild the role of reader
in both narrative and reception; as Dorothy Sayers
points out, one could observe "the tendency for the
modern educated public to demand fair play from the
writer and for the [detective fiction] branches to move
further apart" (362). The classic forms of the "golden
age" gave way, after the Second World War, to various
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
13
trends or "sub-genres," including the hard-boiled
thriller, stories of spies, gangsters and the Mafia, as
well as grotesque and noir representations that explored
contemporary social and psychic landscapes.3 Thus, one
may argue that the critics of detective fiction soon
found themselves no longer in control of the borders for
their field of study. In other words, it is no longer
clear to what extent they are still dealing with one
detective genre or dealing with various other formations
that may be more or less similar but not identical. For
example, Alain Robbe-Grillet's Le voyeur (1955) and Les
gommes (1953), and Umberto Eco's II nome della rosa
(1980) and Pendolo di Foucault (1988) can all be
included within the domain of detective fiction, these
works significantly depart from the earlier Anglo-
American traditions. Moreover, there are major
differences between these two authors, which implies
further developments away from the genre. Robbe-
Grillet' s novels take the mystery of crime into an
experimental zone of noir narrative, while Eco's
fictions concern themselves more or less with
philosophical explorations of the position of human
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
14
beings within the material world. In fact, the crime-
mystery theme may well be the only reason to read these
two authors side by side. Both of them not only
transformed the crime mystery genre, but also remind us
of the fact that "crime mystery," plain and simple, may
no longer be an appropriate term for the taxonomy of
narrative literature.4
Focusing on the genre's development, Anthony Hilfer
remarks on the evolution from the best-selling,
consumer-centered, popular "detective stories" to the
"crime novel," which is more seriously acclaimed for its
social and literary values (xi-xv). Larry Landrum sees
further that the evolution of the genre extends some
generic elements into different literary genres and
evokes changes not only in the detective genre itself
but also in the general literary fields (9-10). Both
critics' points of view reflect Cawelti's analysis in
that the transformation of detective fiction from its
"golden age" to the late twentieth century takes two
major directions: the ramification of the genre, and the
internationalization of writer and their reception (5).
For Cawelti, both directions constitute a "gradual
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
15
assimilation into our idea of literature of popular
genres that used to be sharply separated from the
literary mainstream" (5). By the same token, he
suggests that the detective story has expanded to
accommodate a much greater diversity of social values
and ideologies. It seems on the verge of becoming a
truly global mythos. At the same time, writers in other
countries began to undercut the detective story's Anglo-
American ethnocentricity, and to develop important new
varieties of mystery fiction, a trend that became
increasingly international from the 1960s through the
1980s (Delamater 9).5 Cawelti raises two questions for
the study of the detective genre's transformation: where
to locate the genre's limits, and how to perceive the
distinction between "high" or "low" art? For the
question of limits, many have argued that it is a
fruitless effort to try to define such a genre, as
Julian Symons mocks: "Is it a detective crime
psychological analytical suspense police story? No,
it's a hybrid" (9). Indeed, it is a hybrid still
developing, transforming with our times. Symons points
out: "The detective story pure and complex, the book
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
16
that has no interest whatever except the solution of a
puzzle, does not exist, and if it did exist it would be
unreadable. The truth is that the detective story ...
makes up part of the hybrid creature we call sensational
literature" (9). He does not go on to say where to set
borders between "sensational literature" and other
literatures, but he states: "That a line should be drawn
is a matter of common sense, but its precise placing is
a matter of individual taste" (13). In other words, a
definition of this generic writing is a category for the
common readers or the market more than a province of any
analytical work by critics or literary scholars.
Robin Winks is among those who have been surveying
criminal genre not as a by-product of modern cultures,
but as a literary contribution. In Modus Operandi
(1982), he discusses the scope of the detective genre
within the field of literature and argues that the
commonly known "qualities" of detective fiction may not
be uniquely created by, or just belong to, this genre.
He notes that the multiplicity of voices and the
ambivalence of representing mystery through the
narrative are "not enough to set mystery fiction apart
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
17
from other fiction" (23), since "the desire to surprise,
indeed the necessity of surprise, is among the so-called
limitations of the detective novel. Yet surprise, if
not of event then of motivation, is at the core of most
literature ... a logic not to be denied" (83).
Furthermore, as to the lofty role of reasoning and
deduction that the criminal narrative of mystery seems
to elaborate, he suggests that these are "meticulous
stages through which detective fiction ... must carry
the reader, or the reader carry the fiction. If this is
a formula, it is the broadest conceivable one, embracing
all literature" (97). Speaking from a social-critical
perspective, Winks adds:
The trends so evident in detective
fiction are at once reflections of
society, creators of change in us as
readers, and accurate statements
about the relations between societies
... the band of readers who genuinely
thought detective fiction was 'escape
literature' would find that there is
(as in fact there always has been) no
escape within the literature. (97-98)
Therefore, there would not be any definite line to draw
between detective fiction and other fictions.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
18
Winks believes that the genre's low status is
linked with a traditional bias taken by writers,
especially those academicians who "have written mystery
stories under pseudonyms," and who "fear that their more
serious work would be compromised or undervalued if it
were widely known that they also indulge in a bit of
pleasure from time to time" (33). However, one must
underscore that it is the "pleasure" that both writers
and readers have found in the genre that has attracted
more interests from the critics.
A literary genre is not a closed system. Like
other literary productions, it projects its influence
into the larger literary world even as it engages in its
own developments and transformations. Cawelti sees the
genre as a source of mutual enrichment between popular
cultures and modern literature: "The stages through
which this transformation has occurred suggest that the
genre had a dynamic that kept pushing against the
seemingly rigid boundaries of the formula" (Delamater 9-
10). Reviewing the generic problems discussed by the
critics mentioned above, one can find that their
concerns with the value of detective fiction includes
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
19
both "what detective fiction shares with traditional
forms of high or serious literature and what separates
it from them" (Most 210).
To consider the literary value of detective
fiction, besides its generic scope, we also face the
fact that, since it became a subject for literary
studies, the genre has not been able to avoid the issue
of literary hierarchies— an experience shared by other
genres, but perhaps not as keenly as criminal fiction in
the modern world. Yet the need to explore this problem
may be a blessing in disguise, for it may allow us to
view the extent to which this genre could be identified,
arguably, as a veritable poetics of the modern time.
The question of high and low art was raised even
before the flourishing of the genre, in such texts as
Thomas De Quincy's "Murder as One of the Fine Arts"
(1827) and Chesterton's "A Defense of Detective Stories"
(1902), which call for a more serious consideration of
detective fiction. Meanwhile, one needs to realize that
it is not the arguments for "higher ranking" but the
transformation of the detective fiction along with the
development of modern literature that have formed
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
20
stronger support for the genre as a literary
contribution, and triggered more interest and research
on its status. Landrum and Browne state that the roots
of this genre reach a wide literary and social scope,
from picaresque, gothic and domestic novels to the
modernization and post-industrial social transformations
of the twentieth century (2-3). Like many other types
of literature, it has its roots in literary traditions
as well as social contexts. Their point of view
coincides with Chestertons's argument that detective
fiction, as a "police romance," "expressed some sense of
the poetry of modern life," and proved "the fact that
civilization itself is the most sensational of
departures and the most romantic of rebellions"
(Haycraft 6).
Moreover, regarding the specific literary quality
of the genre, John Irwin indicates that this type of
work manages both to present "the analytic solution of a
mystery and at the same time conserve the sense of the
mysterious on which analysis thrives" (2). Using
studies of Poe's "The Purloined Letter" (1845) as an
example, he explains how detective fiction reveals the
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
21
workings of literature in a metaphoric way, and
functions as a doctrine for literary investigations.
Many of the studies around detective fiction are
launched with similar belief in the potentials of the
genre— in that it will do more than what has been shown
about literature. In other words, the focus is not on
how much it is viewed as part of the literary realm, but
on what it can offer to the discourse of and about
literature and criticism.6
The arguments by all the above mentioned critics
can be summarized as one effort to reveal the literary
potentials of the genre, and they have a good reason to
do so. These critics'’ points of view show the strength
and values of criminal mystery, and also serve well as a
guide for an aesthetics-centered appreciation of
detective fiction. However, the mere appreciation of
this genre cannot exhaust the potentials of the genre.
We need to not only observe the genre from its own
traditions and aesthetics, but also pay attention to how
certain the generic factors linked to it become
influential in the larger corpus of narrative fiction.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
22
Detective fiction may well be the only genre that
occupies both the bookshelves reserved for literary
classics as well as those of popular cultures. There is
evidence to support its importance for modern society
and its influence in our culture. Detective fiction is
commonly believed to have flourished with modern
society, yet it is also linked with the question of
postmodernity.7 Terry Eagleton remarks:
Postmodernity is a style of thought
which is suspicious of classical
notions of truth, reason, identity and
objectivity, of the idea of universal
progress or emancipation .... Against
these Enlightenment norms, it sees the
world as contingent, ungrounded,
diverse, unstable ... a set of
disunified cultures or interpretations
which breed a degree of scepticism
about the objectivity of truth,
history and norms, the givenness of
natures and the coherence of
identities, (vii)
Meanwhile, A. D. Hutter notes the "essence" of detective
fiction, which not only supports its generic structure
but also extends its influence into other literary
territories, and is a "relentlessly logical process of
ratiocination thrown into question by a deeper
irrationality" (176). It is the sense of uncertainty,
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
23
doubt and inquiry that supports an aesthetic value for
the genre. Thus, Hutter's point of view is comparable
to Eagleton's on the cultural state of postmodernity.
Michael Holquist also takes postmodernity as a cultural
identification for the detective fiction, by stating
that what the "presuppositions of myth and depth
psychology were to Modernism ... the detective story is
to Postmodernism" (Most and Stowe 149). Holquist's
proposal of the "metaphysical detective fiction"
represents, on the one hand, a trend generated from the
traditional "whodunit" formula, and on the other, a new
perspective adopted to view postmodern literature. So,
it seems that the detective genre— if not from the
beginning, at least with its development— contains a
skepticism vis-a-vis some previous criteria. It is a
supporter, if not a leader, for the cultural trend of
postmodernity that "blurs the boundaries between 'high'
and 'popular' culture, as well as between art and
everyday experience," as Eagleton argues (vii). In such
a situation, it also seems that the arguments around the
"high" and "low" art of detective fiction would be less
conspicuous in a social level than in the realm of
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
24
literature, where any new genre would be under question
against the stability of the canonical works.
To consider the problem of "high" and "low" in the
detective genre, it is necessary to take two aspects
into account: its popularity in mass culture or "social
recognition," and its literary contributions or
"literariness." In fact, these are two natures to which
any literary works need to appeal. That is to say, each
novel is somehow an enforcement of both social and
literary values on the readers'' world, even though the
two types of values do not weigh the same for the
reception.
The social recognition for criminal mystery needs
to be considered beyond Poe's shadow. The detective
genre did not only begin with Poe, it also began with a
"mass society", where the trends of "mass" prevail in
many aspects of social life, from industrial production
to mass media, from democratic movements to commercial
circulation.8 One can argue that the relation between
criminal fiction and its social basis is tighter than
what has been shown through its formulaic narratives.
The social transformation brought up new types of
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
25
cultures, with detective fiction as one of its
representatives in the literary realm, and new type of
readers— the "mass" audience, the modern educated
public. In presentations of this type of society, crime
may at once be seen as a disturbance of the ruling of
God, a threat to the order of mass life and an exposure
to the dark sides of the human world. In other words, a
problem for one is a problem for all. Criminal fiction
emerges not solely as a reflection of, but also a
"phenomenon" in, our society, for it creates a
connection with, or a common ground for the "mass
reader"— a large group of people who get to share
similar reading interests, and for whom the crime and
its investigation become a socially shared topic in
daily life. Crime is part of the public life, and
criminal mystery brings up a poetic sense over the
instability and uncertainty of mass society with a
relatively stable readers' group. W.H Auden sees that
detective fiction is akin to fantasy, however
"realistic" its details, as "the Christian morality play
restated in modern dress" (Winks 95). But holding on
such a view, one may ignore that guestioning and
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
26
disbelief are conveyed through detective fiction more
often than comfort or faith in modern society. By
stating this, I do not mean to say that there are not
many works that simply emphasize the modern romance of
the victory of justice and the restoration of peace and
order, but that the shift of this genre from detective
story to crime novel— as Hilfer and Symons have noticed-
-during the last fifty years explores the chaos
experienced by our societies as well as by the genre
itself.9 The social recognition for the detective genre
is also established through the reader's familiarity
with the settings of stories. Each single crime happens
within a specific social environment, under the tension
of certain human relationships with crisis and
conflicts. Although detective fiction was not
originally seen as a space for social criticism, its
mystery-investigation formula implies broadly an
analysis of the nature of crime and human society.
There is no criminal case independent of its
surroundings, and no one in the story is spared from the
question of guilt. Furthermore, there is no role model
or hero. The detective figure could merely and barely
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
27
be objective in order to see things through and solve a
specific mystery, but he or she cannot save the world.
With the development of detective fiction, we see that
under different social conditions, different kinds of
mysteries emerge, and it is hard to decide whether the
type of society generates the type of crime or the type
of crime marks the nature of the society. Such a
situation could constitute a challenge to social norms
in any literature.
Different from what one often sees in nineteenth-
century European Realism or other socially oriented
works, in detective fiction the interpretation of human
chaos is carried out not through the complex depiction
of social classes, or conspiracies, or bizarre stories
of fate and destiny, but through the exposition of crime
and its investigation. Since the focus of the detective
is commonly the precise, technical solution of a
criminal case rather than its problematic and sometimes
equally guilty social background, people often question
the depth and significance of such stories, and label
them as light-hearted puzzles devoid of seriousness. If
we underscore the "lightness" shown in this genre, we
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
28
will find ourselves dealing with a literary quality that
belongs not only to a specific genre but also to the
whole of literature as a metaphysical exploration of
life. The term "lightness" appeared in Symons' 1972
study of mystery as an attitude that writers have
assumed towards their fiction when facing the popular
readers market. Symons indicates that the writers of
mystery treat their works as a product of "lightness"
even though it "brought into the crime story the unusual
element of wit" (17 6). In his opinion, this "lightness"
is a rather superficial and unreliable perception for
the detective genre, which also implies somehow a
negative evaluation.
In his Six Memos for the Next Millennium (1985),
the Italian writer Italo Calvino's explores more
thoroughly the meaning and implications of "lightness"
in literary production and narrative techniques.
Calvino points out that the value of "lightness" or
"weightiness" is not conflictive but relative and
"unsettleable." Yet, "lightness" does not equal
"weakness." As he understands it, it is "a value rather
than a defect" (3).
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
29
On proposing the idea of "lightness," Calvino, who
is also the author of several famous criminal fictions,
may not actually have the detective genre in mind.10 But
he would consider literature as "a search for knowledge"
(26), and suggest "lightness" as a basis on which "the
secret of a story lies" (35). His observations somehow
coincide reciprocally with the task of the detective and
the narrative mode of detective fiction. He sees in
"great literature" that "lightness" is both a way of
looking at the world based on philosophy and science,
and something arising from the writing itself (10).
Therefore, "lightness" is basically a spiritual and
abstract value versus the common notion of value held by
the substantial world. By the same logic, then, the
value, as well as the "lightness," of crime mystery seem
to lie on its popular-based formulaic way of viewing the
world against an elitist vision of elegance in the
literary canon, a canon that supports, but cannot
define, the totality of literature. Thus, the
"lightness" of the detective genre should be a value
added to the already acknowledged versions of
"lightness" in the literary world.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
30
Now, thinking of the tension and the staggering
among the significance of crime, detective and
literature, we may perceive "lightness" as a cultural
index of the detective genre, and a value between its
popularity and its "literariness." According to
Eagleton, postmodernism, a cultural shell of detective
genre, is itself a space of "lightness." He indicates
that it is "something of this epochal change, in a
depthless, decentred, ungrounded, self-reflexive,
playful, derivative, eclectic, pluralistic art ..."
(vii). Following this thinking, "lightness" eventually
represents a truth of our metaphysical world. Arguing
about the quality of "lightness" will not confirm the
literary value for every work in the detective genre,
but it immediately prompts two perspectives regarding
the effects of the detective genre: a vast market of
readers fond of formulaic writing, and a broader vision
for exploring its influence in contemporary narrative.
Besides its reception among mass readers, the
detective fiction is also defended by some critics.
Dorothy Sayers argues that the formulaic writing of
detective stories follows an aesthetic principle
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
31
identified by Aristotle; in her view, Aristotle's
expectation for classical Greek tragedy is somehow
similar to our own expectation for detective fiction.11
One may question whether Aristotle can be taken so far
as an excuse for the formulaic writing of the detective
genre two thousand years in advance. Indeed, one is
more easily convinced by Cawelti's argument based on
society's relation to the conventions of genre. Cawelti
indicates: "Most works of art contain a mixture of
convention and invention, ... formula is a conventional
system for structuring cultural products" (Hoppenstand
732-33), and "formula stories like the detective story
... are structures of narrative conventions which carry
out a variety of cultural functions in a unified way"
(736). Like Winks, he sees formula as part of the
artwork. Winks points out: "Detective fiction does have
a route, an agenda, of its own .... It is concerned
with guilt, deception, and logic, subjects on a
continuum and at tension with each other" (Modus 82).
However, these subjects are seen through a variety of
literary products, and they should not be considered a
limitation for the detective genre while being
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
32
considered as normal subjects for other fiction. If
they look the same, they could mean the same. Winks
warns:
[f]or those intent upon using
detective fiction to define popular
culture, which in turn is used to
defend one or another ideological
position concerning subjects and
people allegedly ignored by
establishment history and criticism,
the breaking down of barriers is seen
as harmful, making self-conscious
critical analysis of the detective
story useless. ... the detective
story must not be analyzed in a self
consciously separate way, and that it
appeals to the same needs within us
that much other fiction appeals to.
(82)
For example, the desire and the necessity of surprise,
the core for mystery, "if not of event then of
motivation, is at the core of most literature" (82).
Thus, we have to view the popularity of criminal fiction
not solely as a modern cultural phenomenon, but as a
way— even if it is a "light way"— to carry out the realm
of "literariness."
The term "literariness" used here tries to
illustrate the contribution of criminal fiction to the
development of modern literature not merely as a genre
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
33
with its own reception value, but also as a perspective
that inspires the examination of both the literary and
the substantial world in a meticulous way. In this
sense, the criminal genre should not be seen strictly as
a "type" of works without considering its role in
literature of not "grouping," but "branching," trends
among writers.
Among those related to the writing of criminal
mystery, some writers are more obviously acclaimed
followers of Poe as they contributed to the generic form
of detective fiction initiated by him, and have helped
to develop the mystery into a popular realm for the mass
reader. Yet these writers' success in the market cannot
hide the genre's relation to other literary genres as a
fact. Nancy Harrowitz argues that themes of detective
story "were present in literature as early as the Bible"
and, therefore, Poe as well as other chief authors, are
not inventors of the type but its proponents (Eco and
Sebeok 179). Our attention to these writers is not due
to their success in the market, but because, as
mentioned previously, their works helped to set up a
prototype of the detective role, a logo for the genre,
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
34
which simulates the situation of a reader. Their so-
called classical detective figure meets cases from all
kinds of backgrounds, while staying in, and maintaining
the intactness of, his own world, with his own values
unaffected by the cases. The image of the "reader-
simulating" detective reminds people of the fact that
the detective and his creator may share similar reading
interests— such as the tracing of a crime mystery— but
not necessarily similar social or literary values; and
that they may bestow on the mystery new significance and
forms of representation with their own assumptions. By
fixing the mystery on a reading structure, these writers
manage to disclose, if not produce, an expectation for
mystery in a wider range of literary reception. Barthes
used to suggest rhyme as a poetic code for the poem as
it builds up expectation and desire for its recurrence
(Most and Stowe 85); similarly, one could argue that the
detective genre carries a poetic code--in Barthes' term
here, for narrative, as it built up the expectation and
desire for the recurrence of mystery in literature. In
other words, mystery means not only a literary product
but also an index for the aesthetic expectation in
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
35
modern literature. It is the poetics of modern times, a
goal that artists keep in mind in order to challenge and
communicate with the mass reader. On the other hand,
the value of mystery may often be found indefinite, as
it also serves different-leveled goals and ambitions of
writers. So a primary question for the detective
genre's influence would be how the mystery is taken into
modern poetics throughout literary production.
The detective fiction may be associated with
different cultural inclinations, and therefore, be
"high" or "low" depending on both the writer's
contribution and the reader's perception of its values.
That is to say, the problem of "high" or "low" depends
on something other than the story of mystery itself, on
something that relates mystery with the background for
interpretation. To examine the communication between
writer and reader based on criminal mystery, one can
take some examples from those writers who makes mystery
an important element in fiction when they synthesize the
reading of criminal genre with their own writing.
Besides millions of copies of detective stories
sold in all types of markets, by writers who merely get
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
36
to entertain the masses, there are other works with
criminal-mystery themes, by writers who neither follow
Poe's narrative patterns nor concentrate in the
expansion of detective genre, but who still carry on
Poe's influence by making mystery a dynamic source for
their writings. These writers, such as Jorge Luis
Borges, Italo Calvino, Albert Camus, Umberto Eco,
William Faulkner, E. M. Foster, Graham Greene, Franz
Kafka, to mention just a few, were able to interpret
Poe's "detective spirit"— a spirit that helps the reader
to experience the tension of mystery through the
pleasure of reading.12 By doing so, these authors reveal
further cultural implications of mystery.13 It is
through these writers that Poe's influence or the value
of mystery is more thoroughly expressed. In other
words, the poetics of detective analysis that Poe
created was carried on by these writers into realms free
from the problem of "high" or "low," as contribution to
both literary utterance and heritage. In this sense,
one can argue that the cultivation of mystery themes
does not offer a certain type but a degree, not a limit
but a base, for literary evolution; and the writer may
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
37
set mystery not as a goal but as a meaning-conveying
faculty in their works.
Todorov proposes a duality in narrative to explain
the communicative mode of the detective genre: the
"story of the mystery" and the "story of solution." The
first ends before the second starts. The crime mystery
is the departure, and the main interests derive from the
"second story" (51). The "second story" is about
reading, not about action. It synchronizes the reading
of the story and the forming of the narrative.
Todorov's suggestion implies a double-sensed concept of
mystery: the crime and the analytical reading, which
have both been themes for different forms of literature,
beyond the detective genre.
In Todorov's view, the term "crime" or "criminal
case" does not always equal mystery. Technically, crime
has several consequences: the victim, the survivors, and
the punishment of the criminal at the juridical or
ethical level. But textually, it has only one: the
mystery. For example, the mystery may even continue
after the case is solved; and sometimes, the mystery
proceeds in a reversal way, as Winks explains, "in which
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
38
it shows how ... a given conclusion was, in truth,
inevitable" (83). Crime can be considered in the core
of a mystery only when its investigation is under way,
and when the relationship is unclear among those
involved in the case. So, mystery refers firstly to the
crime, while it lives its "life" through the narrative
of the investigation. Secondly, "the story of solution"
is actually the story of investigation, since the
purpose and "life" of the narrative depends on the
lasting of the mystery with the investigation, while
solution is textually a luxury goal not necessarily
enjoyed in every case— in every text. Thus, it may be
better to say, in Todorov's terms, that the second story
is synchronized with the reading of the story and the
forming of the mystery. A mystery should not merely
equal a crime which "ends" with the first story. It is
rather the significance of the whole narrative, a goal
shared by the detective figure in, and the reader of,
the text, that synchronizes the presentation of how to
commit a crime with that of how to solve a crime. One
can eventually say that the crime cannot be "committed"
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
39
until it is "solved," and mystery is born with the whole
text to become a challenge for the narrative.
One may doubt how to name a mystery now, if the
criminal case is not a decisive factor for its
definition. The premise is that we are discussing this
question in the textual realm, as readers, not as
members of a judicial function or characters in the
text, and that not every story containing a criminal
case would be considered a mystery story. With the
narrative being a vehicle to convey the meaning of
mystery, what the term "mystery" represents is both a
story of crime— the starting point for narrative, and a
discourse— the function and effect of the case brought
up through the text. Therefore, the generic pattern of
"double-story" that Todorov proposes for detective
fiction actually reflects a notion of mystery viewed by
the detective character in the story, who is a reader of
the criminal case (the first story) and the protagonist
in the investigation (the second story). The
detective's work is to correctly read the information
about the criminal case, even as this work becomes, in
turn, a reading object for the reader of the text. The
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
40
juxtaposition of the two provides room to sustain the
tension of the mystery and to support the development of
the narrative. For such a situation, one can ask
whether the detective and the reader can switch their
roles, with analysis being the ultimate reason of a
text.
A few examples of mystery from different periods
may serve to examine the distinction between "reading a
fiction" and "reading in fiction." Even though they do
not constitute a comprehensive survey, at least they
will provide a perspective for us to view some key
issues. The first should be the type of narrative
initiated by Poe, in which the detective's friend is the
narrator who observes both the riddle and the solution.
This pattern is considered a generic prototype of
detective fiction that has been followed by Conan Doyle,
Christie and Eco.14 One should notice that in telling
the story, Poe's narrator— the detective's friend—
actually addresses on purpose an unspecified listener,
and therefore extends an invitation to the reader. The
narrator sets the reader in front of all the evidence in
expectation of a denouement. In this case, the reader
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
41
is not a third party or watcher, but a ruling power to
whom the narrator tries to convince. The analysis is
not only directed at solving a mystery but also at
letting the reader see where the characters fail.
Robbe-Grillet's Les gommes shares the detective's
view with the reader from another angle. The detective
(also named Dupin) sets up a plan to catch a murderer
only to find himself, trapped in the plan, become the
guilty party. On tracing the detective's investigation,
the reader examines both the experiences of the
detective and of the murderer, and the death of the
victim coincides with the completion of reading and the
solution of the mystery. Borges's "La muerte y la
brujula" (1942) offers a similar reading experience,
although the solution of the crime is based here on the
detective's "misreading," while the criminal, in an
unusual move, shares with the reader the correct
reading. In both cases, the safest place for the
detective seems to be a reading room, and once they
start out in action, they take both their careers and
the texts themselves to an end.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
42
Garcia Marquez's Cronica de una muerte anunciada
(1981) is not considered a typical detective story.
However, it involves a reading of a crime in a narrative
mode of inquiry and discovery. In this story, the
identities of the murderers and their motives are not
secret. The core of the story is not a whodunit, but,
on the contrary, it concerns how a crime becomes
inevitable when the plan of murder has been announced in
advance to the community. The reading, presented as the
narrator's major activity in the story, leads the reader
to trace the conflicts that grow beyond the crime, and
thus to detect the mystery from a given solution.
The narrative of Eco's II nome della rosa
represents Poe's pattern, in which a detective's friend
is the narrator, who appears to read the mystery
together with the reader of the text. Moreover, the
central stage of mystery is a library, and the trace of
the murderer dwells in the trace of a missing
manuscript. Both criminal and detective perform their
plots through actual reading.
Although the above mentioned works show different
approaches to the presentation of mystery, they all
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
43
evoke a multi-leveled reading around the crime, and the
development of mystery is based on an exchange of
knowledge and logic between the narrator and the reader.
The reading as a constructive element in the
presentation of mystery reminds us of Dorothy Sayers's
comment made in the so-called golden age of the
detective fiction, that there was a tendency for the
reader to request fair play from the writer. In the
cases of Borges, Robbe-Grillet, Garcia Marquez, and Eco,
it seems that the play is rather fair, in the sense that
the reading becomes a narrative dynamic. Consequently,
with reading functioning "outward," from the text onto
the reader, there rises a question about the notion of
reality.
Reality, by which here I mean issues in the
substantial world, is often taken as reference for
literary appreciation. In fact many literary notions,
such as "fantasy," "romance," "experimental," and "the
absurd," are perceived according to some common
assumptions of "reality." However, Borges argues that
writing or reading is no less a reality than any social
events taken into literary representation (Burgin 10,
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
44
14). Eco points out with his own case— the reception of
II nome della rosa— that the reading as a common
activity or a "reality" may become more of a fantasy
than the literary work itself (Collini 72-78). In the
case of Graham Greene among others, as Lambert
indicates, personal nightmares often impress the writer
more strongly than events from the substantial outer
world, and thus differentiate the writer's reality from
the common reader's (132-135). These cases, if not
decisive, at least question the notion of reality as a
counterpart of literary production or a watershed
between author and reader, and thus place the role of
reading at the forefront of mystery consumption inside
the text as well as by the reader. With "reading" as
both a social behavior and a literary representation,
one observes a dual status for "reality" in the
representation of mystery: on the one hand, there is the
reality that the modern reader demands fair play from
the writer and thus pushes the development of the
mystery narrative; and on the other, the writing of
mystery invites the reader to rethink reality as a
ground shared by reader and writer. That is to say, the
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
45
reader can often detect, through the writing of a "game"
(between the detective and the criminal), yet a "game"
of writing that the author tries to play with the
reader. The examination of reading, therefore, is
clearly a critical issue for the study of mystery
narrative. Reading as a communicative device breaks the
old barrier between the reader and the fictional world,
as it invokes a rethinking of reality— the ground from
which one gains access to the fiction— and re-settles
such a ground on the analytical potential shared by both
reader and writer.
Mystery is not only a story but can be also
considered a narrative discourse— a textual system that
unites the tension of narrative in both the criminal
investigation and the reading process. Mystery is about
what reading is; in other words, the notion of mystery
overshadows, in the broadest way, whatever one means by
"reading mystery." If one takes all these conditions
into account, it is hard to find any definite limit
between the perspective of the detective character and
of the reader, or between the "two stories"— in
Todorov's terms, as the "first story" (the crime) does
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
46
not "die", or is buried away, even though it "ends"
before the second one starts. The reader observes both
stories, one after another logically, and one within
another narratively. It is reading that indicates the
textual location of the stories.
The performance of reading should also be examined
as the ground on which an exchange of knowledge between
text and reader takes place: the analysis. Detective
fiction, as the Goncourt Brothers had noticed, brought
into our time a new vision of art with an emphasis on
analysis. The presentation of crime analysis in
literature parallels the analysis of language as a major
component in literary criticism. Even though one cannot
be certain that the writing of mystery contributes to
modern poetics in a similar way as language analysis
does to the development of literary theories, and there
may not be a definite connection between the two trends,
they both constitute a kind of discourse from which to
interpret the literary world. Analysis is believed to
be a way to access reason, a way to depict the being.
Analysis presented as a theme in the detective genre
changes our reading habits against the traditional
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
47
antagonistic relation between the reader and writer, and
forms a break through for literary reception. That is
to say, specifically, as the reader is expected to be a
more active role in the narrative, he or she is also
offered a greater potential to participate in, and
supervise, the mystery-based communications in the text.
The construction of mystery implies a multi
analysis relationship built up around the narrative.
With the question-to-solution plot, a mystery story can
complete its own reading within the completion of the
text, and thus, it forms a game of reason that concerns
not only the detection of a crime, but also the textual
being itself. It sets the rules of reading for itself.
A convincing story could speak for the insightfulness of
criticism regarding the text. It is this internal
equation between creation and reception that allows a
mystery text to bring the generic elements, such as
crime, analysis and punishment, out of the binding of
"generic writing" and turn them into a reading matter
that can happen in any text. This internal equation
allows the generic factors of criminal fiction to be
expanded in fiction and serve as a meta-structure for
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
48
literary works, and thus present the question of how to
read mystery over a frame of detective fiction. For a
check on this question, one may go back to the one that
originally shows us the uniqueness of mystery in modern
literature.
A hundred years after the Goncourt brothers,
another discussion on Poe's story "The Purloined Letter"
by three famous critics, Lacan (1957), Derrida (1975)
and Johnson (1978), proposed Poe's mystery once again as
a focus of twentieth-century literary studies.15 The
attention Poe received over this period may not
constitute a reevaluation of criminal fiction. But by
using the story as a literary reference, the studies of
these three critics disclose another facet of mystery.
Their studies show a new view of criminal fiction as a
genre that contributes to the transformation of
contemporary literary study. These theoretical works
also imply an idiosyncrasy of the criminal genre, which
explains why a whole series of arguments can be formed
around one single short story. A mystery contains in
itself the secret of literature; reading a text of
mystery is not only tracing a solution but also gaining
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
49
access to the literary utterances summoned by mystery in
narrative. In other words, one may speak of a "generic
reading," a conscience promoted by mystery that has
become constituent for a wider range of literary
production.
The presentation of crime mystery often forms a
discourse that transmits the themes of a text on
different levels. As the mystery's textual purpose is
to complete a meaning-conveying narrative, sometimes one
could argue that the riddle-answer format may be
considered a mere outer shell through which the reader
gets to touch the core of the text— a wider and more
"profound" space of creativity.16 In such cases, it
seems that there is a line to be drawn between "high"
and "low" art, within one same text, so as to "distill"
the presentation of criminal detection from some
traditionally acclaimed literary ambitions and
commitment. However, since the narrative around the
mystery carries the secrets of a whole text, one may
question that a text be valued on separate standards.
Thus, this is a question of how to read, and it is not
about reading mystery in "high" art, but rather reading
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
50
"high" art as a mystery in the literary realm.
Therefore, "reading" as a major concern for the writing
of mystery functions more as a generic device than any
plot or type of crime. It can be specified as "generic
reading" to differentiate from the activity
traditionally understood as just "reading."
On exploring the notion of "generic reading" in the
central stage of mystery, one needs to note that
mystery, with a wide implication of crime,
investigation, secret and answer, has constituted an
important literary form in which it itself is the
"protagonist." The central figures (criminal, victim,
and detective) are constructed through the process in
which the mystery is challenged. On the other hand, we
may also consider "mystery" not solely as a deliberate
literary invention, but as a feature of any narrative:
in general, all fictional narratives deal with some
"secret"— some cover-up, transformation and revelation
of facts. In any text there is arguably the pursuit of
the answer to a mystery and the suspension of the answer
until the end of the text; in this sense, mystery should
be considered a counterpart of "truth" in the narrative
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
51
system of a text. That is, mystery is not merely a plot
or a kind of story, but rather a "milieu"— a logical
structure in a network of textual relations that
maintains the tension between an inquiry and a suspended
answer through the development of the narrative.
Mystery does not only mean a verbal labyrinth that
entertains the reader's mind, but also a form through
which the writer completes his literary utterance and
renovate his or her communication with the reader.
The reader of a mystery text, in turn, is neither
simply a passive receiver of the story, nor, as some
critics want to believe, a co-author of the text.17 But,
as Jonathan Culler states, "[T]o read is to participate
in the play of the text" (Dove 11). The reader must
play the role of textual detective so that he or she may
perceive the narrative strategies that inform the entire
text, as well as the mystery in it. Like the fictional
detective who analyzes different clues and draws
conclusions about the mystery, the reader as textual
detective would pursue the development of the narrative
and seek to understand the secret in the text. This
reader-detective's work does not stop when the mystery's
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
52
solution is revealed; instead, it moves further to
question what may be hidden behind the obvious solution
of the mystery. In other words, different from the
fictional detective whose investigation is limited to
the point where the solution to the mystery is revealed,
for the reader, the solution is not the end of his or
her investigation. The question about the solution of a
mystery may even be the starting point to pursue a
better understanding of the text. Therefore, the work
for the reader of a mystery will not only focus on
looking for a fictional criminal but also focus on
whether the mystery can be closed at the end of the
text. As Hernandez Martin indicates, the development of
mystery-detective fiction in the twentieth century
reveals a type of reader-text relationship:
Detective fiction has made ... a
"specialized" reader who is the
product of a process of learning and
cognition stemming from a
relationship with a certain kind of
text ... the presence of a mystery in
the text constitutes this reader, and
any text can be held suspect of
telling only a partial truth ....
The interpretive strategy used in
reading a detective novel is the
renovating function of the reader,
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
53
who arises as a critical concept from
the detectory schema. (3)
The reader as textual detective challenges, but does not
take over, the power of the author. The reader's
involvement in the interpretation of mystery expands the
reading of mystery from the plot in which the mystery is
presented, to the textual construction for which the
development of the mystery serves as a meta-structure.
The text is, on the one hand, that which carries the
mystery, and, on the other, a kind of verbal labyrinth
that keeps that solution from being revealed. Therefore
the reader must be present to keep the mystery as a
unity of opposites.
By the same token, the narrative constructed by the
author will be seen not as a reproduction of the
detective's work, but rather as a representation of the
tension between the "investigator" and the "criminal."
This tension is the most significant element for the
completion of mystery in the text. The author
fictionalizes an investigation that can be followed by
the reader in tracing a solution, and he or she also
fictionalizes the solution itself. Both the mystery and
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
54
its solution in the text, therefore, can be the objects
of analysis.
This peculiarity suggests that the text itself is a
hidden formation, a hidden theory or philosophy that
leads the reader in the direction of analysis and
solution. Like a theory, its major task is to convince
or overpower the reader by reasoning. But, unlike
theoretical works, its power of persuasion is under the
cover of fictional narrative, which makes it reach more
readers and, therefore, arguably more writers. There
are many mystery readers, and some of them are writers
who are not dedicated to this genre but who carried on
Poe's spirit of depicting the world through mystery.
That is to say criminal fiction promotes a mind and a
desire for mystery not only among mass readers but also
among writers.
Since the genre represents a route for literary
creation that many writers, including Vargas Llosa, have
followed to expand the universe of their texts, it is
necessary to examine the influence of criminal mystery
in "canonical" writers. Borges indicates in "El cuento
policial" (1978) that in every country there are readers
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
55
of criminal stories, and this kind of reader is actually
created by the works, and not vice versa (190). But
beyond this critical essay, Borges's fictions suggest
another possibility, namely, that the genre also creates
writers unique as he himself is. Julian Symons, who is
also a writer of criminal fiction, notes:
[c]rime novelists aim more or less
consciously at blending the [mystery]
elements ... into a story that has
many of the values of a novel, ...
with a fairly distinct moral or
social purpose. There are many who
have given up most of the detective
story's apparatus and offer a lively
setting and credible
characterization. (176)
Borges's view of the detective genre's influence in
the reading mode and Symons's view of the writers'
recreation of mystery both indicate that the popularity
of detective stories in modern world parallels the
extension of the genre into other literary productions.
As a writer, Borges believes that we owe much to this
genre, which has been discriminated against in many
ways, yet which is now saving the order of an epoch from
disorder.18 His conclusion seems to be in contradiction
with Holquist's, who, using Borges, actually, as an
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
56
example, suggests that the social and cultural chaos of
the modern world have prompted writers of detective
fiction to no longer represent the reasoning and logic
of the human mind, but deal with instead the chaos
objectively, yet helplessly, through chaotic writing
(172). However, it should not escape from our view that
Borges has reached his conclusion by writing what
Holquist reads. To wit, the "order" and "reason" that
the detective genre brings to a writer may appear to be
disorder and chaos in his work for a reader. Holquist
may have found detective fiction emerging as a new way
to observe modern culture, while Borges makes a
substantial contribution to such a culture with his
writing of the genre. Even if this genre cannot so
effectively save an epoch, as Borges has claimed, it
indeed presents its literary quality through many
prominent, internationally acclaimed writers. In other
words, the genre has made its way into "high"
literature. Writers such as Borges, Eco, Bioy Casares,
Calvino, and Robbe-Grillet create criminal mysteries,
mocking the traditional genre in their unique
intellectual ways. Others, such as Faulkner, Foster,
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
57
Garcia Marquez, and Vargas Llosa, make mystery an
important element in the construction of their texts,
even though they are not dedicated to generic
presentation of criminal cases. It may be rash to say
that all these writers' works are dynamically informed
by mystery themes. But, one can consider the question
of how the texts embrace a generic reading, that is to
say, how their narratives provide a chance to
communicate with "high" literature through some
seemingly formulaic paths. This question concerns, on
the one hand, the direction that narrative literature
takes around the world, and, on the other, the
development of detective fiction in our age.
Eagleton states that since postmodern culture makes
one be ungrounded, disunified and sceptical about the
objectivity of truth, "how dominant or pervasive this
culture is— whether it goes all the way down, or figures
just as one particular region within contemporary life—
is a matter of argument" (Viii). Landrum and Browne
note resolutely that, with so many writers having tried
to broaden and enrich the writing of mystery, and so
many cases of success and failure, "precisely where the
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
58
development will extend is difficult to prophesy" (10).
But, one can at least focus on some literary texts from
a specific region to examine what the detective genre
brings into literature and how it functions beyond its
traditional territory, as a way to confront the
uncertainty and chaos that have been born with the
genre's prosperity. Mario Vargas Llosa's several texts,
chosen as examples from Latin America, will provide a
ground to try such a critical performance.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
59
Notes
1 The other more commonly recognized figures of the
Boom are Garcia Marquez (Cien anos de soledad), Julio
Cortazar (Rayuela), and Carlos Fuentes (La muerte de
Artemio Cruz).
2 Some critics, including Symons and Sayers, support
the use of the term "golden age," while A.D Hutter
argues that it is "misnamed" (176), because works of
this period did not enrich the essence of the genre.
3 See Todorov, "The Typology of Detective Fiction."
4 For more information on the history and
development of the detective genre, see Symons, Bloody
Murder; Cawelti, Adventure, Mystery and Romance; Sayers,
"The Omnibus of Crime;" Hilfer, The Crime Novel;
Thompson, Fiction, Crime, and Empire; and Allen and
Chacko, Detective Fiction: Crime and Compromise.
5 It is interesting to notice that these three
decades coincide with the period of Vargas Llosa's major
literary activities, from La ciudad y los perros (1963)
to Lituma en los Andes (1993).
6 Poe's "The Purloined Letter" has given rise to
studies of Lacan, Derrida and Barbara Johnson, an
illustrious critical genealogy. Also see studies by
Barbara Johnson and John Irwin.
7 Terry Eagleton notes: "whereas the term
postmodernism alludes to a specific historical period.
Postmodernity is a style of thought which is suspicious
of classical notions of truth, reason, identity and
objectivity ..." (vii).
8 The notion of mass man (hombre masa) is put forth
by Ortega y Gassett in La rebelion de las masas (1932),
indicating a more community-centered, unified human life
under industrialization and modernization of the world,
which becomes new source of chaos in society.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
60
9 See Bloody Murder: From Detective Stories to Crime
Novel 173-175.
10 His criminal fictions include Se una notte
d'inverno un viaggiatore (1979) and "Numbers in the
Dark" (written in the 1940's).
11 "Aristotle on Detective Fiction" was a lecture
first given in 1935, and later published in
Interpretation.
12 Refer to studies of Davison, Gidley and Baldridge
for the subject of crime in works by Camus, Faulkner,
and Greene.
13 All these writers may not be conscious
"followers" of Poe, but their works, like Poe's, brought
new visions into literature through the invention of
mystery cases. Refer to the bibliography for
representative works by these writers.
14 Poe's mystery modes have been represented in
different ways. One example is the famous story "The
Purloined Letter." Critical attention has been paid to
the problem of vision, of disguise, since different
characters' failure to see correctly the case forms a
hide-and-seek game. Against the victims' failures of
seeing the truth, the detective's analysis is presented,
a pattern that becomes classical, followed by Doyle's "A
Scandal in Bohemia" and Chesterton's "The Invisible
Man."
15 The major arguments of the studies are presented
by John Irwin in the first chapter of Mystery to a
Solution. Also see The Purloined Poe:Lacan, Derrida and
the Psychoanalytic Reading, edited by Muller and
Richardson.
16 Examples are Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment,
Garcia Marquez's Cronica de una muerte anunciada,
Faulkner's Light in August, and Camus's L'etranger, that
develop mystery through a path to a crime solution, as
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
61
well as the building of a textual complex that could
involve "profound" themes.
17 Dove indicates that there is a structuralist
opinion that the critical reader "is himself a novelist"
(11) •
18 Borges states: "Yo diria, para defender la novela
policial, que no necesita defensa, leida con cierto
desden ahora, esta salvando el orden en una epoca de
desorden. Esto es una prueba que debemos agradecerle y
es meritorio" ("El cuento policial" 197).
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
62
Chapter II
Mystery as the Writing of Latin America
En esta epoca, tan caotica, hay algo que,
humildemente, ha mantenido las virtudes
clasicas: el cuento policial . ... Estos los
han escrito escritores subalternos, algunos
los han escrito escritores excelentes.
— Jorge Luis Borges ("El cuento policial"
197)
To start, we face the question of "what is the
writing of Latin America?" The answer may be endless,
as the question concerns not only in literary issues
such as themes, styles, ideologies and cultural
functions, but also the problem of how to represent and
read the image of America. Each writer and critic has
his or her own answers to each aspect of the question.
One can hope to find not definitions, but clues that may
lead us to develop a perspective from which to read
Latin American literary works.
The literary history of Latin America indicates
that "writing America" includes efforts to convey ideas
and voices from the New World, to establish cultural
images that compete with, or break from, the influence
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
63
of European tradition, and to implant Latin America's
cultural values. Writers as well as critics have
focused on the question of what constitutes the
successful writing of America.1 In his Nobel Lecture in
1982, Garcia Marquez recalled different sources of the
writing of the New World. First, he quoted Antonio
Pigafetta, an ancient navigator, a representative of the
outsiders' view, whose book "resembles a venture into
fantasy" about the New World, full of mysterious images
and events.2 Garcia Marquez points out that, besides the
mysteries and fantasies created at an early stage of
exploring the New Land, the "chroniclers of the Indies
left us countless others"(87). Moreover, the legacy of
the conquest has filled America with mystery: the State
of El Dorado and the ransom of Atahualpa are two
emblematic cases involving crime and suspense whose
traces in American history reappear in Garcia Marquez's
lecture.3 For Garcia Marquez, the influence of different
kinds of mystery pervades the New World, a "madness"
from which Latin Americans are not free even after the
independence from Spanish domination (88).4 Garcia
Marquez presents "magic"--mystery as well as fantasy--as
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
64
a foundational element in Latin American literature. He
sees his own writing of Latin America as descending from
earlier texts that also contain the mystery. In the
light of previous literary works and the history of the
New World, he discloses his own path toward a literary
America. For Garcia Marquez, mystery is a means of
narrative, a perspective from which to observe Latin
America, and a search for (new) meanings and connections
among different worlds— the old and the new, the
indigenous and the modern, the moral and the personal.
He uses his own example to show that mystery lives on in
the literature of the New World, taking different forms
in different eras. What Garcia Marquez tries to explain
in this lecture, at a moment that constitutes, arguably,
the highest honor for Latin American Literature,
resonates with Carpentier's famous statement in the
prologue to his novel El reino de este mundo: "^Pero que
es la historia de America toda sino una cronica de lo
real maravilloso?" (12). Both writers interpret the
writing of Latin America as the writing of secrets—
myth, legend, scandal, crime, suspense, desire, or
nightmare— beyond the common explanations that come from
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
65
the Old World. The beginning of Garcia Marquez's speech
also suggests that the literature of the New World both
originated from, and flourished through, its fascination
with secrets or mysteries.
The notion of "secret" has been a fruitful angle
for many writers as they seek to represent their native
land— from Joyce's stories about Dubliners to Faulkner's
series of works on the Southern states. In a different
direction are Poe's Dupin stories, with their gothic
setting of Paris, and Doyle's England with Sherlock
Holmes. Garcia Marquez's contemporaries are no
exception. Because "secret" is a universal term with
many negative implications, I will limit this
investigation to the problems the crime mystery poses
for a generic reading of contemporary narratives.
In Chapter I, on mystery creation and its trajectory and
influence, I discussed the presentation of mystery as a
discourse the writers invoke to interpret their world.
In this chapter, I will consider the role of mystery,
more specifically, in the writing of Latin America. To
approach this topic, one might either examine Latin
American examples of mystery fiction, or, perhaps less
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
66
obviously, study literary Latin America through the lens
of mystery. The first examination explores how writers
take up a variety of narrative themes and techniques to
create mystery. The latter examines the way in which
the representation of mystery is often critically
related to social and cultural realities in the writers'
home countries, as well as the literary and political
commitments of the writer. As in Vargas Llosa's case,
mystery can be a way of writing Latin America as well as
a means of forming and representing a writer's career.
The first chapter discusses the influence of the
detective fiction on various kinds of literary
narrative. Detective fiction not only forms part of
popular culture, but also foregrounds a narrative
discourse of inquiry, which implies a textual
construction based on characters and readers who seek to
solve the mystery. One needs to stress that mystery,
whose major form in modern times is detective fiction,
is not only a game between the detective and the
criminal, but also a game of writing and reading: how to
read an enigma and how to write such a "reading." As
Borges and Bioy Casares note in the prologue to Seis
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
67
problemas para Don Isidro Parodi: "... los cuentos
policiales descubren una veta nueva del fecundo
poligrafo: en ellos quiere combatir el frio
intelectualismo en que han sumido este genero .... Los
cuentos ... son la voz de un contemporaneo, atento a los
latidos humanos y que derrama a vuela pluma los raudales
de su verdad" (10). Aesthetically, reading within a
genre entails the recognition of signs shared by both
the writer and the reader: the detection of the games at
different textual levels forms the structure to support
the completion of the text. Although both writer and
reader may be more sensitive to the "game" of writing
and reading than to social issues, the text may
nonetheless contain a profound analysis of the real
world. In order to see to what extent the writing of
the New World deploys elements of mystery and detective
fiction, it is useful to survey representative Latin
American writers. Such a survey will also serve as a
stepping stone for the examination of Vargas Llosa as a
representative of the writing of Latin America through
the writing of mystery.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
68
Mystery does not have national or racial borders,
and neither does its influence. The readers and writers
of crime fiction are ubiquitous, and so are its writers.
While Sayers saw that at the peak time of detective
fiction in America the modern educated reader would push
the detective genre to "move further apart" with
different subgenres, in Latin America writers began to
address a variety of responses to the ruling of the
Anglo-American detective fiction in the market (Alan and
Chacko 3 62). By so doing, they also bring up a new
understanding of crime mystery. Since the end of the
1970's, scholars such as Onilda Jimenez, Manuel Marcos,
Guido Mutis, Desiderrio Navarro, and Elzbieta Sklodowska
have noticed the influence of detective genre in
"serious literature" (182).5 These critics present the
detective fiction of Latin America as a cultural product
transplanted from Europe and the U.S., as they,
naturally, focus on Latin American detective fiction
with certain guidelines from writers and critics such as
Chesterton, Chandler, Todorov and Calwelti.6 Yet, they
also use their understanding of detective formulas as a
functional code to read writers whose texts are
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
69
constructed with the elements of crime mystery, even as
they reach beyond the conventional limits of the genre.
In this, Borges is often viewed as a veritable
milestone, for his mysteries offer a new perspective for
the appreciation of literature, including detective
fiction, and marks a starting point for detective
fiction in Latin America.
In an initial study of Latin American detective
fiction "Noticias sobre cuentos policiales argentinos,"
Rodolfo Walsh cites Borges' and Bioy Casares' Seis
problemas para Don Isidro Parodi, written in 1942, as
the first example of Latin American detective fiction
(1). This text's parody of the conventions of detective
fiction is obvious in each of its six mystery stories,
as Sklodowska has observed ("Transgresion parodica"
173). However, one should not ignore the fact that this
series of stories not only constitutes a parody and a
re-elaboration of the classical mystery formulas, but
also proposes that an awareness of "generic reading" is
indeed a major support for the narrative's working. The
sense of mystery in these stories is based on both the
readers' and the writers' experience of some pre
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
existent texts. Thus, to read these texts is both to
detect the mystery and to re-appreciate a prior text.
"Las doce figuras del mundo" for example, is the
writer's intellectual mockery of a poker trick. The
text's secret dwells not only in the solution to a
mystery but also in the authors' modes of literary
creation and reception. Similarly, the full
comprehension of "Las noche de Goliadkin" depends on
both the reader's and the writer's knowledge of Agatha
Christie's Murder on the Orient Express. The text is
not only a parody of mystery plot, but also a "game"
based on the writers' reworking of the conventions of
the detective genre. Such a starting point suggests
that the elements of mystery in Latin American
literature aim at textual achievement and communication
with the reader in a different manner than do its Anglo
American predecessors.
Amelia Simpson poses two questions regarding
mystery writing in Latin America. First, why publish a
local writer if Agatha Christie is certain to sell well
Second, how does one write about a society "where the
police follow different modus operandi, where the
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
71
private 'detective' is practically nonexistent, where
there is no trial by jury (Simpson 12). Simpson's
first question is about whether Latin American writers
can create commercially successful detective fiction,
while the second question focuses on whether Latin
American societies can elaborate their own type of
mystery. The examples of Borges's and Bioy Casares'
Seis problemas and later works by Denevi and
Giardinelli, can easily answer to the first question.
But the second question requires one examine a much
wider range of writers, who may or may not dedicate
their works solely to the pleasure of mystery.
Consequently, in addition to the detective genre, we
have to examine the use of mystery in other fictional
genres, broadening our application of generic reading
both to textual analysis and to the cultural context of
Latin America.
Simpson's second question is also more closely
related to the focus of my own study--not simply Latin
American versions of the "whodunit," but rather the
representation of Latin America through works that
exhibit the authors' knowledge and redeployment of
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
72
detective themes and structures. As Calwelti suggests,
one could argue that the influence of the detective
fiction is both subtle and wide in scope:
[t]he detective story, instead of
remaining an expression of
ethnocentrism, was on the way to
becoming a means of exploring rather
than condemning other cultures ...,
dealing not only with a great variety
of national cultures but also with
regional cultures .... (Delamater 9-
10) .
When the detective genre represents a variety of
national or regional cultures, it not only crosses
geographical borders but also brings into question its
own boundaries as a genre distinct from other literary
modalities. As Rivera states, "when detective fiction
crosses the border, it seems to become more
sophisticated, not in terms of craftsmanship ..., but
rather because it moves toward a more profound text, in
a theoretical and ideological sense" (Simpson New Tales
13). Calwelti's and Rivera's observations point to the
possibility that, through its influence in other kinds
of narratives, detective fiction's own generic
consciousness is abandoned. Therefore, it would be
difficult to simply consider detective fiction apart
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
73
from larger corpus of Latin American narrative, often
tinged by the tradition of regionalism, or to study the
narrative without taking mystery into account. However,
as will be discussed later in this chapter, in the eyes
of critics, the construction of Latin America's cultural
image often pervails over the pursuit of mystery in
Latin American narratives.
In the Latin American market, as anywhere else,
there are frivolous imitations of Anglo-American
detective writers. On the other hand, as Simpson points
out, one trait of crime fiction in Latin America "is its
great variety. The genre lends itself to many different
purposes and operates at different levels of cultural
reception ... the genre is not a manifestation of
popular culture, works tend to be less standardized"
(New Tales 9). In agreement with Calwelti, Simpson
suggests that one might examine Latin American crime
mysteries by focusing on regional issues. In other
words, even if it is difficult to determine whether the
society dictates the types of crime, or the crimes
illustrate the type of society, the two are mutually
dependent in reality as well as in literary
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
74
representation. Simpson observes that "Latin American
works go beyond the imitation of their foreign models."
There are stories that "use the genre to depict and
critically examine social, political and cultural
systems and patterns which are sometimes unjust,
arbitrary and violent and these works can become more
meaningful" (New Tales 13). Juan Manuel Marcos also
notices this tendency: "... la incorporacion de
segmentos humanos antes marginados por la mayor parte de
la novelistica latinoamericana, y la critica de la
sociedad moderna como una estructura esencialmente
patriarcal (269). In this sense, crime mystery should be
observed not only as a genre, but also as a Latin
American narrative strategy that uses the "lightness" of
generic elements to allow literature to convey more
"profound" meanings.
In their studies of cases from Borges to Isabel
Allende, both Manuel Marcos and Elizbieta Sklodowska
indicate that Latin American writers have parodied
detective formulas, transgressing the genre's Anglo-
American traditions to bring Latin American narrative
into what may be termed as "post modernism."7 Their
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
75
investigations mainly focus on the writers whose texts
illustrate the basic frame of the detective genre, such
as Borges, Bioy Casares, Giardinelli and Vicente Lenero.8
Meanwhile there are other authors such as Manuel Puig
and Isabel Allende, that also draw attention from
scholars of the detective genre.
From these critical views, one can see the
usefulness, for a survey of Latin American mystery, of
considering both the writers of detective stories and
those who apply some elements of the detective genre to
the game of narrative. Delving ever further, one should
also consider authors of narratives that use detective
elements in fictions whose primary focus seems to be
Latin American society itself, a thematic priority which
often overshadows the interest of the mystery
construction.
Detective fiction may by all means be considered a
transplanted genre, but its themes of crime, scandal and
secret identity are not foreign to the writings of the
New World. From Inca Garcilaso de la Vega's Comentarios
reales to such works as Lizardi's El periquillo
Sarniento, Hernandez's Martin Fierro, Echevarria's "El
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
76
matadero", Sarmiento's Facundo, Marmol's Amalia,
Gallegos's Dona Barbara, and Rivera's La voragine, plots
driven by crime mystery form the foundation of the
authors' artistic and ideological expression. For
example, the killing and escape of Martin Fierro (which
becomes a source for two of Borges' stories) in Martin
Fierro and the struggle and disappearance of the
protagonists in La voragine are plots of mystery central
to the narrative even though they do not place the text
in the genre of detective fiction. We can find further
examples in the mystery of Atahualpa's extraction (the
solution for the mystery of an accused "traitor" to the
Inca family, which ideologically protects the legal
status of the author and what he represented) in
Comentarios reales, plus the death of the young Unionist
("El matadero"), and the suspended destiny of Barbara
(Dona Barbara), who leaves the "civilized world" for the
vast and unknown llanos. These traits of mystery may
have nothing to do with the legacy of the detective
genre, but they show that in the development of Latin
American literature, themes such as crime, scandal or
secrets of identity serve an important narrative
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
77
purpose. Latin American writers have been cultivating
this idea ever since: the entity formed by these works
is the same one to which crime mysteries contribute
considerably in the twentieth century. Therefore, an
overview of the writing of the New World could proceed
by probing into America's diverse mysteries. Though a
review of the earlier narratives with plots of crime or
suspense only provides us a backdrops of, rather than a
vision into, the major explorations of criminal mystery
that took place in the twentieth century, such a summary
will help to demonstrate my initial motivation to launch
this study.
In contemporary narratives, besides the production
of detective fiction that have replied to Simpson's
question of "how to write mystery in Latin America", we
have the case of the elements of criminal mystery that
have been adopted into a vast range of narrative works,
with a variety of artistic functions and assumptions.
This triggers the question of how to perceive mystery in
Latin America--in other words, the question of how
mystery functions within the establishment of a new
literary image for Latin America. To observe this "new
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
78
image" linked with Fuente's terms of "nueva narrativa
latinoamericana" further, especially as a factor in the
formation of writers for the "new narrative", including
Vargas Llosa, one "old" topic cannot be avoided: the
Boom, which presents the most prestigious body of Latin
American narrative.
The Boom as a cultural complex has been discussed
by many, from a wide variety of angles. Mystery, as a
general term that embraces myth, crime or scandal, and
narrative enigmas, has also been noticed in various case
studies of novels and authors.9 But there is rarely any
concentration on the problem of criminal mystery, as the
Boom is comprised of many cultural and social factors,
and not specifically associated with the influence of
any literary subgenre. Even though as Cawelti has
noted, the major evolutions from the traditional
detective genre's use of mystery coincide with the
effects of the Boom in the sixties and the seventies,
and continue into the eighties, it is more convincing to
suggest a parallel between the two, rather than a
definite connection. As many previous studies have
shown, it is neither possible to survey the Boom from
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
79
the perspective of any one narrative genre nor to
identify one or several literary styles that can speak
for this "phenomenon," as it represents a multiplicity
of facets for Latin American narrative, without any
dominant evolution or revolutions in its course.
However, since it is not unusual to find mystery
themes serving the narratives in texts by the
representative figures in the Boom, it would be
interesting to track some of the writers who have formed
part of the Boom and developed elements of mystery
themes into an active narrative performance. This might
be especially relevant because the Boom actually
features a group of writers whose incursions of mystery
have received a certain measure of acclaim.
To see how the influence of crime themes is
carried through the Latin American narrative, it is
important to note at the same time that one may not be
able to establish any fundamental connection between the
influence of the detective genre and the Boom.
Therefore, the focus should be on the writers recognized
through the Boom and whose literary influence continues
into the late twentieth century, such as Vargas Llosa,
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
80
Garcia Marquez, Cortazar and Fuentes. Both the mystery
and the phenomenon of the Boom represent some
substantial aspects in studies of their narratives.
These writers, being the literary canon of the 1960s,
provide a viewpoint from which one can observe the
connection between mystery and the writing of America,
as well as the connection between the Boom and the
postboom. That is to say, the examination on the
mystery themes is not a "mystery for mystery's sake,"
but a way to access the writing of America before
concentrating on Vargas Llosa's own literary production,
which ranges from the Boom to the present.10
Among the texts associated with the Boom, besides
Cortazar's mystery-themed short stories such as
"Bestiario," "Continuidad de los parques" and "El
omnibus," Carlos Fuentes's mystery-filled novel Una
familia lejana (1980), and Garcia Marquez's crime novel
Cronica de una muerte anunciada, we have Vargas Llosa's
La ciudad y los perros, one of the major works of the
Boom. As I will argue in the following chapter, this
text's narrative is built up through the formation of a
crime mystery. Ernesto Sabato should also be mentioned
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
81
here, even though he is not a "star" of the Boom. His
novels El tunel (1948) and Sobre heroes y tumbas (1961)
both convey themes of crime mystery throughout their
narratives, and thus project a discourse that fuses the
historic with the fictitious through the perpetration of
a specific crime.11 I do not intend to review the
literary prestige of the Boom, but rather to bring
attention to a persistent development of mystery within
its corpus.
As long as the Boom is not taken as the entire body
of Latin American literature, there is plenty of room to
study the creation of mystery in the tradition's
development. The Boom is not the cornerstone in the
history of Latin American mysteries. Before the
"totality" of Cien anos de soledad (1967), a text in
which some mystery is presented and dissolved within the
theme of social protest,12 there are, for example,
Horacio Quiroga's "cuentos de efecto" (Sklodowska 181):
Cuentos de amor, de locura y de muerte (1917), a
collection of stories that combine the gothic mystery
and scientific argument; and Maria Luisa Bombal's "La
ultima niebla" (1935), a mystery that, though insinuate
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
82
a "sin," not a crime, could be read as emanating either
from the protagonist's psychological confusion or the
writer's switch between different perspectives of
narrative. The stories that make up Jose Arreola's
Confabulacio total (1952), are tangled with mysteries
and supernatural elements; moreover, like the detective
stories, they provide ordinary people with some
adventure and heroism. Marco Denevi's Rosaura a las
diez (1955) is considered a representative work in Latin
American detective fiction. However, according to
Denevi himself, it is the generic reading, instead of
the author's creative intention, that propels the
narrative and places the work within detective genre:
En Rosaura a las diez lo importante
no es la revelacion de un misterio,
pues eso nunca me lo propuse como
meta, y si adopte la estructura
policial fue para relatar una
historia que de otro modo hubiese
podido resultar muy vulgar .... No me
propuse plantear un enigma y
revelarlo sino que quise desnudar a
mis personajes, lo que no se si logre
del todo. (Lafforgue y Rivera 46)
Borges's and Bioy Casares' experiment with the genre of
crime mystery is the epitome of metaphysical mystery.13
Some texts by writers who are not often acclaimed as
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
83
mystery creators are also noteworthy. Among this group
we have Asturias's "Week-end en Guademala" (1945), a
jigsaw-styled mystery, in which each narrator carries
out his or her role in the play and the reader functions
as the "detective" or "invisible interrogator" to set
the whole picture in order. Juan Rulfo's Pedro Paramo
(1955) is another text famous for its mystery scheme
webbed around the past and present worlds and the secret
of the characters' true identities. The reader again is
involved to detect the truth revealed through a "hoax."
Roa Bastos's Hijo de hombre (1959) is seldom discussed
as a text that uses mystery. It is structured as a
puzzle formed by several apparently independent stories,
with some supernatural-seeming mysteries creating the
central suspense.14 Again, in order to get a clear
picture of the story and each character's identity, the
reader needs to trace the clues hidden in the narrative
to figure out the connection between different parts of
the text. Though crime is not an unusual theme in this
novel, the narrative structure, which makes the reader
to search for the connections among different events and
match the events with their causes, is important because
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
84
of its use of a reading pattern that resembles that of
mysteries. It is about how to read a mind, not how to
solve a crime, which makes it a sophisticated work whose
reception is based not only on social and cultural
information but also on an analytical or logical
challenge to the reader. As a challenge to passive
reading, this text transforms mystery from just the plot
of detective fiction to a larger narrative device that
broadens the communicative power of the created world.
If by the early sixties one still questions the
importance of mystery creation in the writing of
America, the arrival of the Boom helps to dispel such
notion, even if its high status momentarily overshadows
the works of many other writers. In the previous review
of the mystery themes from the central writers of the
Boom, one may have noticed that not all the works were
written during the Sixties. The Boom is neither a trend
nor an end, but a brightly lit moment, and those writers
who were caught in the bright light would go way beyond
it and form part of the move from the Boom to the
postboom. In other words, to observe the mystery themes
in these writers' works, one should expand one's vision
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
85
into the province of the "ante-Boom" and, most
importantly, the postboom.
As discussed previously, from the perspective of
narrative creation, the Boom does not count so much as a
movement but a "phenomenon." The Boom for Latin America
signifies a group of writers who had not only tremendous
market, but also ambitions, perspectives and strength
that the intellectual community had not seen before.
However, its ambition for totality does not mean that it
actually achieved total cultural domination. Donald L.
Shaw indicates, for example, that there have been
dissident voices since as early as 1970, which make the
"complaint that they [writers of the Boom] abandoned the
grand old Latin American tradition of protest and
'civic' writing," and changed ideological position from
an original left-winged stance (5). Though this study
will not discuss the social effects of the Latin
American writers' ideologies, the examples Shaw gives
help to explain the cases of some postboom writers who
have claimed that their narratives show a strong sense
of social commitment. These complaints, according to
Shaw, forecast disenchantment from the "derroche
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
86
experimental" of the Boom (7), and demand for more
explicit writing of reality with "social and political
preoccupations" (10). Meanwhile, it is interesting to
note that the postboom writers that Shaw considers to be
socially conscious, such as Isabel Allende, Luisa
Valenzuela, Mempo Giardinelli and Gustavo Sainz, all
have utilized themes of crime mystery in their major
works.15 That is to say, despite the fact that these
postboom writers differ from those who have benefited
from the Boom in the 1960s, they continue their
predecessors' exploration of mystery. To be fair, Shaw
does not mention Vargas Llosa, but this writer indeed
makes a case for the postboom with several mystery-
centered novels as we will see later in this chapter.
In the decades following the Boom, people would
begin to pay attention not only to the Boom figures such
as Vargas Llosa, who continues working on detective
themes, and Fuentes, who, as Linstrom pointed out,
"followed Terra Nostra with briefer, more accessible
fiction patterned on such popular forms as the spy novel
and the gothic tale" (198), and in a way echoed mystery
creation, but also to writers such as Manuel Puig with
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
87
The Buenos Aires Affair, . Mempo Giardinelli with Que
solos se quedan los muertos, Isabel Allende with De amor
y de sombra, Luisa Valenzuela with the collection Cambio
de armas and Novela negra para argentinos, and Rodolfo
Walsh with Operacion masacre and Quien mato a Rosendo.
In this last work, Walsh not only develops the crime
mystery into a social protesting narrative but also
provides the text with a justice-demanding function.
The text is empowered more by social commitment than by
literary experimentation in the traditional sense.16
Walsh's testimonial text could be read as extending
from, yet going well beyond, the range of this study on
the mystery fiction; still, it could be taken as an
answer to the questions about mystery's role in writing
Latin America. In other words, such kind of works draw
the reader's attention from the type of crime mystery to
the writer's treatment of the mystery. The construction
of the mystery represents the perception of the Latin
American world as a social and cultural entity, where
what matters more is not how good a story is written,
but how far it goes to challenge injustice and provide
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
the mass reader more perspectives from which to view and
question the social problems with which they live.
Many writers have shown that the exploration of
mystery is a way to revitalize certain conceptions about
Latin American narrative. It embraces a variety of
forms, ranging from criminal cases to textual or
narrative enigmas, and makes people doubt that the term
"mystery" may refer to specific textual notions. On the
other hand, it is arguable that the poetics and social
commitment of Latin American mysteries reside in their
mythical or fantastic traits as well as in the crimes
that are presented as mysteries in the narratives.
Therefore, in generic terms, one may not expect any
"pure" but instead a "hybridized" narrative mode.
The approach of this study will be determined by
the questions raised by the genre's effect. As I
mentioned in the previous chapter, generic awareness
represents a process of textual construction and
reception that views the narrative's development as
mutual influence between the writer and the reader.
Therefore, generic reading should be treated as a
narrative mode in the target texts, in which mystery,
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
89
whether or not involved with themes of crime, serves as
a double-edged sword that challenges the literary canon,
on the one hand, and the reader's habits, on the other.
Also, following the above survey of Latin American
narratives, "mystery" should be treated as a core
conception in literary creation, one around which
different writers have tried to provide aesthetic
interpretations. Thus the study of mystery provides a
way to understand the formation of the writer as well as
the writing of America.
By now we have seen that the creation of mystery in
Latin America has two aspects: the generic creation of
the detective story, and the expansion of crime mystery
into the larger and more ambitious territory of
contemporary literature. If these two kinds of
approaches to mystery are not directly connected, at
least they each represent an important aspect of Vargas
Llosa's writing, as well as the postmodern narrative.
Within the larger scheme of Latin American
narrative, with the Boom representing a summit of sorts
from which one can view all other periods, mystery seems
to function as a bridge that allows the spirit of
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
90
regionalism to carry over to the postboom. The Postboom
is a situation more complicated than the Boom: it
involves far more writers and narrative orientations,
while also forming a major field for studies of the
postmodern. Lindstrom suggests that the postboom can be
considered a postmodern era in Latin America (199).
Some other critics, if not clearly stating so, have also
discussed writers active in the postboom period through
postmodern models.17 Besides Vargas Llosa and his peers
from the Boom, other writers raised during this era,
such as Manuel Puig, Isabel Allende, Luisa Valenzuela
and Mempo Giardinelli, are internationally acclaimed for
their writing of Latin America. The themes of crime
mystery presented at a central stage of their texts and
narrative structures— including those by Vargas Llosa—
have drawn major attention from the critics. Their
works are differentiated from past ones, in that they
aesthetically transform detective stories, as well as
other elements of popular culture into an expression of
new literary ideas. The application of the detective
story elements in these narratives provokes the question
of their "adoption or extension" of the original genre.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
91
Many critics investigating the conception of
mystery in contemporary literature would view the use of
detective genre either as an extension from the genre or
an element adopted in "high" narrative— as a trait of
postmodernism.18 Steimberg de Kaplan views the function
of the detective genre in literary transitions as part
of the development of cultural hybridization— "la
hibridez cultural, que lleva a la desaparicion de
oposiciones entre 'alta" y "baja" cultura, y al
consiguiente contacto entre lo popular y lo culto"— due
to a renovated aesthetic purpose of the literary
creation— "el placer estetico como objetivo del
escritor. La obra debe provocar en el lector goce y
entretenimiento" (166).
As to the detective genre's influence in Latin
American narratives, Keith Booker, like Linstrom, also
examines the post-boom and postmodernism in
juxtaposition to one another. He cites the detective
story as one of the "sources of inspiration for
postmodernist writers," and presents the themes of crime
as a basic trait of postmodernism, particularly in
Vargas Llosa's texts. In other words, Vargas Llosa's
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
92
postboom writings are presented as postmodern texts in
which the problem of mystery is caught in the
headlights.19
Manuel Marcos, in his study of several postboom
texts, suggests that the generic elements of detective
fiction function as a textual meta-structure in the
postboom narrative of Latin America, and that the
relaboration of detective narrative techniques is one of
the fundamental aspects shared by those texts. Based on
a review of Allende's De amor y de sornbra and
Giardinelli's Que solos se quedan los muertos among
others, he indicates: "estas novelas [del postboom]
tienen en comun por lo menos cinco aspectos
fundamentales: [primero] la reelaboracion de la tecnica
policial, el prestamo creativo de ciertos codigos
amorosos, el rejuvenecimiento del intertexto ensayistico
... la incorporacion de segmentos humanos antes
marginados por la mayor parte de la novelistica
latinoamericana, y la sociedad moderna" (268-69).20
Julio Premat holds a similar opinion and argues that the
narrative construction around the narrative of a crime
mystery could go well beyond a generic practice or
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
93
experiment and form an enigma through the textual system
involving author and reception.21
Sklodowska discusses the detective themes in
contemporary Latin American novels from a different
perspective, viewing them as the transgressions of
"parodies" of the genre's Anglo-American traditions.
Alhough she focuses on Manuel Puig's The Buenos Aires
Affair and Taibo II's De paso, her critical view extends
to a wider range of writers, including Borges and Bioy
Casares. This reminds us that even without considering
postmodernism, we might interpret the re-writing of
mystery independently as a clue that allow us to access
the literary entity of America.
The above mentioned textual studies may have quite
distinct goals, but they all indicate that concrete
narrative traits in the texts for example, the themes of
crime mystery from the detective genre call for a
modified criticism. Meanwhile, there are relatively few
case studies that examine how or why the narrative modes
of detective fiction or other characteristics of mass-
culture appear in these texts in a way divergent from
their origins or from common expectation. Such
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
94
"overwhelming" attention to the texts' critical
connotation may have made postmodernism a convenient
lens with which to view different literary problems,
though postmodernism by no means allows us ultimately to
resolve those problems. Therefore, in order to develop
a perspective from which to examine specific literary
problems, we need to begin with a substantial case study
of authors and texts.
Differing opinions about postmodernism show that it
is not precisely a "theory" that guides literary
studies, but rather a structure that allows one to view
mass- and multi-cultural phenomena as a totality, even
though one might question whether it is always necessary
to do so. Although it might function as a substitute
for the lack of a reigning philosophy in our time, it
should not be taken as an ultimate means of interpreting
any concrete problem in literature but rather as a
stand-in. In other words, postmodernism could be seen
as a metaphysical term--as having pre-justified values
for literary criticism. No one can prevent detective
fiction from being interpreted as a brand of
"postmodernism" in literary production; however, one
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
95
should remember that not every variant of the genre is
postmodern. The notion of postmodernism is not a focus
in this study, even though many critics have connected
this concept to the production of crime mystery. At the
same time, the consideration of specific problems in the
narratives may allow us a better understanding of
postmodernism as well as the function of mystery in
contemporary Latin American literature.
Whether or not we use postmodernism as a lens
through which to observe the problem of crime mystery in
Latin American narratives or vice versa, literary texts-
-Vargas Llosa's novels— are at the center of this study.
Different critics have tried to study Vargas Llosa's
texts as a whole. Among them are Miguel Oviedo, Keith
Booker and Efrain Kristal, just to mention a few. There
are many others that have studied the writer's life,
texts, and literary and political criticism, but not
through an overview of his fiction.22 Miguel Oviedo,
Vargas Llosa's ex-schoolmate and one of the earliest
critics who set out to explore the trajectory of the
writer's creation, has written insightful studies on the
writer that use the core problem of "reality" as a means
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
96
of accessing his narratives. He considers different
settings of Peruvian society, as well as the writer's
own problems and conflicts in different social levels,
from family issues to political struggles. His studies
have tried to provide us a panorama of Vargas Llosa's
writing about Peruvian society. At the same time,
Oviedo poses the question of "reality" as a problem of
writing— a creative matter that embraces the writer's
inner world. In other words, he presents the notion of
reality as what connects the crisis the writer
experienced in his creative life with his texts. He
thus lets us see that Vargas Llosa's narratives can be
accessed as both a reflection of society and a response
built up through narrative. "Reality" is the idea that
connects Oviedo's studies of different texts: he sees it
as a problem that Vargas Llosa's works have tried to
resolve. This concern with "reality" not only
implicates Vargas Llosa in his own works but also holds
him up as an example of Latin American narrative.
In Vargas Llosa among the Postmodernists (1994)
Keith Booker cites Vargas Llosa's fiction as an example
of postmodernism. Even though he provides many insights
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
97
into Vargas Llosa's texts, from La casa verde to Elogio
a la madrastra, an essential logical problem remains
unsolved in his book: is postmodernism a notion formed
or represented by those narratives traits he has found
in Vargas Llosa and others' texts, or is it a cultural
state that makes the birth of those texts possible?
This dilemma does not necessarily prevent Booker from
successfully reading various aspects of in Vargas
Llosa's novels, yet it helps us to realize that it is
the notion of author— his career, more than anything
else— that holds the final connection among his works.
As a critical conception, "the writer's career" can be a
"double-edged sword" that allows us to examine the
secrets both in the textual world and in the "world"
shared by the writer and reader. It calls critical
attention to the connection among one person's literary
works, relating them with other parts of the writer's
life, such as his social and personal values.
Meanwhile, it also allows one to discern the development
or transformation of the writer as the creative entity,
and summons a case of literature. In fact, a critical
view of "the writer's career," serves as a "chain" that
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
98
holds together Temptation of the Word: The Novels of
Mario Vargas Llosa, Kristal's 1998 analytic examination
through Vargas Llosa's literary creations over thirty
years.23
These three critics' research provides important
background material for this thesis. However, one
should note that the study of mystery cannot provide a
panorama of Vargas Llosa's novels, as its scope is much
narrower than Booker's focus on postmodernism, or
Kristal's emphasis on the drive of literary creation
manifested in the writer's career. In other words, my
focus on mystery will allow an examination of some
aspects in Vargas Llosa's writings as an example of the
writing of Latin America, but, it cannot illuminate all
of Vargas Llosa's major works, nor does it seek to
provide a totalizing view of mystery as the writing of
Latin America. Thus the depth of my textual analysis
will be more than the breadth of my discussion of
different texts. Keeping this in mind, I have chosen
three texts for intensive examination because of the
central and dramatic, if different, roles the crime
mystery plays, in their plots and structures.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
99
Based on Vargas Llosa's registration with mystery
presentations since early 1960s, I would argue that,
even though his works have drawn critical attention for
their reach into broad cultural territories— social
commitments, exploration of regionalism, and private
life— his interimplication of mystery in his writing—
either as a theme that pertains to Peruvian social life
or as a narrative structure— marks an integral and
continuous effort to write Peru as an epitome of Latin
America. Thus it is an alternative angle from which to
approach his fictitious world which already is pinned
with different cultural tags.
Situated at the intersection of the Boom and the
postboom or postmodernism, Vargas Llosa's narratives
overlap in their scope, ranging from social and
political crisis and crime mystery to myth and
autobiography. Among the variety of Vargas Llosa's
approaches to the writing of Peru, crime mystery
functions as a major narrative recourse that he
frequently applies to his literature. My close readings
seek to explore the ties that bind mystery with this
writer's literary New World. In Vargas Llosa's novels,
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
100
mystery is obviously an extension of his experience with
Peruvian life in political struggles, social scandals,
state violence, and other historic events.24 So, before
we start the textual study, an overview of Vargas
Llosa's literary renditions of Peru will help to specify
some, if not all, of the critical concerns of this
study.
Among his novels, one finds that nine contain
mystery cases involving murder or mysterious death.
Some are only briefly mentioned as anecdotes, with no
actual clues to the solution provided in the manner of
legendary mystery. For example, in La guerra del fin
del mundo (1981), there are two mysteries related to J.
Grande: the killing of his master, an event with no
specified motive that turns him into a criminal; and his
mysterious disappearance during the military
suppression, a crime that turns him into a "saint". In
La casa verde (1966), the major clue in the narrative—
the history of the brothel--begins with the mystery of
Anselmo's blind lover's death. Another notable issue is
that Lituma becomes a police officer in this novel,
which signifies the birth of a detective who would make
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
101
important appearances in two of the three novels
targeted for this study.
Some of the mysteries are presented as secondary
clues that carry the narrative and parody the lives of
main characters. These cultivate either the mystery of
irony or the irony of mystery. The narrative concerning
the radio reporter, Sinchi, in Pantaleon y las
visitadoras (1973) could be an example of this playful
attitude. This is a story about a special task ordered
by the military authorities of Peru, who try to organize
erotic services to their soldiers in order to prevent
them from sexually assaulting the local women. Captain
Pantaleon is chosen to carry out this secret "mission."
But the issue is caught up in scandal, and Pantaleon is
made the scapegoat. Another major character, the news
reporter Sinchi, investigates Pantaledn's scandalous
activities and reports to his audience in the voice
seemingly of both the detective and the agent of social
justice. In fact, his role parodies that of the
detective in the text: the mystery, Pantaleon's secret
service, that he investigates and presents with
exaggeration, is not secret at all among the local
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
102
people or the readers of the text. Yet Sinchi is
presented on his radio program as a detective, and his
criticism of the scandal, like a detective's work, does
ruin the "guilty" party, forcing the army to hide the
scandal and transfer away Pantaleon. Sinchi thus is a
textual competitor with the protagonist. His report is
a clue that connects the beginning, middle and end of
the "service." Sinchi also functions similarly to a
detective in the sense that his investigation is a
story-telling procedure through which the reader gets a
whole picture of the story. The special service that
Pantaleon tried to hide and the attractive story that
Sinchi tries to tell in his program, form part of the
narrative tension in the text. The turning point in the
struggle between Pantaleon and Sinchi is the murder of a
young prostitute, an issue whose textual function is not
treated as to provide mystery, but to expose Pantaleon's
true identity. The irony of this text also dwells in
the faultlines between the elements of mystery in the
narrative: an official brothel in a half-open state is
claimed to be a mystery by a character (Sinchi) whose
investigation becomes a parody; a murder that is not the
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
103
center for the investigation; a detective (Sinchi) who
fails to disclose the truly guilty party; and an
innocent— Pantaleon— who is sacrificed to recuperate
order and peace.25
If Sinchi functions as a parody of the detective,
in La tia Julia y el escribidor (1977), Camacho, like
Sinchi, who works for a radio program and tries to gain
popularity with mystery stories, functions as a parody
of the mystery writer. The narrative of this text
develops through two clues: a semi-autobiographical love
story of Vargas Llosa, and episodes of Camacho's soap
operas. Each of Camacho's plays seems to be an
independent story that recounts secrets about either a
scandal or a crime. But the biggest mystery culminates
at the end of the text, when Camacho goes crazy and the
different mysteries are connected in a chaotic final
episode that reveals the truth. Alhough it does not
overturn the previous reading of those separate
episodes, Camacho's final episode at least presents
options resolving overall the mystery of this text. The
mystery's solution, thus, does not depend on a specific
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
104
crime but on its narrative allocation relative to the
construction of a whole text.
The above two texts suggest some ways to read
mystery, but they are not quite "mystery-coded" to let
us see how mystery charges a narrative mode for the
construction of the text. The narrative of Historia de
Mayta (1984), however, does follow detective fiction's
tendency to trace a mystery and present an investigator
as the central role. However, the focus of the
investigation, as well as the narrative, is not on a
certain case but on the life of the ex-revolutionary
whose role in a left-wing insurrection is forgotten and
who can no longer be an effective witness of the
"revolution" to which he had devoted himself. The
journey to the expected truth ends in the darkness of
loss, both of witness and of a sense of history.
Through this investigation, which tries to find what is
left behind from a past event, and thus form a poetic
approach to social crisis, the narrator leads the reader
to a place where no one holds the key to a solution. He
thus discloses that mystery is not what we can define
from a distance, but what we see clearly yet ignore.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
105
Therefore, the narrative, instead of solving the mystery
of a single case, revives the mystery as an object of
social and personal tragedy. Actually, this case
functions as a transfer in the midst of the development
of different narrative clues. As Miguel Oviedo
suggests, though this novel has a narrative structure
comparable to Pantaleon and La tia Julia, the political
reflections appear on center stage with the protagonists
who live at the edge of society. Therefore, the role
that the mystery plays in the narrative is still
limited.
Conversacion en La Catedral (1969) aspires to
depict socio-political realities in their totality. In
the course of fabricating a network of social and
political events linked with personal lives, the novel
solves a murder mystery. The narrative is based on a
conversation that can be observed as an interrogatory
procedure that finally reveals the identity of the
criminal. The text's major clue is the conversation
between the two main characters: Santiago, a progressive
news reporter, and his father's driver, Ambrosio. The
two share information due to a series of political and
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
106
family events, including the murder of Don Fermin's
mistress. Their conversation functions as a chain that
connects the stories at different social stages, and
provides a panoramic view of society. Various pieces of
information on the murder, though not central to either
side of the conversation, are to the account of other
events and lead to the revelation of the criminal. It
is arguable that this textual presentation of the murder
mystery uses a narrative mode of detective fiction in
the sense that, even if a detective motive is absent in
the narrative, the reader is expected to have the
consciousness and play the role of investigator during
the exchange of information between the two main
characters. Still, the mystery of the crime is only
part of the story, and not constitutive of the textual
structure: it exists merely at the level of anecdote in
contrast to the three texts that I will target in this
thesis.
Different from the texts reviewed above, Vargas
Llosa's La ciudad y los perros, ^Quien mato a Palomino
Molero?, and Lituma en los Andes contain examinations of
mystery at the center of the narrative. In these three
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
107
novels, criminal cases form the body— the major plot and
narrative trajectory— of the text. Besides, the
presentation of mystery serves as material from which
the reader can elicit some truth about Peruvian society,
on the one hand, and some secrets about the writer's
creation, on the other. In order to further this study,
some essential themes shared by most of Vargas Llosa's
texts, including the three mentioned above, should first
be brought to attention.
In Vargas Llosa's works, the truth of society is,
first of all, the truth of power— the truth of those in
power. Vargas Llosa's mystery is presented under the
shadow of the ruling power in society. That is to say,
the mystery is related to those in power. Its
investigation is manipulated by those in power, so the
construction of the mystery in the text also involves a
depiction of the image of power. Power is a key issue
that leads to an understanding of both the mystery and
the reality of Peruvian society.
Vargas Llosa pays close attention to Peruvian
political realities in his writings. The mysteries in
his works are also rooted in the terrain of social
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
108
problems. Also, in the writing of mysteries, his
consciousness of the oppressiveness of the ruling powers
in society is transmitted through his loathing of, and
at the same time fascination with, violence, and through
his criticism, at many times satirical, of social
injustice. Expressing this sensibility to injustice
with irony, Vargas Llosa's mysteries are often
constructed not as a celebration of human reason— to
provide a logical, definite solution to the mystery— but
as a challenge to the story's background, to set up the
investigation of mystery as a problem for social
criticism.
Vargas Llosa is a writer with a strong sense of
political commitment. From his political activities as
a young student at San Marcos University to his running
for president of Peru— a span of over 30 years, covering
the most active age of his literary production— he
seldom takes his vision away from the center of power,
as we can see in his political essays and comments on
politics and life.26 The center of power in a society is
a system formed to serve the ruling class. In the case
of Peru, according to Vargas Llosa's works, the image of
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
109
power is comprised of dictatorship (for example, general
Odria and his followers), government functions, police
and secret police, and the military system. This system
of power is the center of the political struggle that
Vargas Llosa depicts from different angles: direct
exposure (Conversacion en La Catedral), protest from
victims (La ciudad y los perros, La Casa verde),
grotesque scandals (Pantaleon y las visitadoras),
terrorism (Lituma en los Andes), and rebellions
(Historia de Mayta). All the above aspects can be
related, through the narration of the murder cases, to
the themes of violence and mystery in the three targeted
texts. In these texts, all the murder cases are
presented as tragic and violent events with innocent
victims and calls for justice. The narrative structures
resemble those of detective fiction, but none of them
are completely solved under the specific social
conditions and manipulations of the power system in
Peruvian society. Some murders are even directly
provoked by this power system. Therefore, the
significance of murder needs to be considered within, as
well as beyond, the tradition of the detective fiction.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
110
W.H Auden notes:
[murder is about] offenses against
God and society
.... Murder is unique in that it
abolishes the party it injures, so
that society has to take the place of
the victim and on his behalf demand
restitution or grant forgiveness; it
is the one crime in which society has
a direct interest ... as soon as [a
death] is proved to be murder, public
inquiry becomes a duty. (402)
His point is well taken in regard to the detective
genre, as homicide has long been a theme within literary
tradition. Auden also suggests five elements as
constituents of the mystery: "the milieu, the victim,
the murderer, the suspects, the detectives" (402).
Considering the fact that crime is often the co-function
of different factors in the lives of the criminal and
the victim, in studying Vargas Llosas' texts, in which
the "milieu" of the crime includes the system of social
power, one would also need to discern in which direction
the inquiry and investigation go, starting from the
victim. According to Auden, the milieu in detective
fiction is usually "a closed society" in "a state of
grace" (402-403). But the milieu of a crime may also
involve more complicated situations and make the society
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Ill
an unstable setting, subject to criticism and inquiries.
Therefore, we should also observe the milieu of a crime
as not only a pure setting for, but also a participant
in, the mystery.
In a detective text, murder turns a character, the
victim, into a silent but meaningful symbol through
violence, the cover up of a crime, the challenge to
social order, and the call for justice. The body of the
victim also signifies a threat of punishment, not only
to the murderer but also to those whose interests might
be affected by the revelation of the truth and those
whose innocence is questionable. A victim is only
nominally dead in a mystery, and will "live" with the
suspense of the solution. In detective fiction, the
investigation is a process that involves the revealing
of secrets, those not only of the criminal, but also of
those who seem to be innocent. It is a process of
conflict between the power of knowledge (the power to
investigate and reveal the hidden truth) and the power
of disorder, between the detective and the criminal and
between the author and the reader. In Vargas Llosa's
texts, however, this conflict exists also between the
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
112
power of knowledge and the power that rules Peruvian
society.
Though the murder cases in the three texts occur in
different social environments, from the capital city of
Lima to small towns in the remote countryside, all of
them involve the justice system's inability to prevent
manipulations by those in power, and the pain caused by
those for whom justice is merely personal will. To
study manipulation in the murder mystery is, on the one
hand, to detect the manipulation of the power system in
the investigation of the case, and, on the other, to
investigate the author's "manipulation" in building the
mystery into his literary and political utterance.
A manipulated case often provokes the question of
who qualifies to conduct the investigation. It is a
question about the police, because, unlike what happens
in traditional mysteries, the detective is not only
investigates problems but also is himself a problem in
these three texts. For example, in La ciudad y los
perros, the detective fails to further the investigation
due to pressure from his higher authorities. In Quien
mato a Palomino Molero, the solution proposed by the
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
113
police is accepted neither by the local people nor by
their superior. In Lituma en los Andes, the fate of the
crime's investigators is in question, since they are
under threat from different conflicted parties in the
region. In this novel, the police are seen struggling
between the role of detective and victim. While further
study of the problem of the police in Vargas Llosa's
novels is important, for now we should note that,
because they serve the ruling class as a force for
surveillance and a punishment, the police are both
working for, and subject to, the manipulation of power.
Such a situation may be related to the fact that many
times they are presented as collateral victims of the
crime.
The cases in the three novels have different social
settings, with characters from different social classes.
Each of the social environments presented in these
narratives has its own crisis: violence among the young
people who long for power in adult society; scandals
beneath the formalities of the military; and guerrillas'
ideological and armed struggles in a world alien to
modern civilization. However, besides the fact that
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
114
they are all murdered, the victims in these cases share
some common characteristics. They are all innocent
people, not figures of importance in society: students,
soldiers, local peasants, tourists. None of them are
famous or powerful, but their murders pose a threat to
the powerful and affluent in society: the threat of
scandal, and the fear of secrets or injustice revealed
that could shake the established order and authority.
In other words, their murder becomes important to some
party. Unlike traditional detective stories, in which
the victims are often important figures in society and
the detective finds the hard-bottomed solution to the
case, in Vargas Llosa's mysteries, the victim's claim
for justice seldom becomes a theme. The investigation
of the criminal mysteries leads to the completion of the
narrative but not the closure of the cases. The
"unimportant" victims serve as clues that help to
develop a total narrative that not only presents, but
also transmits, reality between the characters and the
reader.
In these three novels, another common problem is
the broadened circle of victims; the murder victim can
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
115
be victimized again after his or her death, by the
interference in the investigation by those in power.
The detective (the police) also becomes the victim (or
is threatened to become one) as he tries to solve the
mystery, but is sacrificed by it. In the end, everyone
is the victim of a system of power that often is
invisible, but powerful enough to victimize— one that is
hostile to those who try to gain access to its secrets.
The broadened circle of victims brings up again the
question of who has the power to investigate the cases:
an organization like the police, controlled by the
ruling power in society; the writer, the ruling power in
the narrative; the "third party" of the reader, who has
more freedom than the created detective to access the
truth, and who should be "generically" prepared to
launch his or her own investigation in the textual
mystery. Another question surrounding the cases'
solutions is how to keep an open and questioning mind
when the mystery'' s solution is already uncertain or
"open" in the text. That is to say, how to probe into
the conception of mystery from the author who may or may
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
116
not share a detective-fiction reader's anxiety for
solution.
To examine the themes of crime mystery developed at
different levels of the narratives, one would need to
take mystery as a perspective from which Vargas Llosa
writes about Peru and configures his literary world.
Mystery should be read not only as a certain criminal
case, but also as the narrative element that inquires
into and criticizes problems in various social and
regional milieux. In fact, given what I have reviewed
in this chapter, one can argue that Vargas Llosa's
creation of mystery is significant not so much as an
exploration of a specific narrative genre, but for its
search for, and presentation of, the homeland— a concern
shared by many other Latin American writers.
Vargas Llosa's criminal mysteries in the three
texts offer us a channel for understanding his writing
in a context of persistent criticism of the powerful and
the unjust in Peruvian social life. Yet at the same
time, to study these mysteries is also to see how an
inquiry into the solution to a concrete case alludes to
an inquiry into a wider range of problems in literary
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
117
production. We can see as well how the author's
sensibility towards power affects not only the issue of
social criticism but also the construction of the
mystery and the narrative. To answer the last question,
as well as to find more specific support for an argument
about the ideological and thematic connections among the
mysteries mentioned previously, we have to examine
closely each of the three texts as an independent
literary case.
This work will not survey all the aspects of the
presentation of mystery in the regionally tinted Latin
American fiction. But my research into Vargas Llosa's
examples will try to reveal some ways in which mystery
depicts Latin America as a major literary entity,
sublimating its mysteries into poetics. In such a case,
then, mystery can be a way of understanding the meanings
and value beneath the label "Latin American Literature."
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
118
Notes
1 Critical discussions around writing America could
be seen as a trajectory from Rodo's "Ariel" and
Retamar's "Caliban" to Hass's Los nuestros, Fuentes'
Valiente mundo nuevo, and Paz's El laberinto de la
soledad. All formed an effort to state the independence
of the Latin American spiritual values represented by
its literature.
2 It is a "short and fascinating book, which even
then contained the seeds of our present-day novels" and
is "by no means the most staggering account of our
reality in that age." ("The Solitude of Latin America"
87) .
3 Garcia Marquez writes that "One of the many
unfathomed mysteries of that age is that of the eleven
thousand mules, each loaded with one hundred pounds of
gold, that left Cuzco one day to pay the ransom of
Atahualpa and never reached their destination.
Subsequently, in colonial times, hens were sold in
Cartagena de Indias, that had been raised on alluvial
land and whose gizzards contained tiny lumps of gold.
The founders' lust for gold beset us until recently"
(87). This passage not only forms a plot of mystery,
but also implies a way of tracing mystery.
4 In presenting Pigafetta's book, Garcia Marquez
writes about Latin America's image of primitive mystery:
"he had seen hogs with navels on their haunches,
clawless birds whose hens laid eggs on the backs of
their mates, ... the first native encountered in
Patagonia was confronted with a mirror, whereupon that
impassioned giant lost his senses to the terror of his
own image" (87-89). As to the magical reality of modern
times, he uses more social and politically sensitive
examples, such as the disappearance and exile of
political dissidents, and dictatorships and civil wars
in Latin American countries. These issues, different in
literary perceptions, are connected by his view of Latin
America as a land of mystery.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
119
5 As Sklodowska explains: "Utilizamos los terminos
literatura 'seria' o 'alta' no en el sentido evaluativo,
sino en solo para diferenciarla de lo que Cawelti (197 6)
llama la literatura de formulas" ("Transgresion
parodica" 182).
6 Criticism of detective fiction resembles the
"globalization" of the genre and forms a group of "the
major critics" whose works or editions are cited broadly
in studies of the genre in different countries.
Examples can be found in the works of Sklodowska,
Simpson , Lafforgue and Rivera.
7 Note that the postmodernism Sklodowska mentions is
not exactly the same notion Lindstrom or Eagleton have
tried to specify. I will discuss this problem later in
this chapter.
8 One may refer to the analysis by Szmetan and
Martinez Morales of Vicente Lenero's detective fiction
as a view of this writer's mystery composition with the
background of Latin American problems.
9 As this point is not a focus for my research, I
would mention but a few critic as examples: Angel Rama,
Luis Harss, Rodriguez Monegal, Carlos Fuentes, and Jose
Donoso.
10 I will not try to suggest any connection between
mystery and the Boom, but focus on the writers who
became well known during the Boom period, even if they
are not the so-called central four figures. They should
be an index from which to observe the writing of mystery
and the writing of the boom.
11 Encarna Abella's "Satira y parodia de la novela
policial en El tunel de Ernesto Sabato" shows how
mystery serves as an element of narrative structure.
12 For example, one may recall the massacre of the
workers of the banana plantation. Their bodies are
transported by trains and thrown into the sea, creating
a mystery that provides no information on the criminal
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
120
or his "cool reasoning" but that emphasizes both the
passion of political protesting and the fascination of
magical realism.
13 Borges' explanation of "metaphysical fiction" is
based on his pursuit of "a literature for the
literature," in which philosophic problems become
literary plots. A similar problem is also revealed
through his essays, such as "Borges y yo."
14 Like Cien anos de soledad, this text narrates
various mysterious events, such as the self-moving
train, and the party of the "lazaros"— lepers. But
these are actually solved as mysteries rather than the
"magical reality," as different narrative clues meet at
the end of the text, offering logical connections
between each other and explanations for what seems to be
magical.
15 Also see Sklodowska and Manuel Marcos' studies on
these writers' works, which agree with Shaw's point of
view.
16 The thesis of this paper is that by taking the
voice of both detective and prosecutor to present a
massacre of the innocent by the police, Walsh not only
traces out the solution to a mystery that the guilty
military authorities tried to diminish, but also forms a
textual court in which the reader is invited to be the
jury that provides justice.
17 The studied "postmodern texts" of Latin America
are basically those produced after the decade of the
Boom, by both the writers from the Boom and the
postboom. Examples can be found in studies by Mazzei,
Donald Shaw, Manuel Marcos, Sklodowska and Keith Booker.
18 They are, among others, John Thompson, Jeanne
Ewert Raylene Ramsay, and Patricia Merivale.
19 Booker notes: "... fantasy and detective fiction
may be the two popular genres that have most frequently
proved sources of inspiration for postmodernist writers-
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
121
-sometimes even within the same text .... This situation
may confirm the arguments of numerous critics that
postmodernist artists embrace popular culture..." (139).
20 Though Booker's suggestion can not be definitely
taken as rule that determines literary creation in
America, one may notice immediately that Vargas Llosa's
novels during the postboom period have touched on all
these aspects. These include La casa verde and
Pantaleon y las visitadoras, in addition to the three
texts studies in this thesis.
21 Premat's study, focusing on the case of Juan Jose
Saer, agrees with studies by other critics, such as
Manuel Marcos, in which the writing of mystery is viewed
as a device for the writing of Latin America.
22 To mention but a few, those critics are Boldori
de Baldussi, Garcia Cambeiro, Dick Gerdes, Raymond
Williams, Myron Lichtblau, and Donald Shaw.
23 This work concentrates on the literary value of
Vargas Llosa's texts along with a review of this
writer's different social and historical experiences.
24 Among the fourteen novels by Vargas Llosa, only
two have historical backgrounds set in places other than
in Peru: La guerra del fin del mundo (1982) and most
recently, La fiesta del chivo (2000) .
25 For studies of the irony of this novel, one may
refer to Donald L. Shaw's "Humor e ironia en Pantaleon y
las visitadoras," and Raymond Williams's "The Narrative
Art of Mario Vargas Llosa: Two Organizing Principles in
Pantaleon y las visitadoras."
26 These works include collections of essays Contra
viento y marea (1983), Desafio a la libertad (1994), and
Ricardo Setti's Conversas com Vargas Llosa (1986).
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
122
Chapter III
Diluting the Solution: A Case in La ciudad y los perros
How can we at the same time show the reader
everything and yet legitimately obfuscate him
as to its meaning?
— Dorothy Sayers ("The Omnibus of Crime"
372)
Published in 1962 and acclaimed as a starting point
for both the writer's professional life and the Boom in
Latin American literature, La ciudad y los perros has
been examined from many critical perspectives, such as
biographical criticism, psychoanalysis, the
structuralism, and specific character and plot
narratological analyses.1 According to Rilda Baker, of
all the novels published in Latin America since 1960,
"no work ... has engendered more observable reactions
than Mario Vargas Llosa's La ciudad y los perros,"
including a literary prize from Seix-Barral as well as a
book-burning protest in the paramilitary school Leoncio
Prado at Lima, the actual school that inspired the
story, whose members were deeply offended by the scandal
described in the novel (3). The scandal in the story is
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
123
centered on the case of a character's death, a major
plot in the text. This case, with its allusions to
literary murder mysteries, is "solved" and "dissolved"
along with the conflicts among different parties. The
problematic conclusion of this case is the focus of this
study, and to examine the solution to the case is to
make a search through the narrative strategies of Mario
Vargas Llosa, who arguably utilizes the mystery
structure, if not the conventional detective genre, to
develop an analysis of certain social and personal
experiences related to Peru in this novel. The
examination of the function of mystery in the narrative
not only intends to detect how the generic factors are
implanted into serious narrative, but also to reveal,
through a genre-conscious reading, some hidden problems
in this canonical text.
The text consists of two parts, each divided into
eight chapters, and an epilogue. The main story takes
place in the 1950's, at Leoncio Prado, a military
academy in Lima, and deals with the life of several
cadets during the two months preceding graduation. They
are Alberto, called "Poeta," an erotic storywriter;
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
124
Ricardo Arana, called "Esclavo," a cadet who is always
bullied by his peers; and Jaguar and Boa. The last two
together with Cava and Rulos, form a secret organization
called the "Circulo." The "Circulo" leads and forces
the cadets into all kinds of mischief against their
officers and school disciplines. The story begins with
a scheme of the Circulo, in which Cava steals the
questions for a chemistry exam. Alberto, who is
informed about the theft by his friend Esclavo, looks
for Jaguar in order to buy the questions before the
exam. At the same time, Alberto meets Teresa, the girl
that Esclavo loves, and begins to date her. Jaguar does
not sell the questions to Alberto; and in the exam
Esclavo tries to assist Alberto to answer the questions.
But Lieutenant Gamboa, the officer in charge of their
class, finds out about their cheating and punishes
Esclavo by prohibiting him from leaving the school.
Esclavo, in order to get permission to go out, reports
Cava's theft of the exam to the officers. When Cava is
expelled from the academy, the other members of Circulo
threaten to take revenge for him. Later during a
military exercise, Esclavo is shot and eventually dies.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
125
The officials of Leoncio Prado, in order to protect the
academy's reputation, claim that the death was an
accident— that Esclavo shot himself. Believing that
Esclavo has been murdered, Alberto decides to challenge
this "official story." Alberto goes to Lieutenant
Gamboa, and denounces not only Jaguar, whom he thinks
responsible for Esclavo's death, but also the cheating
and disciplinary abuses in his class. In response to
Alberto's denunciation, Gamboa takes Alberto and Jaguar
into custody and begins to search the cadets' residence.
However, the investigation into Esclavo's death has
barely begun when the higher bodies of the academy
interfere. Alberto is forced by the academy president
to withdraw his report on Jaguar, and Gamboa is
transferred to a remote post in the mountainous area in
Peru. Meanwhile, Esclavo's death is still claimed an
accident and never officially becomes a murder case. At
the same time, believing Jaguar to have reported their
cheating to the officials, the other cadets attack
Jaguar. Later, when the cadets graduate and Lieutenant
Gamboa is leaving for his new post, Jaguar writes a note
to Gamboa, confessing that he has killed Esclavo.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
126
Jaguar thinks that by turning himself in the military
authorities will reconsider Esclavo's case and will not
transfer Gamboa out of the academy. But Gamboa does not
accept Jaguar's confession and advises him that the
higher authorities will never admit their mistakes. So,
the case of Esclavo's death is ultimately ignored, and
the main characters leave the school for a new life.
Along with this central story of the cadets in the
academy, there are interwoven in the narrative other
stories that reveal the past of the four principal
characters. Told at different times and places and by
different narrators, these stories are fragmented and
presented alternately in various chapters throughout
Parts I and II, and present four glimpses into the
background of the main characters. Three of them are
the childhood stories of Alberto (27) , Esclavo (9) and
Jaguar (64); all these stories begin with their
childhood in Lima and end when they decide to enroll at
Leoncio Prado. The fourth is Boa's story about life in
the academy (31). Alberto and Esclavo's stories of the
past are narrated in the third person; Boa's stories are
narrated in the first person. Jaguar's childhood story
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
127
is told by a seemingly anonymous first person narrator
in part I and II of the text, and in the epilogue, the
narrator reveals himself to be Jaguar. His narration
traces his childhood, skips the experience in the
military academy, and ends with a brief mention of his
marriage and present life. Also as a narrator, Boa
focuses on the story of the academy. He traces the
history of the Circulo and recalls all the absurd yet
violent conflicts among the cadets in the past two
years. Yet, unlike that of the other three (Alberto,
Esclavo and Jaguar), Boa's narration does not stay
entirely with the past; it develops into the present
events before and after Esclavo's death. Boa's
narration thus offers an alternative perspective to view
the main story: the conflicts among Jaguar, Esclavo,
Alberto and Gamboa at the academy.
From the above summary, it can be seen that the
case of Esclavo's death is a central event that connects
different conflicts among the four principal characters
in the story. However, since the first publication of La
ciudad y los perros in 1963, though there have been many
critics that have commented on the murder of Esclavo,
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
128
most of them have ignored the case as a mystery or as a
central event in the story. For example, for Rodriguez
Monegal, the death of Esclavo is "una anecdota, tal vez
inventada," merely one element of the allegory of the
text— superficial in that "la anecdota del robo de los
papeles, la muerte de un muchacho, el castigo y el
perdon son solo apariencias. Que toda la novela es
realmente una alegoria." ("Madurez de Vargas Llosa" 62).
Oviedo calls the death "el crimen del Jaguar," and
indicates that everybody (in the story) has already
suspected Jaguar of the murder though the academy
prevents him from being punished (La invencion de una
realidad 97-98), while Lafforgue considers the case
symbolic; he does not consider Esclavo as a victim of a
concrete crime.2 Rilda Baker does argue for the presence
of a detective-story frame in this novel; however, this
frame does not concern the murder mystery, but refers to
the reader's involvement in tracing the identities of
the main characters and completing their fragmented
stories through the narrative.3 There are others, like
Efrain Kristal, who have found the case questionable,
and noticed the uncertainty of the solution to the
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
129
murder mystery (40). But Kristal suggests a reading of
the uncertainty as not very relevant to the problem of
mystery in the textual complex, but as a strategy of
social criticism:
Vargas Llosa's deliberate ambiguity
about the solution helps to
underscore one of the novel's main
themes: the indifference of a corrupt
society toward crime. Whether Ricardo
Arana was murdered or died
accidentally is irrelevant for
understanding the moral world of the
Leoncio Prado school, a microcosm of
Peruvian society. (40-41)
The above comments show different critical perspectives
on La ciudad y los perros, but one point of agreement
common to all is that the murder is not relevant to the
"textual mystery," a function the murder case often
carries in the detective genre, both as a major element
in the plot and a major support for narrative
construction. In other words, the above mentioned
critics do not pay much attention to whether in La
ciudad y los perros there is a narrative tension
developed between inquiry and the solution to a murder—
the murder is treated as an incident among the multiple
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
130
conflicts between the young people and the military
system.
It is true that the narrative structure of this
novel is more complicated than that of conventional
mysteries, and it touches upon more social and cultural
themes than the regular crime-tracing, detective-
centered fiction; and the reader will not automatically
relate it to a generic narrative. However, what links
this text to the mystery genre is not only a murder
case, but also the "criminal mode" of the story. To
observe the "criminal mode," one may read the text from
the following perspective. First, the site of the
central story, the military academy, is a closed space
where the dominant relationship among the characters is
that of victimizer and victim. This relationship,
resonant with the most defining feature of criminal
fiction, is found among all the main characters.4 It
suggests that victimization, a principal feature of
criminal fiction, functions dynamically in the narrative
of La ciudad y los perros, in which there forms a circle
of victimizers and victims.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
131
The first victimizers are the officers who abuse
the cadets in the name of discipline (42). Esclavo, who
is often a victim of the violence of other cadets such
as Jaguar and Boa, becomes a "victimizer" by denouncing
the theft of the exam and causing Cava's expulsion from
the academy (147) . However, Esclavo dies as the victim
of a murder for which Alberto accuses Jaguar (209).
When Lieutenant Gamboa plans to investigate the murder,
the higher authorities of the academy sacrifice him— his
future in the academy— in order to stop the
investigation. At the same time, Jaguar, who has always
been a victimizer among the cadets, is attacked
(physically) by his classmates and, like Esclavo,
becomes a victim of violence.
The above series of conflicts form a chain of
victims. The main victim is Esclavo, whose murder is
the starting point of the major conflicts in the text:
the conflicts among the cadets, between the cadets and
the academy, and those among the officers (Gamboa and
his higher authorities). Therefore, in La ciudad y los
perros the murder should not be taken simply as
anecdotal, as Rodriguez Monegal does; it also should be
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
132
read as a dynamic factor for the development of the
conflictive relationship among the main characters, as
well as for the development of the narrative.
Therefore, the presentation of the murder case is a
primary issue to be analyzed in the narrative.
In the sense of analysis and pursuit for an answer
to the mystery, the murder story forms part of a textual
mystery in La ciudad y los perros, and it is in the
study of this textual mystery that the reader functions
as a detective. But one needs to note that to study the
murder case as a major issue in the narrative is not
necessarily an effort to re-situate the text in generic
terms. Such a study is a starting point for a critical
reading that allows one to trace the possible secrets
within the narrative.
Besides the above mentioned victimizer-victim
relationship among the characters, the narrative
structure of this text also suggests a "mode of criminal
case" that relates the text to the mystery genre. The
narrative of this text develops around three events that
take place in the novel'’s present. The first event can
be called "the chemistry exam." Under the shadow of
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
133
this event, the causes of several incidents are
presented: the stealing of the exam by Cava; the
punishment that Esclavo receives for helping Alberto in
the exam; and Esclavo's report on the theft of the exam.
The second event is the military maneuver in which
Esclavo is killed and during which Alberto decides to
accuse Jaguar of Esclavo's death. These two events are
narrated in Part I. The third event, the search of the
cadets' residence ordered by Gamboa, is a central event
in Part II. According to Alberto's report on Jaguar,
Gamboa begins to investigate the murder. He orders the
search of the cadets' residence and finds proof of
disciplinary abuses, but he is prohibited from further
investigation on Esclavo's murder. At the same time,
the cadets who are reported by Alberto think Jaguar is
the informer who has reported them and they attack him.
It is along with the narrative of these three central
events that the retrospective sections are fragmented
and inserted in the narrative: the stories about the
childhood of the main characters— Jaguar, Esclavo,
Alberto and Boa. Kristal suggests that the interwoven
plots from different times in the narrative of Vargas
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
134
Llosa's text resemble the narrative structure of
Faulkner's Light in August, a text that takes as core an
intense period in three characters' lives, with
retrospective sections that explore their past. Kristal
also indicates Vargas Llosa's own hints about Faulkner's
influence in the narrative structure of La ciudad y los
perros.5 Indeed, the example of Faulkner's text that
Kristal invokes may also provide us with another
reference for the workings of mystery in Vargas Llosa's
text. Mick Gidley notes that Faulkner "harbored the
potential to carve himself a respectable niche as a
detective author" (Gidley's italics, 246). He not only
wrote detective stories, but also employed detective
elements in his "basically non-detective works" (246).
There is no need to draw further attention on how the
murder case functions as both major plot and narrative
dynamics in Light in August, but to focus on if such a
technique functions as well in Vargas Llosa's text. The
following story frame of the text will summarize what
have been reviewed in the above. This figure shows that
the events of the "exam," the "exercise" and the
"search" form the textual stem for the development of
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
135
the narrative. On the other hand, it is noticeable that
the three central events are all related to Esclavo's
death.
Boa's observation on the cadets' reaction to Esclavo's death
_ L
Present events:
Esclavo's report
o f Cava
A
Alberto's
accusation
against Jaguar
Gamboa's conflict with the
academy and Jaguar's confession.
The prohibition of murder
investigation
T
Cava's theft of
the exam^
T
Death of Esclavo
t
1
Alberto and the others' fight
with Jaguar ^
The exam —►
±
The military —
exercise
1
-^.The search of the residence
I
▼
Esclavo, Jaguar
and Alberto's
childhood
▼
Boa's story
about the
Circulo
▼
How Esclavo, Alberto and Jaguar
enter the academy
Around the "exam," one sees the cause of Esclavo's
death— the denunciation of Cava; the "exercise" is the
"chance" to murder Esclavo; and the "search" is an
uncompleted investigation by Gamboa after Alberto's
report of the crime. Therefore, the murder case is the
"stem" of the textual "stem" formed by the three central
events. Accordingly, the narrative fragments on the
characters' past lives are actually supported by the
development of the narrative of the murder case.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
136
Comparing to the mystery suggested by Rilda Baker, the
enigma of an unidentified narrator with a picaresque
childhood at Lima and revealed as Jaguar at the end of
the Epilogue, the murder mystery is not merely part of a
plot, but also a function that not only moves the
narrative on with clues and events based in different
time and space, but also provides the text with a
cohesive force. Thus, the presentation of the murder
must be examined by the reader who, as textual
detective, pursues secrets in the narrative and
questions whether or not the murder case can be closed
at the end of the text.
As mentioned before, La ciudad y los perros is not
a detective novel. Although the plots organized around
the murder case provide the main structure for the
narrative, the murder in La ciudad y los perros,
compared to conventional models of criminal fiction, is
indeed a "diluted mystery." In other words, the
presentation of the murder case is not processed through
a kind of tension among the criminal, the victim and the
detective figure. The crises in the story do not
develop under the urge of solving a criminal case, but
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
137
are connected to a broader context in which the murder
case reflects social conflicts beyond the victim-
criminal-detective circle. Different factors in the
narrative influence the presentation of the murder case;
they not only develop the case into a larger social
critique, but also transform the mystery of a murder
plot into a mystery at the level of the structure of the
text. Therefore, one must approach the mystery not only
from the crisis caused by the murder case, but also
through the construction of the text in which some clues
leading to the murder might be hidden.
To study the meaning of this case of "diluted
mystery," one needs to investigate the narrative
structure of La ciudad y los perros, in which the
development of the murder case forms a "stem." The main
stories related to Esclavo's death are narrated in the
third person. Through these stories, the narrator
develops a powerful critique of the military educational
system, and reveals the problematic role of the officers
(as police in the campus) in upholding justice and
enforcing order in this hierarchical society.6 The
"dilution" of the criminal case because of the
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
138
prominence of social criticism can be perceived in the
following narrative strategies. First, the crime scene
is "destroyed." Esclavo is carried away from the
exercise field where he is shot to the hospital where he
dies. The site where he is shot is ignored and the
scene of the victimization— his body— is closed to
anybody under the colonel's order (215-16). The funeral
scene, however, is presented in detail; from this scene
one can read the impact of the tragedy on the young
people and the hypocrisy of the school authorities (281—
84). But at the same time, the funeral scene takes the
place of the crime scene: the coffin takes the place of
the body, and the mourning for the victim takes the
place of the display of criminal aggression (280-84).
Alberto, the only character who insists that the death
is a murder, is unable to see the crime scene before he
puts up the accusation against Jaguar. This covered-up
and "replaced" murder scene represents a deviation from
the conventions of the detective genre in which the
crime scene is presented in detail and is repeatedly
studied by the detective.7
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
139
Secondly, there is no space for investigation in
the narrative. The doctors find that Esclavo is shot
from behind. However, this "technical truth" is not taken
as a truth to be investigated, but as an inconvenience
for the authorities (268-69). In the narrative, the
high officials of the academy decide to keep the
doctor's report secret, claiming the death an accident
and refusing Gamboa's request for an investigation
(269). So, the doctor's report is only "known" by the
reader (by reading the omniscient narrator's narration),
and it can only be taken as evidence of murder from
"outside" the text: from the position of the reader.
Thus, only the reader views the death of Esclavo as a
"murder mystery." For Alberto, the death of his friend
is a crime committed by Jaguar; so, there is no
"mystery," and he aims not to investigate the case but
to accuse and to punish the criminal. His accusation is
based on his conjecture that Jaguar found out that
Esclavo has denounced Cava and thus has the motive to
kill. Therefore, the suspense in the development of the
murder case is built not on an investigation, but on an
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
140
accusation— on the conflicts between the one who accuses
and the one who is accused.
It also is important that the climax of Jaguar's
conflict with Alberto is not centered on the accusation
of murder, but on a "transfer of accusation." Jaguar
makes a counter-accusation against Alberto, since
according to him, Alberto, as an informer to the
academy, betrays all the cadets (385-86). The
accusation against Jaguar is cancelled finally when
Alberto is forced to withdraw his report about the
murder. While the conflicts around Esclavo's death are
pacified in the academy, other cadets begin to attack
Jaguar, calling him a traitor, since they believe that
he informs the academy about their cheating (393-95).
At the end of Part II, the focus of the story is
Jaguar's accusation of being the traitor, and Esclavo's
death is no longer a central issue in the narrative. So
the accusation against Jaguar is actually transferred
from a first murder case to a second "traitor" scandal.
Moreover, after being forced to withdraw his accusation
against Jaguar, Alberto withdraws his accusation a
second time, when he is told that Jaguar never had a
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
141
motive to kill Esclavo (390). Alberto's withdrawal of
the accusation contrasts with Jaguar's later confession
to Gamboa, and raises a question: who actually tells the
truth in the novel? That is to say, can the story and
the suspense ultimately achieve a rock-solid solution as
readers usually expect with a "whodunit?" story.
Therefore, it seems that, at the end of the second part
of the text, with all the past stories told on both life
in the academy and each character's childhood, the
murder mystery alone is hanging away from any ending.
In the epilogue, right before Gamboa be transferred
to another post by the higher authorities of the
academy, Jaguar admits to Gamboa that he has killed
Esclavo. Jaguar believes that by making the confession,
Gamboa would be proven right and not be transferred.
Jaguar says: "i,No me va a llevar donde el coronel [the
school master]? .... Ya no lo [Gamboa] mandaran a
Julianca, mi teniente. No ponga esa cara. £,Crees que no
me doy cuenta que usted se ha fregado por este asunto?
Lleveme donde el coronel" (414). Here, the motive of
Jaguar's confession is to prevent Gamboa from being
transferred, but not to take responsibility for
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
142
Esclavo's death. His confession therefore can be
questioned in the way that Carlos Fuentes indicates:
"i,asesino realmente el Jaguar al Esclavo, como lo
confiesa finalmente a Gamboa, ... o solo quiere asumir
el papel terrible que la justicia y el azar le
ofrecieron?" ("El afan totalizante de Vargas Llosa"
167). Jaguar's confession, contrasting with Alberto's
forgetting about the case and Esclavo, continues the
suspense started with Alberto's accusation, and cannot
be taken simply as the final solution to the murder of
Esclavo. In Gamboa's case, by refusing to take Jaguar's
confession seriously, he denies the investigation that
he himself has tried unsuccessfully before. Considering
the situation of the "failed investigator" with Gamboa,
it can be argued that the murder in La ciudad y los
perros is a "diluted" mystery also in the sense that it
lacks a "detective": there is no representation of an
objective access to the "truth." In such a case, the
mystery's solution would be dependent on the reader's
believing of what he or she reads, and challenged by the
reader's inquiry on what behind the apparent solution.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
143
According to the above discussion, one could argue
that the "solution" of the mystery is diluted through
the construction of the narrative. The murder case is
not closed when Jaguar, the self-proclaimed "criminal,"
shows himself. Therefore, the reader needs to ask what
results in a "diluted solution" in the narrative, and
what is the relationship between the construction of the
mystery and the "diluted solution." For the reader, the
final examiner of the mystery, the "solution" then
becomes part of the mystery in the text.
As indicated at the beginning of this chapter, the
narrative is, on the one hand, a vehicle for the
mystery, and on the other, a verbal labyrinth in which
some clues to the answer of the mystery might be
overlooked. So re-examining the mystery means re
examining not a part of the narrative but its entirety.
Baker indicates that in La ciudad y los perros the
reader is involved to complete the story by detecting
and connecting narrative fragments of different
characters' stories at different times and in different
places.8 This activity not only implies an active
communication between the reader and the text, but also
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
144
between the reader and the author, since the reader
actually needs to pursue the narrative labyrinth
arranged by the author. Like Baker, Frank Kermode also
suggests that, in reading a criminal mystery, the reader
communicates with the author by getting access to the
answer of the mystery through the information
transmitted from the narrative (178). So the reader of
the mystery in La ciudad y los perros actually has a
double task: to complete the story out of the textual
fragments, and to trace the mystery, or re-investigate
the case, starting from the problematic "solution"
offered in the text.
As for studying the solution of the mystery, Roland
Barthes proposes that the "hermeneutic sentence" directs
the reader's interpretation of the mystery (121).9 By
this Barthes means that the enigma and the solution to
the mystery are articulated in the text. The "networks"
of the plots, from which results the answer to the
mystery, are kept separate and function independently,
so as to avoid any direct and banal solutions, and to
"delay" the solution for the reader (121) . According to
Barthes, "delay" is a major factor in building a textual
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
145
structure and supporting the solution to the enigma,
and, at the same time, in building suspense in the text.
The narrative, then, actually contains a double process
of writing: one that serves as a vehicle for the enigma,
and another that resolves that enigma. The "delay"
between the presentation of the enigma and the arrival
at the solution mediates the co-existence of the two
conflictive processes. Barthes' hermeneutic sentence
can be figured as the following:
(delay)
snare, equivocation
question - suspended answer - answer
Though not named, the builder of this "sentence" is the
reader, who goes through the three stages of the
mystery, question-delay-answer, to complete an
interpretation of the text. Turning back to the murder
case in La ciudad y los perros, if the reader accept
Jaguar's confession as a solution to the murder case,
the presentation of the mystery could be surveyed
through a similar structure:
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
146
(delay)
Alberto's withdrawal of the accusation
Jaguar's counter-accusation against Alberto
the higher authorities' interference
Alberto's accusation \
In the above figure, the mystery is formed by the
planting of three narrative clues: Esclavo's death, the
accusation of murder by Alberto, and the conflicts
caused thereafter in the academy. However, the
examination of the mystery implies not only a study of
the conflicts presented around the murder case, but also
a study of the whole narrative. On the other hand, for
the reader who inquires after the "offered" solution as
part of the textual mystery, detecting the unseen or the
partially revealed is no less significant than exploring
what has been shown in the narrative. Therefore, the
work for the reader is not so "hermeneutically"
structured as Barthes proposes; his theory of the
"hermeneutic sentence" omits the connection between the
reader and the author through the narrative. As Kermode
argues, Barthes's explication contains some "ideological
t
Question
(Esclavo's death)
suspended answer
(Jaguar's confession)
answer
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
147
bias" that ignores the author's manipulation in the
construction of the text (191). Kermode explains that
it is in the communication with the author, with the
message that the author transmits through the narrative,
that the reader functions as an interpreter. Kermode
suggests that there may exist a "hermeneutic gap" in the
narrative, set up by the author, and therefore, "senses
of the narrative are always, in some measure, en jeu
..." (193). The hermeneutic gap represents the
relationship between different crises that the author
leaves unexplained in the narrative. The reader then
needs to detect the "gaps" set in the development of the
narrative "en jeu." Taking the existence of the "gap"
into account, the reader should consider the mystery not
solely upon the crises in a criminal case, but also upon
the relationship set by the inquiry after, and
withholding of, the answer in the narrative. This
relationship obtains between the mystery and the
investigator of the text, where paths (the logic)
towards the truth are hidden and challenge the
investigator. This type of relationship is also
presented when the reader questions the textual logic
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
148
and the solution offered by the author. What this
relationship cannot guarantee is a definite, precise
answer to the mystery in the narrative. To this extent,
the reader of a mystery needs to get into the "play" of
the narrative, and the gaps in the narrative form part
of a challenge, and also a "hermeneutic invitation" for
the reader to access the mystery.
In La ciudad y los perros, the mystery is developed
along with various social themes. However, one cannot
say that the mystery is diluted only because of the
social commitment of the text. Mystery exists not only
in the text but also in the reading, since the reader is
the party that asks whether or not something remains
unexplained through the presentation of the mystery. As
already noted, one problem in the mystery schema is the
"solution" offered by Jaguar's confession. It has been
noted that Jaguar may not have the final answer for
Esclavo's murder, and that his confession could be but a
semblance of the mystery solution— in Barthes's words, a
"delay" that itself forms part of the mystery. It is
therefore necessary to retrace the case and investigate
its solution, in order to see how this semblance is
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
149
built. Accordingly, the investigation of the mystery in
La ciudad y los perros implies an investigation of the
"play" of, and a reading of the gaps in, the narrative.
If one returns to the "hermeneutic sentence"
constructed previously from the three clues (the death,
the accusation and the confession), one would see that
this "sentence" offers only a partial interpretation of
the mystery; this interpretation is actually limited to
the questionable solution— Jaguar's confession. If the
reader sees through the apparent limitation of this
hermeneutic sentence, he or she can see that this
partial interpretation is formed on the basis of a
partial narrative of the mystery. A rule for reading
crime mystery is that anybody can be held suspicious,
and for this text, while having considered those
involved into the crime, one should also examine the
narrative clues and characters that appear to be
unrelated to the murder. One notable clue is that of
Boa who is among the main cadet characters.
The narratives around the story of Leoncio Prado—
the space and the background of the murder mystery— are
developed by two narrators. The first narrator, who
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
150
begins the text, narrates in the third person and traces
the activities of three main characters (Esclavo,
Alberto, and Jaguar). From this first narrator the
reader learns about the three major events around the
crime mystery. The second narrator is Boa; he is a
member of the Circulo, and a close friend of Jaguar.
The first narrator's story develops in two spaces— the
military academy and the city of Lima— as it follows
different characters' lives both inside and outside
Leoncio Prado. Boa's narration, however, though it
keeps an eye on various characters as the first narrator
does, only focuses on what happens inside Leoncio Prado,
the space of the mystery. According to Vargas Llosa,
Boa is "the most primitive character" in the sense that
"he is described only from and internal point of view
..." (A Writer's Reality 52-53). Meanwhile, Boa as the
narrator, also provides the reader with an "internal
point of view" to examine the academy. When telling the
stories of the cadets, Boa usually uses the first person
plural "nosotros," which implies that he is one of them,
that he speaks for them, and he sees what happens among
them (76, 186). Given its centrality, then, Boa's
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
151
narration is a critical part in the novel's narrative
structure— also the structure for creating and
sustaining the mystery— must be examined closely in
order to understand how mystery is constructed in this
text.
Unlike Jaguar, who narrates his story in the first
person and only talks about his childhood before
entering Leoncio Prado, Boa narrates in a style that
depends on stream of consciousness. In other words,
Boa's narrative is not restricted by time and space; it
moves freely between the past and the present, and
changes focus from one character to another. Boa as
narrator reveals the dark side of Leoncio Prado by
exposing the scandals that happened in the past two
years. Also, he pays close attention to what just
happened in the academy in the present year. A large
part of his narrative is about the three incidents
related to the murder mystery: Cava's expulsion,
Esclavo's death, and the conflicts between Jaguar and
the other classmates after Alberto's report of the
murder. So, Boa's narrative should be examined as a
part related to the study of the murder mystery, and
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
152
therefore, one need also to study the relationship
between the narrator Boa and the murder mystery.
In Part I of the text, Boa's narration focuses on
the history of the Circulo (31-35, 67, 76). But, at the
same time, he keeps mentioning— and therefore showing
his attention to--a present incident: the denunciation
and expulsion of Cava. At the end of his story about
the history of the Circulo, Boa complains about the
present events concerning Cava: "... lastima que el
Circulo no volviera a ser lo que era ... que seria que
todos nos fregaramos por el serrano Cava, que lo dieran
de baja, que nos dieran de baja por un cochino vidrio
[the window that Cava broke when stealing the
exam]"(85). Therefore, Boa's story about the Circulo in
the past two years is actually connected to his concern
for the present crisis in this underground organization
to which he belongs. Boa is not only a storyteller
here, but also the one that relates the past with the
present: he provides an overview of the situation in the
academy.
After tracing the history of the Circulo in the past
two years, Boa's narration focuses on two issues. The
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
153
first is the academy's punishment of Cava; the second is
the story of Malpapeada, Boa's dog (183-186, 230, 246,
284). The two stories are presented separately at
first, but are connected by the incident in which Boa,
furious after seeing Cava's expulsion, breaks the dog's
leg (230-35). While Boa is presenting the expulsion of
Cava, the omniscient narrator intersperses fragments
that tell about the military maneuver in which Esclavo
is murdered. Boa's story about Cava parallels the story
of Esclavo's murder: in both stories the major theme is
victimization, the victimization that Cava and Esclavo
reciprocally cause for each other.10 A question can be
raised about this parallel presentation of
victimization: is Boa's story the other side of the
"coin" (the murder case)? In other words, does Boa's
narration represent from another perspective the murder
mystery? Following this question, one should notice
that Esclavo's death is a turning point in Boa's
narration. After Esclavo's death, Boa begins to pay
close attention to his classmates' reaction to the
tragedy. He stops talking about the story of the past
two years, and focuses on the present situation in the
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
154
academy. His eyes follow Alberto and notice that
Alberto is the one most saddened by Esclavo's death.
Boa also notes some changes in Jaguar (303). Boa's
observations of Alberto and Jaguar form another parallel
with the narrative in the third person that presents the
conflicts between Alberto and Jaguar. But after
Gamboa's investigation of the murder is prohibited in
the academy, Boa's voice falls silent (339). He
disappears when the murder case is ignored in the
academy. He says: "Cuando saiga del colegio no volvere
a ver nadie de aqui ...," and the fact is that he not
only avoids seeing his classmates again; he is also
hidden from the reader, from the functions of a narrator
(304). In sum, as narrator, Boa offers the reader an
indirect yet substantial presentation of the murder
mystery. He begins his stories with Cava's expulsion,
the cause of Esclavo's death; he ends with an "innocent"
description of Gamboa's search of the cadets' residence
and the intended investigation of the murder (337-39) .11
Therefore, Boa as narrator is confined to the stories
that happened inside the academy.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
155
In the narration in third person, Boa as a character
is also confined to Leoncio Prado. The fate of each
main character is clear in the end except for that of
Boa. In the epilogue, the reader is informed that
Alberto graduates and goes back to his old circle of
friends, Gamboa leaves for his new post, Jaguar works in
a bank, and Esclavo's death is actually forgotten even
by Alberto. But there is not a word about the character
Boa. He last appears in a dispute with Jaguar at the end
of Part II (404). It seems that Boa, like Esclavo, does
not survive the military academy, and also, like
Esclavo, his existence is "eradicated" with the murder
case. Boa's textual "disappearance" marks a gap in the
narrative. How could the fate of a main character and
storyteller be omitted from the text after the reader
knows so much about him--his own secrets and those he
reveals? Another problem that needs study is the
"double presentation" of Boa in the text: Boa as
character and Boa as narrator. Although both figures
have the same fate— they disappear without a trace— the
presentation of Boa's character and his self
representation do not coincide. The omniscient narrator
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
156
depicts the character Boa as a ferocious and cruel
person, while the narrator Boa shows himself as a young
man with tender feelings. In the events taking place at
Leoncio Prado, Boa the character is observed, while Boa
the narrator observes other characters and only
occasionally mentions himself. Even so, some contrasts
are still found between the presentation of Boa the
character and Boa's self-depiction.
The first contrast lies in Boa's attitude towards
Cava's expulsion. When the Circulo figures out that an
informer has denounced Cava, Boa the character is the
first person to talk about punishing the informer: "— A
ese [informer] no lo toca nadie .... A ese me lo dejan a
mi" (164). But the narrator Boa never mentions any
intention to exert revenge. He puts forward Jaguar as
the dangerous figure and relates Jaguar to Cava's case:
"No creo que exista el diablo, pero el Jaguar me hace
dudar ..., el Jaguar es una bestia ... un bruto como no
hay dos. i... como adivino lo del serrano [Cava]?"
(174) .
As a narrator, Boa shows his sympathy for Esclavo's
death, and he even stops calling the name "Esclavo" and
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
157
uses the victim's real name (287). Meanwhile, before
Alberto accuses Jaguar of the murder, Boa's observation
of the class connects the two crucial figures to
Esclavo's death. Boa first notices some changes in
Alberto: "Martes, miercoles, jueves, hoy en la manana,
siempre el primero en el patio, con su cara larga y
mirando sabe Dios que cosa, sonado con los ojos abiertos
... esta malogrado de pena .... Lo ha demolido la muerte
de su yunta [Esclavo]" (287). Boa also assumes that
Alberto has played a role in the murder of Esclavo: "es
el unico pata [friend] que tuvo en el colegio el
Esclavo" (285) . So, his apparent concern for Alberto is
also a concern for Esclavo's death. Boa's narration
again puts forward Jaguar when he tries to show the
change in the cadets brought about by the death:
"[Jaguar] se convierte muy iracundo ..., todos estan
distintos, a lo mejor yo tambien, solo que no me doy
cuenta. El Jaguar ha cambiado mucho ..., yo pesco todas
las cosas" (303). But that is not all. When depicting
Jaguar's change after el Esclavo's death, Boa turns back
to Cava's case, and again reveals Jaguar's intention to
exert revenge for Cava: "El Jaguar decia: 'Dos horas no
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
158
mas para saber quien es [the one that denounces Cava];
menos, una basta; abres las narices y descubres a los
soplones ahi mismito'" (303). Jaguar's intention is
reiterated by Boa and is actually presented along with a
mention of the murder of Esclavo, and this connection
between Jaguar and the murder in Boa's narration
coincides with Alberto's later accusation against
Jaguar.
When Jaguar is taken into custody after Alberto's
report to Gamboa, Boa once again becomes the witness to
Jaguar's reaction: "No me extrana nada del Jaguar, ya
sabia que no tiene sentimientos, a quien le va a
asombrar que quiera meternos a todos en la sopa. Dice
que le dijo: todo el mundo esta fregado si me friegan,
no me extrana" (313).
After Gamboa's search of the residence, the center
of the conflicts shifts from the murder case to a
"traitor scandal" in which Jaguar is rejected by the
other cadets for being a "soplon" (informer). After
Jaguar is released, Arrospide, one of Jaguar's
classmates, tells him: "Apenas te metieron al calabozo,
i,sabes que paso? ... Tu lo dijiste al Boa y al Rulos
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
159
[members of the Circulo] que si te fregaban jodias a
toda la seccion. Y lo has hecho, Jaguar" (393-94). Now,
the narrative does not reveal the identity of the person
who tells Arrospide what Jaguar has only told Boa and
Rulos. Since Boa has already mentioned that he is
discontented with Jaguar, and he also says "Me gustaria
que lo fregaran al Jaguar, a ver que cara pone ..."
(174), the reader could then ask whether Boa is the one
who sets Jaguar up into an unfavorable situation, and
who makes Jaguar considered "traitor" among the
classmates. However, in the third-person narrative, the
character Boa fights with the other cadets and protects
Jaguar; Alberto believes that Boa is Jaguar's only
friend and defender (395-96). Thus Alberto wonders: "Lo
raro ... es que tampoco le habla [Jaguar] al Boa. Me
explico que ya no se junte con el Rulos, que ese dia se
corrio, pero el Boa saco la cara, se hizo machucar por
el .... Ademas, la seccion tambien parecia haber
olvidado la intervencion del Boa. Hablaban con el, le
hacian bromas ..." (403). Now, how would one explain
Alberto's question? What can be implied by this
contrast between Boa the narrator and Boa the character?
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
160
In pursuing the above questions, one finds at the
same time that the narrator Boa is speaking for himself,
and revealing so much information about his classmates,
there is not much chance to observe Boa from outside of
his narrative. As R.A. Kerr points out, the reader
learns most of Boa's background from his own narration
(36). According to Kerr, Boa's own narrative shows his
inner world, "the other side of his character, one that
contrasts with, and to some extent ameliorates the
brutish element [in him]. His cruelty ... is mitigated
by his ingenuous, puerile nature" (38). Kerr also
believes that Boa's narrative proves the immaturity and
naivete of this figure, and even finds that Boa may be a
better person than Jaguar: "Although he [Boa]
participates in the humiliation of Fontana [a teacher at
the academy], his monologues reveal that Jaguar and Cava
were the major instigators of these incidents" (38-39).
However, considering the differences between the
character Boa and the narrator Boa, and Boa's role in
the narrative of the murder mystery, the reader needs to
ask if one can believe everything Boa says— that is, if
one can take him as an objective, uninterested narrator.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
161
Though Boa says "yo pesco todas las cosas" (303; my
emphasis), the point is however, does he tell "todas las
cosas?"
In the presentation of the murder mystery, Boa the
narrator is an active communicator for the reader in
revealing the incidents surrounding the mystery—
especially those in which Jaguar is involved.
Meanwhile, Alberto and Jaguar, the two central figures
in the mystery, are limited to the position of
characters. Therefore, without Boa, or without taking
Boa as an important witness in the murder mystery, it
would be difficult to accept the solution offered by
Alberto and Gamboa. Although Boa never takes Esclavo's
death as a murder mystery and keeps himself away from
the conflicts around the case, he has a role in the
development of the mystery. In the text, Arrospide
tells Boa: "Pero la culpa de lo que pasa la tienen el
Jaguar, el Rulos y tu, porque no son limpios. Aqui hay
algo que esta oscuro. d.que casualidad que apenas lo
metieron al Jaguar al calabozo?" (339). The reader may
take Arrbspiode's question not only literally but also
as a parallel to the question about Boa's role in the
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
162
narrative of the mystery: in the stories narrated by
Boa, what "esta oscuro," or is hidden away from the
reader? What is Boa's "culpa"?
In the narrative of the murder mystery, Boa is a
figure connecting the present (after Esclavo's death)
and the past (before the death). Through the
presentation of the murder, he casts a net that collects
and transmits the information related to Jaguar and the
murder, and projects a guilty image of Jaguar. At the
same time as he closely observes the incidents around
the murder, Boa tries to diminish his own connection to
the case. He remains an "observer," a "by-stander" and a
"voice." When the case is "dismissed" by the school,
his voice fades, leaving a questionable "open end" to
his narration.12 Now the reader may ask why Boa the
narrator would pay so much attention to manipulating the
presentation of the mystery, a narrative in which Jaguar
is implicated as guilty? Why would he divert attention
away from himself, and why would he try to present
himself as innocent— naive and immature as Kerr
observes— but then disappear without leaving any trace?
With the above questions, one can say that Boa the
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
163
narrator is not only a storyteller but also a "mystery
maker." When one sees the gaps built between the third
person narrative and the narrative by Boa, and questions
Jaguar's confession as a "solution" to the murder, one
would find that Boa the narrator manipulates the
narrative of mystery. He helps to form a guilty image
of Jaguar and constructs the shape of a murder story
from the story by the omniscient narrator. In other
words, he does not have a story of his own; he watches
and then lets the reader share what he sees. Here two
more questions arise. First, can a reader expect that
Boa share with him or her everything he sees? Second,
is there any connection between the murder story told by
Boa, and the part of Boa's own life that is not told at
all? In the detective genre, the criminal is the one
who would not tell a whole and true story, because the
mystery will end once he reveals his role in the
mystery. The analysis of Boa's role in the mystery of
the text manifests that without Boa the narrator's
story, it would be hard to take Jaguar, and only Jaguar,
as the murderer. Yet considering Boa's manipulation in
the narrative of the murder case, Boa himself also can
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
164
be held, by the reader, as a suspect in posing a textual
mystery around the murder.
Through the study of Boa's role in the development
of the murder mystery, one can see that "mystery" exists
beyond the murder case. In other words, mystery does
not only imply the inquiry after and suspension of the
solution to a murder: it also implies a re
interpretation of the text that, on one hand, presents a
criminal case, and on the other, dissolves the case.
The higher authorities of the academy in the story
dismiss the murder case; Boa the narrator "dilutes" the
mystery through the narrative by consistently revealing
some information about the case in front of the reader
but keeping some other information out of sight.
Meanwhile, the figure of Boa himself may be another
solution to the murder mystery, and he may be a better
"candidate" for Esclavo's murderer.
It seems that by now one can reach a "readerly"
solution to the mystery in the text, with Boa as the
target. If Boa is considered the solution for the
murder, one may use Barthes' concept of the "hermeneutic
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
165
sentence' again to illustrate the construction of the
murder mystery:
reader vs. text
Boa's narrative
-narrative about Alberto, Jaguar, Esclavo -
I I
1 I 1
I social themes |
enigma delay --- Jaguar is criminal
^ enigma - delay - Boa is criminal ^
The above diagram shows that by taking into account Boa
the narrator's manipulation in the presentation of the
murder case, all the clues pointing to Jaguar only form
part of the "delay" of the solution to the murder case.
Boa has the final answer for the mystery. However, the
text is closed by the author, while the reading is open
and there should not be only one particular way to
interpret the text. By reading the mystery one can
expand the understanding of the text; however, reading
the mystery is not a way to expand the text or to
rewrite the fiction. So the fact that the reader faces
is that Boa's role in the murder case is still in
question, and questioning Boa's role in the mystery does
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
166
not equal a conclusion of the mystery. The mystery
continues after the closure of the text. Even Vargas
Llosa claims ignorance: "que no sabe a ciencia cierta si
el Jaguar mato o no al Esclavo" (Oviedo La invencion de
una realidad 115). Vargas Llosa presents an open-ended
mystery in the text, and leaves it open even for
himself. So, how to consider this "openness" of the
text is now a question not only related to the murder
mystery but also one that marks the end of a genre
conscious reading. One may use a text by Borges to
further the observation of the "openness" suggested by
La ciudad y los perros.
Borges' story "Hombre de la esquina rosada" offers
a allegorical interpretation of the mystery narrative.
In this text, the first person narrator is also the main
character. He talks about a gaucho leader who is killed
by an anonymous man in a bar. The narrator "I" leaves
the bar when he notices that somebody is keeping an eye
on him; meanwhile, the other gauchos in the bar hide the
dead body and hide the murder case when they hear the
police coming. The narrator keeps talking about the
other people in the bar until the end of the story, when
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
167
he is alone and begins to talk about himself, to tell
"his own story." He says that he takes out his knife
"again"--though he does not say when he took it out for
the first time: "[v]olvi a sacar el cuchillo corto ...
junto al sobaco izquierdo, y le pegue otra revisada
despacio, y estaba como nuevo, inocente, y no quedaba ni
un rastrito de sangre" (107). The knife is the key to
the mystery; it means the solution for the reader. It
is taken out twice: once to kill, to create the mystery,
and the other time to clean it— to hide the crime. In
this story by Borges, even though the dead body is
hidden, the murder is never claimed as a criminal case—
like Esclavo's case in La ciudad y los perros— and the
narrator does not reveal any personal information
directly related to the murder, the reader still gets to
know the solution by seeing the knife. The narrator is
the one that hides the truth from the reader by
manipulating "his own story" in the narrative, but his
knife "betrays" him and let the reader know who the
murderer is. So, for the reader, if the "knife" remains
hidden in the narrative, there will not be any
substantial solution to the crime, and there will remain
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
168
an inquiry into the textual mystery. The knife in
"Hombre de la esquina rosada," like the role of the
detective in criminal fiction, is the symbol of an
objective access to the mystery. In sum, no matter how
complicated a story is, how twisted the plots are, or
how misleadingly the narrator's vision goes, the "knife"
would decide the generic "weight" of the text.
Turning back to La ciudad y los perros, one sees
that the murder mystery cannot be "solved," and the
reader can only gain access to the mystery through the
narrative "en jeu," by detecting the narrative gaps in
the text. If a reader tries to decipher this mystery
like the reader of "Hombre de la esquina rosada," he or
she would fail because there is no "knife" that could
have told all. Boa the narrator offers his observation
of the murder case, from which one could argue that Boa
has a questionable role in the case. But Boa does not
offer any story regarding himself in the mystery. In
other words, unlike the narrator in "Hombre de la
esquina rosada," Boa the narrator never shows a "knife"
to the reader, and thus his disappearance in the
narrative is like the hiding of the key to the mystery.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
169
Besides, there is not any detective functioning in the
text, through which one may get an objective access to
the solution to the mystery. Therefore, what one has
traced through the reading is not a final solution to,
but a dilution of, a mystery.
At the end of the discussion of the mystery in this
text, with both the disappearance of Boa the narrator
and the missing of a detective figure examined as
factors that result in a "dilution" of the mystery, it
is necessary to recall that if Boa's manipulation of the
presentation of the murder case is a narrative issue,
then the lack of a detective figure is a political issue
related to the "dilution." The "missing detective" is
due to Lieutenant Gamboa's failure in making an official
investigation on the murder. Gamboa's case is not a
personal misfortune— the murder mystery remains unsolved
in the story not only because Gamboa is not allowed to
pursue it, job is also doomed to fail under the
narrators' manipulations in the representation of the
crime. That is to say, the character Gamboa does not
have as much privilege as the narrator Boa has in
molding a mystery.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
170
The narrative can be read as a power system of
voice. It is a discipline of empowered voices and
weakened voices, independent from the social power
structure in which the police is a representative of
force and order. In La ciudad y los perros, Gamboa has
the role of police; his work in the academy is one of
punishment and surveillance. But, unlike the detective
fiction in which the police's power is charged with the
crime, Gamboa's power is challenged by the murder case.
He is put in a dilemma to choose either disobeying the
order or neglecting the case, and either choice casts
threats to the power of a police. Gamboa is not the
representative of justice in a tragic story, but the
performer for the military power system— a character
critically defeated by the "power" system of the
narrative, a turn of events that transforms not only the
implications of social criticism, but also the modes of
representing mystery in the text. By presenting the
weakness of the powerful in the text, the narrative
empowers the individuals' voice and challenges the
social power system. But Gamboa, as both an individual
and a representative of the "police" (the powerful),
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
171
remains in a dilemma of power (in the name of
responsibility), and ends up powerless (in textual
dimension) in dealing with the murder. However, since
Gamboa retreats and avoids the challenges to his
(police's) power from both the criminal and his higher
authorities, the reader will not have enough base to
analyze the role of the police in challenging the
mystery. In the next chapter about the case in Quien
mato a Palomino Molero, we will have a chance to discuss
further the function of the individual police and
detective in the construction of a textual mystery.
In sum, the presentation of the mystery in La
ciudad y los perros is a process of dilution of a
conclusive resolution. For the story, the "dilution"
can be read as tangled with the politics of survival (or
self-protection) of the characters. First, officer
Gamboa gives up the investigation and the reader loses a
role of detective. Then Boa, a crucial figure and
narrator, who can be related with the mystery,
disappears from the narrative, and leaves the reader as
an unsuccessful "detective." Finally, the main
character Alberto loses his will to revenge the
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
172
injustice; the end of the story, caught up in his
bourgeois life, he can hardly even remember Esclavo. It
seems that one can finish the reading of the text with
no doubt that the mystery is unsolved and diluted within
a network composed of the uncertainty of fate, morality
and youth.
However, taking into account that in this, the
author's first novel, the dreams and nightmares of the
young writer are also interwoven and function in the
arrangement of the characters' fate, the "diluted"
mystery should also be viewed "intertextually," not as a
formal clue to, but as a connection with, some
background of the creation. In his autobiography El pez
en el agua (1993), Vargas Llosa provides a new context
to re-read the stories of Alberto and Esclavo as well as
the workings of mystery in La ciudad y los perros. By
interimplicating both works, there is no intention to
relocate the plots of one novel onto another textual
body, or renew the trace to a fictitious murder mystery
with its author's biographical information. But, I
would argue that the mystery may not only be "diluted"
within a narrative construction but also symbolically
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
173
"buried away" as a victim for the thematic need of the
text; as Lafforgue notes, "El Esclavo, el Jaguar y
Alberto ... construyen caras de un solo simbolo: la
juventud, ese dolor entre el nino y el hombre .... La
muerte del Esclavo actua como factor desencadenante"
(107-108). Besides Lafforgue's noticing the thematic
connection among the characters, there is another source
to support the view of what one may term the "three-in-
one" entity. In the first, third and fifth chapter of
El pez en el agua, one finds a childhood story similar
to, and even as dramatic as, both Esclavo's and
Alberto's stories.13 In other words, Lafforgue's view
that the murder is a symbolic death is rather
considerable when one approaches the text from the
autobiographical perspective: Esclavo's and Alberto's
childhood bear a measure of resemblance to that of the
author.14 Therefore, death and survival would also imply
a poetic interpretation of the sacrifice and disillusion
a young person has suffered and sublimated, and thus may
make the murder mystery a less strong presence than the
representation of the society and self. In such a case,
the significant issue in the study would no longer be
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
174
limited to tracing a murder mystery or its "diluted"
solution, and would direct the reading to an intangible
"twilight" zone, lying ever since between the different
levels of "reality" in a writer's world, as a possible
answer to the dilution of the murder mystery. This
study will not dilute the reading of mystery by
undertaking a larger consideration of the literary
problem of reality that many students have touched upon,
nor will it go back to the common view of the text as a
literary complex in which mystery may be seen as a mere
anecdote. What prompted this study in the first place
was the desire of seeing mystery as a basis for a
narrative complex and not otherwise, even though the
genre-based mystery may be traced to an inter-textual
scope involving the author's different works.
While the textual complexity of La ciudad y los
perros is always arguable, the next target text, Quien
mato a Palomino Molero seems to emerge as a clear-cut
example of the detective genre, but this novel also
includes various elements that are as problematic as
those in La ciudad y los perros.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
175
Notes
1 See Jose Donoso's "Experiencia personal del Boom."
As for the studies that represent these critical
perspectives, besides those mentioned in this chapter,
see Castro-Klaren, Pedro Lastra, and Rodriguez Lee,
among others.
2 Lafforgue argues: "El Esclavo, el Jaguar y Alberto
... construyen caras de un solo simbolo: la juventud,
ese dolor entre el nino y el hombre .... La muerte del
Escalvo actua como factor desencadenante. Hasta entonces
los jovenes cadetes han representado la farsa del valor
ilimitado, han aceptado las reglas de la violencia ... y
crueldad" (107-109) . Lafforgue also indicates that
after Esclavo's death, "Quiza estos (los cadetes) se
interiorizan, que se repliegan sobre ellos mismos en un
preocupado afan de encontrarse .... Comenzamos a
percibir este giro a traves de ciertos indicios un tanto
externos" ("La ciudad y los perros: Novela moral" 109).
3 Rilda Baker proposes that the narrative structure
of this novel gives the reader a familiar detective-
story frame to encourage the quest for clues leading to
the identities of the characters. The characters'
entities are not indicated in the fragmented stories,
but insinuated with the repeated mentioning of some of
their physical characteristics, or the district where
they come from. For example, one "riddle" for the
reader, according to Baker, is Jaguar's identity. In
order to get a complete story of him, the reader needs
to recognize and connect his past with his present
situation. That means to connect his childhood story
narrated in the first person (fragments in Part I and
Part II) and his conversation with his friend in the
epilogue. This kind of recognition process in the
reading is a riddle solving process for the reader (9-
13) .
4 In criminal fiction, the mystery is often
presented through the victimization circle involving the
main characters: the criminal victimizes the victim, and
the detective "victimizes" the criminal.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
176
5 Kristal quotes from the dialogue between Setti and
Vargas Llosa: "[Faulkner] was the first novelist whom I
wished to remake and rationally reconstruct by paying
attention to how, in his novels, time was organized, how
different spatial and chronological planes intersected
..." (34).
6 In the story, the military authorities, though
endowed with the power to uphold justice, only perform
as an enforcer of rules in the academy. Even though
Esclavo is dead, those in power "kill" him again by
covering up the truth. After the high officials
prohibit the investigation, a superficial peace is
maintained in the school and justice is sacrificed.
7 One can find many examples of this in Poe, Doyle,
Chesterton and Christie, in which the crime scene
contains clues to the solution and is presented as a
major part of the mystery.
8 See note 3.
9 Terry Eagleton makes a general explanation about
hermeneutic theory in Literary Theory, "Heidegger
describes his philosophical enterprise as a 'hermeneutic
of Being'; and the word 'hermeneutic' means the science
or art of interpretation ..."(66). With the problem of
textual "interpretacidn" in modern literary studies, the
following questions are asked and show some problems in
literary reception: "What is the meaning of a literary
text? Can we hope to understand works which are
culturally and historically alien to us? Is 'objective'
understanding possible?" (66). On the other hand,
Hirsch indicates that a literary work can be different
in "significance" for different readers in different
times: "Significance vary throughout history, whereas
meanings remain constant; authors put in meanings,
whereas readers assign significances"(67).
10 Cava is expelled because of Esclavo's
denunciation, and Esclavo is killed for having denounced
Cava.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
177
11 Boa claims that Jaguar must have denounced some
cheating of the cadets and causes this search.
Esclavo's death is not mentioned at all in the last part
of Boa's narration (335).
12Among the three narrators in the text, only two of
them complete their stories. Jaguar finishes his
childhood story at the point of his enrollment in the
military academy, and the third person narrator finishes
his story by indicating Alberto and Jaguar's fates after
graduation from the academy. Boa's story however,
vanishes in the middle of the fights among the cadets
after the search, without revealing any result of the
conflicts or the destiny of himself.
13 La ciudad y los perros is not the only work
linked with the author's autobiography. In La tia Julia
y el escribidor, Conversacion en La Catedral and El
hablador, for example, the author has also applied
personal experience into the plots. In El pez en el
agua the author narrates his life and literary
experience in the odd-numbered chapters, and his
political adventure during the years from 1987 to 1990
in the even-numbered chapters, which ends with his
failure in the presidential election.
14 All the aspects of Esclavo's childhood resemble
Vargas Llosa's own: the love and indulgence from the
mother's side, the marital problem of his parents, and
the strictness of the father toward the son reflected as
cruelty and indifference of paternal power in the
intimidated child's mind. Alberto's image reflects the
adolescent author who possesses some survival skills in
the paramilitary school, while also spiritually
alienated from the paternal power. References can be
found in La ciudad y los perros (15-16,71-73), and El
pez en el agua (18-19).
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
178
Chapter IV
Anti-genre: The Mystery in ^.Quien mato a Palomino
Molero?
Las verdades que parecen mas verdades , si les
das muchas vueltas, si las miras de cerquita,
lo son solo a medias o dejan de serlo.
(cQuien mato a Palomino Molero? 107)
As I have discussed in chapter III, La ciudad y los
perros employs experimental narrative strategies driven
by the trace of a mysterious crime. With its textual
construction of mystery, La ciudad y los perros can be
considered a text supported by a generic discourse of
detective fiction, even though it is not commonly
recognized as a detective story. But one can
nevertheless read the text through the tension of enigma
and inquiry. ^.Quien mato a Palomino Molero? (1986)
seems to be a counterpart of La ciudad y los perros, a
text whose plot involves crime mystery and detective
work, but in which mystery presentation and the
narrative construction are problematic if read from the
viewpoint of genre.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
179
Many critics--Efrain Kristal, Keith Booker, Roy
Boland, Wesley Weaver III, and Julio Ortega— believe
that ^Quien mato a Palomino Molero? is the author's
detective novel. Moreover, since the novel's
publication, they have believed it to be one of Vargas
Llosa's less successful novels. Julio Ortega even
claims that it is the least interesting of his novels
(971) .1 Such opinions seem to suggest an aesthetic gap
between the pop-cultural elements— such as those
represented by detective fiction— and critics' aesthetic
expectations for "serious" novels. However, aside from
reference to the text's status as a detective novel,
they provide little explanation of why or how this work
is not one of Vargas Llosa's acclaimed works. These
aspects of the novel's reception— its generic
affiliation and "unpopularity" with the critics— will
prompt my rereading and analysis of the novel.
The story starts with a grotesque scene of torture
and murder. The victim is Palomino Molero, a "piuranito
que cantaba boleros" (8). The police lieutenant Silva
and his assistant Lituma begin the investigation first
among the local people who know about the victim. They
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
180
receive the tip that Palomino Molero has been involved
in a deadly love affair with a woman who lives near the
airport. The information they have gathered leads them
to the airforce base where Palomino Molero used to
serve. There they meet the head official of the Base,
Colonel Mindreau, and his daughter, Alicia. The
commander is not in a co-operative mood, which makes the
police suspicious about the involvement of the military
base in the murder case. While investigating, two
incidents offer the police new clues about the murder.
First, a pilot named Dufo, who frequents local bars and
gets scandalously drunk, confesses to the two police
that Palomino Molero was killed for a serious offense
("pico alto" 69). Then, the police station receives an
anonymous tip, asking them to visit a certain Dona Lupe
at Amotape. Alluding to Mindreau and Dufo, Dona Lupe
reveals that Palomino Molero and his lover used to hide
in her place and were taken away by two military men.
The testimony of Dona Lupe is a turning point in the
story, as the question from then on is not who killed
Palomino Molero, but what would be the motive. As
Colonel Mindreau accuses Palomino Molero of raping his
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
181
daughter, the daughter, Alicia, presents another version
of the mystery: Palomino Molero has been punished by her
father, who tries to cover his incestuous relationship
with Alicia. The whole case ends with Mindreau's denial
of Alicia's accusation and his suicide. As he also
killed Alicia, there seems to be no way of finding the
truth. At the same time, the local people are not
satisfied with the most obvious solution to the case,
and more rumors are roused: "big fish" involved in
espionage and weapon smuggling with foreign countries
have murdered Molero, Mindreau and Alicia in order to
silence their witnesses. The local people also question
the two police officers about helping the "big fish" to
cover the scandal. Meanwhile, the officers' work is not
credited by their superiors, and both of them are
transferred away. During the investigation of the
murder case, Lieutenant Silva also sets forth a personal
"task" to seduce a married lady, which fails along with
his detective work.
One could argue that everything a detective story
usually contains could be found in this novel; its title
initiates the suspense, the beginning of the text
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
182
presents the victim and a crime scene, the case is
claimed a "mystery" by the police, the detectives are
protagonists, and their investigation and solution are
presented as the major element in the plot. Nana
Badenberg, Alexander Honold and Sussanne Horstmann draw
even more links between the text and traditional
detective fiction. They suggest that the narrative
structure is generically triadic: "1) exposicion del
asesinato (pregunta). 2)Proceso de averiguacion y
reconstruccion. 3) Solucion/Conviccion del asesino
(respuesta). La fase mas importante en esta triada es
la segunda, que normalmente ocupa la mayor parte del
espacio de la narracion" (218). Besides, they take the
police characters Silva and Lituma as an imitation of
the Holmes-Watson combination, featured in the famous
traditional detective stories (290).2 They also argue
that the motive of the crime is related to some scandal,
some fatal secret— a situation commonly seen in
detective stories (292). Other critics, such as Booker
and Weaver, suggest that the text is a detective story
because it follows a commonly seen plot: the
investigation of the criminal case. However, these
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
183
critics do not develop any further the analysis of
whether such a plot supports crime mystery as the
structural core of the detective story. Badenberg
raises the question of how to define the genre of the
detective story. Are the arguments listed above enough
to place a narrative in the genre of the detective
story, or are there other factors?
Borges once suggested a metaphor for the culture of
writing: though the camel is, for many, a symbol of the
Arab world, one cannot dispute Mohammed's status as Arab
simply because he did not write about camels in Alcoran.3
By implication, one cannot automatically get one's text
in a culture-referential relationship with the Arabs by
writing about camels. By the same token, I suggest that
the crime scene, the detective character and the plot of
investigation in £.Quien mato a Palomino Molero? should
firstly be viewed as signs, rather than be taken
automatically as confirmation, of the text's generic
inclination.
Based on what has been argued in the first two
chapters of this dissertation, I can specify that the
core of a detective story does not lie in the plots of
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
184
crime and detective work, but in the establishment of a
genre-conscious narrative mode that involves the reader
not only in some fictitious game between criminal and
detective, but also in the game of writing, through the
pleasure of reading, of critically confronting the
narrative construction and the author himself.
Therefore, the examination of a text's generic validity
should be based on an analysis of the mystery's
narrative development, and not only on a mechanical
comparison between some commonly acknowledged
characteristics of detective fiction and the concrete
plots of a text. Thus, to examine the generic
inclination of ^.Quien mato a Palomino Molero? (which I
will refer to as Palomino Molero), we need to go beyond
what these critics propose.
While most of the critics take Palomino Molero as a
detective story and do not question the causes of the
"unpopularity" of the novel, Julio Ortega points out
that the problem lies in the text's treatment of mystery
writing: "No hay inteligencia en su manejo: el desenlace
no solo es previsible, sino que ademas contradice el
modelo policial, porque los hechos de esta novela no
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
185
arman un enigma, sino, a lo sumo, un melodrama" (975).
Different from the above mentioned critics, Ortega also
observes that the two police characters are not a
Holmes-Watson combination in the story, but a
"caricatura" lacking the seriousness that would support
a mystery narrative (975). Based on his intuition as a
reader of detective fiction, Ortega laments the lack of
clues that create suspense in the novel. His opinion
offers us a new perspective to trace the mystery in the
novel through the narrative, and make us question the
relation between mystery's writing and its reception.
Since Ortega does not analyze further how the plots in
the novel fail to "equip an enigma" ("arman un enigma"),
we will have to examine the formation of the mystery in
the text for an answer. Though the criminal case is
claimed to be a "mystery" by the characters at the
beginning of the novel, and some critics seem to
acknowledge it as an index of the generic nature of the
narrative, we are still free to either take seriously
what is claimed in the story, or check it further
through an examination of the narrative construction.
Getting to this question, two aspects of the novel's
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
186
narrative should be noted immediately: the trace of the
crime mystery and the textual structure around the
presentation of the mystery.
As to the trace of the mystery, it can be argued
that there is no room in the narrative for "suspense,"
for information about the crime is provided not in a way
to form clues inviting the reader's participation
through the narrative. The notion of "suspense" here
does not refer to a conflict situation such as
"frightened-wife-alone-at-night" (George Dove 50), which
provokes the expectation of something terrible in the
story. It is rather a structure of communication
between the writer and the reader, "a product of stasis,
with thrust and delay in a sort of equilibrium" through
narrative (Dove 105). As Dove points out, suspense in a
detective story can be accessed in term of four phases:
"cumulation (the phase that accommodates the development
of promises, clues, questions, tensions which will
determine later effects); postponement (the phase in
which the promise of early resolution is deferred);
alternation (the period of doubt, where the chances
regarding the outcome are uncertain); and potentiality
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
187
(the crisis, in which chances appear to be favoring a
given outcome)" (50). All these phases in the structure
of suspense suggest that it is not simply a matter of
some missing information in the process to solve a
mystery, but rather a construction of "messages and
signals that draw the reader into the story ..." (Dove
40). In other words, the suspense depends not on the
plot but on the trace of the plot. So, Dove argues:
"Suspense takes place only when the reader is involved
in the story and suspense is dependent to a far greater
degree upon what the reader has been told than what he
wants to find out" and for formula, such as detective
story, "mere restraint and economy are not enough" (40).
That is to say, suspense will be created only when the
relationship between the missing and the available
information provides both the tension in the narrative
and the reading, and thus forms a flow of message to
support a genre-oriented reception of the text.
In the narrative of Palomino Molero however, what
one sees is not a "flow" but a broken chain of messages.
In the story, after the police visit the victim's
mother, they take their investigation to the airforce
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
188
base where Molero used to serve, but find only a brief
official document that Commander Mindreau uses to
explain away the case and deny any relationship between
the base and the crime. Though one initially believes
that the police have reached an impasse, an officer from
the air base named Dufo, through his scandalous behavior
in the local bars, offers new information that links the
base to the case. Dufo's appearance brings the police
back to the base, where they are rebutted again by
Mindreau. The police again seem unable to get anywhere
in the investigation, until an anonymous tip sent to
their door directs them to Amotape, where they meet a
key witness of the case. Dufo and the tip function in
the narrative as "short-cuts" that prematurely reveal
the truth about how Molero was murdered, and thereby
preempt the police investigation. After the visit to
Amotape, Mindreau's daughter, Alicia, shows up as
another "short-cut" in the mystery when she reveals a
possible background of the crime— a secret concerning
incest— to the police. Before the police can react,
Mindreau claims that he kills Alicia, and closes down
their investigation with his suicide.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
189
The above summary shows that though the two police
officers conduct the investigation from the beginning of
the text, their act does not actually resolve the
mystery that drives the narrative, but instead depends
on "short-cuts" to reach the solution. That is to say,
it is not their work that supports the narrative's
development; on the contrary, timely events support
their work in tracing the mystery and furthering the
narrative.
The key effect of the "short-cut" on the narrative
is not that the author omits the presentation of the
detective's work in the traditional sense (like Holmes),
but that he leaves out the necessary information that
can prompt for the reader to participate in the reading
of the mystery. Like the police, the reader can only
watch and has only one choice: accept the result of the
investigation or stop reading the mystery. What is
presented is not access to, but display of, a solution.
Besides the "short-cut", another factor that
affects the suspense structure in the narrative can be
viewed as the "process of focus" in the presentation of
the mystery, which, as Dove suggests, allows the
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
190
"reader's perception of the mystery independent of the
story" (43), and makes the reader's role no less
significant than the detective's. To view how this
"process of focus" is formed (or deformed), we first
need to examine the base for "the reader's perception"—
the detective's performance in the narrative. One
obvious issue in Palomino Molero is the Silva-Lituma
"partnership," seen by different critics as an important
factor in the construction of mystery. Like Cabrera,
Roy Boland compares the Silva-Lituma pair to Don Quijote
and Sancho Panza. He argues: "Don Quijote y Panza ...
deambulan por La Mancha, la pareja vargallosiana recorre
los senderos polvorientos y los caminos perdidos del
Peru septentrional, deshaciendo males y enderezando
entuertos en pos de la justicia y la verdad" (167). But
one should observe the function of "pair" not only
through their performance in the plots, but also in the
narrative's development. The "pareja vargallosiana" is
not comparable with the "pareja cervantina," as Boland
suggests, because the latter supports the narrative
through the tension between the spiritual highness and
secular madness of their adventures, among many other
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
191
things. Indeed, it is doubtful that one could encounter
such narrative tension between the Silva partners.
More critics believe that the two police's
cooperation resonates with the Holmes-Watson
relationship.4 However, the Holmes type functions more
as a narrative factor than as a scene in front of the
reader and other characters. Watson omnisciently tells
Holmes' complete story, but would not necessarily appear
to assist Holmes's investigation in the story. The
Watson model's function in the narrative, much like the
detective's goal in the story, is the solution of the
crime mystery. The examples of the Holmes stories
suggest that the pleasure of suspense in traditional
detective fiction is created when the narrative produces
the opportunity for a double reading: the detective's
assistant connects the detective's reading of the case
and the reader's deciphering of the mystery. But in
Palomino Molero, Lituma rarely stays as a "transistor"
for Silva's work, even though he follows his officer to
all the investigation spots and occasionally listens to
him as the master:
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
192
Huevadas, Lituma - dijo el teniente,
... para mi, la entrevista con
Mindreau fue cojonudas."
— i,Me esta tomando el pelo, mi
teniente? Que bueno que le queden
animo para bromear ...
— Eres pichon en estas lides, Lituma
... Tienes mucho que aprender ....
— Entonces, no entendi nada mi
teniente. A mi me parecio que el
colonel nos basureaba a su gusto ....
— Esas son las puras apariencias,
Lituma. (46-47)5
He has his own mystery investigation, one that concerns
not the actual crime, but a potential scandal in Silva's
private life— an attempt to seduce a married woman. In
other words, his role in the task is not to help the
reader to see how Silva solves a mystery but how Silva
commits a "sin." In such a case, unlike Watson, Lituma
is an independent investigator and a source of clues.
Although Batenberg argues that Lituma functions as
Watson through the official position he holds as Silva's
assistant, he is merely a parody of Watson: he does not
share Watson's role in the narrative, which is loyal to
a mystery formula.
Because Lituma's investigation is not centered on
the mystery of the crime, one also needs to examine the
relationship between such plots and the narrative of
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
mystery. On the one hand, Silva is the investigator for
the case, but on the other, he is under investigation by
Lituma, who "betrays" his officer from time to time in
order to probe into the truth of the officer's love
affair. For example, Lituma would follow Silva's order
to help to keep an eye on Adriana, the officer's dream
lover, yet he would also frankly tell Adriana what Silva
has in mind about her, and even further, gauge Adriana's
reactions to Silva's motive (78-79). Moreover, he also
informs the villagers and his friends about Silva's
"affair" as an honest by-stander, not protecting his
officer's secret by all means (10). For a reader of
detective story, Lituma's "betrayal" might not be seen
as a personal deficiency but as a discursive need: in
order to reach the truth of the "affair," Lituma, like
any detective figure, has to obtain information both
from the offender (Silva) and the sufferer (Adriana).
Lituma's tracking of Silva's "affair" suggests that one
should re-examine critics' claims that the novel's
narrative construction is centered on the mystery of the
crime.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
194
While examining the narrative built around the
mystery of the crime, one should notice that all the
generic elements of detective fiction only represent a
part of the narrative focus. Another major part of the
text is Silva's attempt to have a "love affair" with
Dona Adriana, fisherman Mafias's wife, owner of a local
canteen, who is much older than Silva. Like the murder
case, rumors about this affair circulate among the local
people throughout the story. Though Silva routinely
pursues Doha Adriana, the resolution of this plot is
held in suspense: the "affair" exists only in Silva's
obsession and local people's gossip.
Critics differ in their interpretation of the love
affair plot. Many of them would not even regard the
affair as a major plot in the text. Badenberg, Honold
and Horstmann consider Silva's pursuit after Doha
Adriana to be a supporting story that helps to shape the
detective story:
Lo importante dentro de este episodio
amoroso no es su fracaso final sino
el fracaso conjunto de ambos
propositios, estando ligada la
pretension privada del Teniente Silva
con su exito como detective ....
Gracias al nivel burlesco de la
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
195
relacion entre Silva y Dona Adriana,
tambien la accion detectivesca no
puede ser tomada en serio, terminando
en el mismo desastre que los deseos
amorosos. (284)
Weaver suggests that the love affair is a "fallo" and
"obsesion personal" that tints the detective story with
some local color (172) . Booker takes a similar stance
in considering the affair a "comic-erotic subplot" of
the narrative (153). As for Ortega and Kristal, they do
not mention it in their studies of the text.
Vicente Cabrera, however, differs from the others
in reading the two plots— the murder case and Silva's
affair— as mutually complementary and equally important
for the narrative's development:
Las dos historias ... una apunta
hacia la muerte y la investigacion
del caso Molero, la otra al sexo con
anadidos comicos y de humor que
desbaratan los intentos del pobre
heroe. En ambas fracasa, aunque mas
en su empeno por la gorda [Doha
Adriana]. Ni el misterio de la
muerte, ni la gorda se dejaron
conquistar .... El narrador ha
dejado que la historia de la gorda
surja desde dentro de la otra
historia, surja de las palabras, del
humor, de la ironia, de los
personajes que hacen la historia de
Molero. Del mismo modo surgio la
historia de Molero, de la
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
196
observacion, de los ojos de Lituma al
encontrar el cadaver de la victims
.... El narrador como que se esfuma
para dejar libre el paso de la
gestacion, evolucion y culminacion
del destino de los personajes y de la
realizacion de su texto, de su
cuento. (639)
Cabrera actually proposes that the love affair is a
major plot parallel to the narrative of the murder case.
But he does not concern himself with the narrative
function of the affair: he does not examine the question
of whether this parallelism between the stories affects
the construction of the mystery as genre and narrative
or not. When he suggests that the two stories are
complementary, arguing that "La historia de la gorda
surja desde dentro de la otra historia [the murder
case]" (639), his use of the word "surgir" is ambiguous,
and it could imply— as do other critics--that the story
of the love affair adds to, or depends on, the murder
case. However, he does not elaborate on the narrative
function of the affair in forming— or deforming— the
mystery and in determining the text's genre. Thus, the
relationship between the two stories in the mystery
remains unclear.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
197
The narrative trace of the criminal case in
Palomino Molero is presented in several stages. It
begins with a crime scene (9), and the investigation is
centered on four key figures in the story: the pilot
Dufo, the airforce base commander Mindreau, his daughter
Alicia, and Dona Lupe. The investigation ends with
Mindreau's suicide and the transfer of the two police
officers. Meanwhile, at each stage of the investigation
of the crime, some pieces of information about Silva's
"pending affair" are revealed and form among them a
trace of the police's pursuit of Dona Adriana.
At first glance, it would appear that Silva's
pending affair is presented along with the
investigation. For example, at the beginning of the
text, right after the description of the crime scene and
Lituma's claim that the case is a mystery, the local
people show great curiosity about another issue and ask:
"i,el Teniente Silva se tiro ya a la gorda?— pregunto
Jose ... al paso que va, se morira sin tirarsela—
suspiro Lituma" (10). This scene shows that there may
not be less inquiry about the rumored "love affair" than
about the solution of the murder case; and it is
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
198
arguable that the beginning of the criminal
investigation is also the beginning of the plot
concerning Silva's affair.
Common sense in real life might lead some to think
that people pay more serious attention to a crime than
to an anecdote in a person's private life. However, in
analyzing a mystery presented in a text, attention
should also be paid to the range of the reader's
function. In other words, interpretation should be
restrained by the textual communication made available
by the genre. One should note that the reader is
involved in the game of writing but not the game of
"catching the criminal." As one can see in the text,
the pursuit of the case is based on the same type of
curiosity Lituma shows for the love affair. He
interprets the nature of the motivation to investigate
the crime from more than one angle: "mas que una
necesidad de justicia o de venganza, sentia una
curiosidad avida por ver sus caras, por escuchar los
motivos que habian tenido para hacer lo que habian hecho
con Palomino Molero" (33). In this passage, Lituma
identifies himself with the reader of the mystery text,
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
199
as his explanation insinuates that it is more a
"readerly" desire than a social responsibility to solve
the mystery. Thus, the murder case and the love affair
can be taken to be two equally important objects in
front of Lituma's (and the local people's) readerly
curiosity. In other words, the readerly curiosity
functions for both parties as an original connection
between the investigation of the case and the probe into
Silva's "attempted" affair, and makes both weigh equally
in the inquiry from the reader.
Further analyzing the narrative development, one
would find that readerly curiosity renders the two
stories parallel through the whole narrative. Besides
the local people's curiosity, the parallel between the
case and the affair in the story is confirmed by
Lieutenant Silva himself, who claims: "[E]ste cristiano
no se morira sin tirarse a esa gorda y sin saber quienes
mataron a Palomino Molero. Son mis dos metas en la vida
..." (74). These two narrative trajectories give Silva
a double role, and force his assistant, Lituma, to
become actively involved. A noticeable point is that
Silva's pursuit of Dona Adriana is conducted on a
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
200
routine basis under the surveillance of Lituma, who also
is an intermediary between the development of Silva's
pursuit and the local people's inquiry. The love affair
is thus represented not only as a personal affair that
modifies the character of the detective in the story,
but also as a duty performed by both police.
The presentation of the case and the narrative's
development are often interrupted by Silva's concern
about his own "affair." The problems that Silva faces
in the investigation often are not solved through his
work, but through some unexpected "shortcuts", as we
have previously reviewed. The "love affair" diverts
both the detective and the narrative focus away from the
case, and apparently interrupts the "process of focus"
in the presentation of mystery. This might make one ask
if the "affair" is a secondary story— a mere background
against which the murder mystery is shaped in the
narrative, since Silva's attention to Dona Adriana and
attempts to seduce her are presented at all the
important stages of the criminal investigation, and form
clues for the development of the pending affair.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
201
During the two police officers' meeting with
Mindreau, Silva's expectation of solving the case and
his detection of the military authorities' obstructive
behavior are expressed through his attempt to attract
Adriana:
[s]uspiro Dona Adriana, ... — Digale
que, en vez de estar fastidiando a
senoras casadas, busque a los
asesinos de ese muchacho. — si los
encuentro £.que? — El Teniente
chasqueo la lengua con obscenidad— .
i,Me premiara una nochecita? Por ese
premio los encuentro y se los pongo
esposados a sus pies, le juro ....
Estamos haciendo, mamacita— dijo el
Teniente Silva— . Pero el Colonel
Mindreau no nos ayuda. No me deja
interrogar a los companeros de
Palomino Molero. Elios tienen que
saber algo. (27-29)
Meanwhile, Lituma is presented as an examiner of the
proceeding of the affair: "Siempre es asi: se ponia como
un fosforito con los poropos y las manos largas, pero,
en el fondo, a lo mejor hasta le gustaba. Todas son un
poco putas, penso Lituma" (28). At the end of the
confrontation with Dufo (61-69), Silva talks about the
case with Lituma, but before they find any substantial
clue about Molero's death, he construes the episode as a
loss, because of his thwarted pursuit of Dona Adriana:
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
202
— No le [a Dufo] saque todas las que
sabe— afirmo el Teniente .... — Te
voy a decir algo, Lituma. ^Sabes que
me huelo? .... Que en la Base Aerea
todo el mundo sabe lo que paso....
De pronto, el Teniente hablo con una
voz distinta: — Hazme una gauchada,
Lituma. Date una vuelta por la playa
de los Pescadores. Mira si El Leon de
Talara [Adriana's husband's boat] ya
zarpo ..., si estuviera en la playa,
anda a avisarme a la fonda [de Dona
Adriana] ....
— Quiere decir que voy a tratar—
asintio el Teniente, con una
semirrisita nerviosa— . No se si
ocurrira el milagro esta noche. Puede
que no. Pero nada se pierde
intentando.
«Como puede tener animos en este
momento para eso», reflexiono
Lituma. (73-74)
Though Lituma is suspicious about the Lieutenant's
having changed his mind, he follows the order, and
during the meeting with Adriana, he finds relief from
the crime investigation:
--La verdad es que lo tiene loco al
Teniente, Dona Adriana. Si usted lo
oyera. No habla de otra cosa ....
Para el, usted es la reina de Talara
• • • •
--Que maldad estar burlandose asx de
la prendida del Teniente ....
— lY usted le va a dar gusto aunque
sea una vez, Doha Adirana? ....
— Yo tambien me alegro, Doha Adriana-
-dijo el guardia— . Gracias a nuestra
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
203
charla, me olvide del flaquito que
mataron .... (79-80)
Lituma could trace the affair and forget about the
criminal case forever if it were not for the tip note he
finds later at that same night, which soon brings him
and the Lieutenant to visit Dona Lupe in Amotape.
The visit to Amotape provides a double shift of
view for the narrative. First, the police are in a
place where there is no pressure from the public to
solve the crime, and where they obtain direct
information about the case. Second, by questioning Dona
Lupe, Silva has his obsession with Adriana revealed at a
psychological level:
En el camino hacia Amotape ... el
Teniente habia venido monologando sin
cesar ... sobre el coronel Mindreau y
su hija. Pero, desde que entraron a
la choza de Dona Lupe era como si al
Teniente Silva se le hubiera
eclipsado la curiosidad por Palomino
Molero. Toda la comida no habia hecho
otra cosa que hablar del nombre de
Amotape, o, ... de Dona Adriana.
[e]s que yo la [Dona Adriana] he
visto, Lituma. Ya esta, ya te conte
mi secreto. La he visto banandose en
fustan .... (85-86)
The visit to Amotape is a turning point for the
narrative: as with the information from Lupe, the
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
204
narrative's direction turns from searching for the
murderer's identity to searching for the hidden motive.
Meanwhile, when Silva spies on Adriana's bath, the
narrative from there on is led by the "pursuit" of
Adriana instead of the work on the case. New tension is
incurred between Silva and the canteen owner during the
voyeurism episode, since the later discovers Silva's
aggression when Mindreau's daughter Alicia intervenes at
the scene.6 Alicia comes to the police to tell the love
story that has resulted in Molero's death and to
disclose the scandal of Mindreau's incest, while at the
scene of voyeurism she also helps to move Silva's secret
pursuit of love toward an open crisis (116-39).
The confrontation with Alicia leads the narrative
close to the solution of the mystery. At the same time,
the act of voyeurism thwarted by Alicia also makes
Silva's project of "conquering" Adriana more risky. In
this episode, Lituma witnesses the two plots'
parallelism, yet he does nothing but watches the ending
of the Molero case with Mindreau's suicide. The
dramatic narrative move stimulates the final act of
Silva's imagined affair:
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
205
— iQue vaitios a hacer ahora, mi
Teniente?— Repitio, por fin, Lituma.
— Yo no se que vas a hacer tu -
contesto el oficial.... Pero, te
aconsejo que por el momento no hagas
nada, salvo echarte a dormir. Hasta
que alguien venga a despertarte con
la noticia de esas muertes ....
— ^Adonde esta usted yendo, mi
Teniente?
— A tirarme de una vez a esa gorda de
mierda. (171)
By the end of the narrative, the plots of the case and
the affair diverge: Lituma plays different roles at the
end of each. He and Silva are criticized in the
community as people would not accept the solution of the
crime provided by the police. The local people would
rather believe in a more complicated conspiracy theory
and try to (re)open the case. Their doubts about the
case might not mean a call for justice but merely a
source for their gossip at the local bar (181-83). Yet
the discussion among the people forms a public opinion
that turns not only the mystery but also the two police
officers into a target of disbelief. In this part of
narrative, Lituma is in complete silence, as his role in
the murder case ends. Meanwhile, the unresolved matter
of Silva's "affair" maintains narrative suspense: Lituma
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
206
persists in questioning Adriana and successfully finds
the secret of Silva's final act, upon which he fails to
confront Adriana, and instead runs away from her (185-
87) .
Given the above, one could argue that the
structural divergence in the narrative makes it
difficult to determine the text's genre: the mystery of
the crime is presented in what one may term a de-
constructive way, with the narrative's focus shifting
between the criminal case and the love affair. It is
even arguable that the presentation of the investigation
of the crime leads to a solution not of the crime, but
of the detective's personal scandal. Even as suspense
is lost, or replaced by "short-cuts" in the criminal
mystery, the pending love affair fills in a "blank" left
by such a loss. In other words, the use of the "short
cuts" in the presentation of the mystery sets the
detective free to pursue personal ambitions, enabling
suspense to be transferred from the pending solution to
the mystery to the pending affair.
Even if one understand that the love affair is
built up by tracing the mystery in the narrative in a
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
207
structural relation to the murder case, one still face
the question of why the mystery of who killed Molero is
not the center of critical discussion, as the existence
of one mystery in the narrative does not automatically
render another irrelevant.
Basing his argument on the problematic crime
mystery, Ortega suggests that Vargas Llosa's literary
journey meets a dead end with Palomino Molero, which he
reads as a poor imitation of La casa verde: "Este nuevo
Vargas Llosa (de Palomino Molero) es un mal discipulo
del primer Vargas Llosa: lo imita, sin exito, en sus
formulas, truculencia e inmediatez, desnudando
involuntariamente la empresa mejor edificada del prolijo
maestro" (975). Roy Boland sets his reading of Palomino
Molero against the background of the "Uchucarray
investigation." Vargas Llosa was a part of this
investigation of the murder of several reporters in a
rural area of Peru. Its resolution was strongly
questioned and Vargas Llosa himself vilified by sectors
of the Peruvian press, as Kristal records:
[s]landerous reports were taken up
abroad in newspapers such as The
Times of London ... where articles
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
208
appeared stating that the eight
journalists were murdered to prevent
them from reporting the presence of
Peruvian government paramilitary
forces and that Vargas Llosa had
participated in the commission to
support the Peruvian government's
cover-up of the affair. (151)
Associating the resolution of Vargas Llosa's case with
that of the two police in Palomino Molero, Boland argues
that the novel is a literary response to the public's
skepticism about an investigation that has unpleasantly
marked the author's public life (162-63).7 William Rowe,
from an overview of Vargas Llosa's works, and in
agreement with Boland's opinion, also suggests that the
author's personal experience, especially the influence
of a dependent political morality, makes some of his
works "pathetic but not threatening" in sense of social
commitment and others in "conflict between politics and
creativity" (58-59). These critics all focus on the
writer's "personal demon" as a major clue to the
interpretive problems raised by the text.8 However,
Vargas Llosa's involvement in the "Uchucarray
investigation" should not upstage the text, since it is
the literary object whose reading is at stake.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
209
In his study of Palomino Molero, Boland neither
denies the unpopularity of the mystery story among the
critics, nor expresses any doubt about the literary
quality of detective writing in this text, but he
suggests that the reader should ignore the direct
reading of "el subgenero policiaco" and focus on the
allusion to the Uchucarray investigation (162). He thus
presents the mystery as secondary, privileging Vargas
Llosa's personal background. However, he does not
ignore the generic elements of the text when proposing
his argument. Comparing the text to Garcia Marquez's
Cronica de una muerte anunciada, he argues that "en
Quien mato a Palomino Molero Vargas Llosa se propone un
experimento con el genero policiaco" (165).9 Cronica de
una muerte anunciada is published in 1981, five years
earlier than Palomino Molero. It is about the
narrator's re-investigation of the murder of Santiago
Nazar, a young man accused of having raped Angela
Vicario. Vicario, a bride, is returned by her groom,
San Roman, on the grounds that she is not a virgin. Her
brothers threaten a "revenge" by announcing a plan to
kill Nazar who may be innocent. The text ends with the
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
210
unresolved question of Nazar's innocence or guilt.
Boland's comparison between the two texts emphasizes,
among other things, three points. First, both
narratives focus on murder mysteries, and the victims
are both involved in forbidden love affairs that result
in their deaths--Palomino with Alicia, and Santiago with
Angela Vicario. Second, the investigation of the
mystery is the major thrust of the narrative.10 Third,
both texts criticize "una sociedad que en su
primitivismo, sus tabues y su caracter represivo, es tan
grotesca como los cuerpos mutilados de los dos jovenes"
(167) .
However, if one examines the way in which each text
constructs its mystery, what one may find is not so much
a resemblance, but a contrast between them. First, in
Cronica, Nazar's violation of Angela Vicario is never
presented as a story but an accusation. The "fact" that
causes the murder is actually her groom's rejection of
her. So the romance between Palomino and Alicia does
not have any "equivalent" in Cronica. On the other
hand, by considering the text's narrative construction,
one can argue that there truly is a "love affair" in
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
211
Palomino Molero comparable to the story of Angela
Vicario and San Roman in Cronica: Silva's obsession with
Dona Adriana. These two stories each forms a parallel
with the story of a murder mystery in the narrative.
Yet, one needs to note that, in Cronica, Vicario's love
story is related to the motive of the murder. It forms
part of the investigation and does not distract the
focus on the trace of the mystery, of how the murder of
Nazar happens when it seems unlikely. It can be seen as
a narrative device that "delays" the solution to the
mystery.11 It is presented between the review of the
background of the case and the disclosure of why the
crime is inevitable, and strengthens the tension
established by suggesting the victim's innocence while
building up to his final victimization. Meanwhile, in
Palomino Molero, Silva's love affair dilutes, if not
directly threatens, the generic construction of the
crime's narrative.
In fact, narrative development shows that what is
comparable in Palomino Molero to the mystery
presentation in Cronica is not the crime, but Silva's
love affair. As in Cronica, it shows how the
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
212
unexpected, the seemingly impossible becomes true; in
Palomino Molero, it shows how the expected (the affair)
turns out to be a hoax. However, in Palomino Molero,
the crime and the detectives are not treated "seriously"
in both the narrative construction, where "shortcuts"
replace investigation, and in the story— in the eyes of
the local people.
On examining Boland's argument that both texts
denounce social prejudice and injustice, one may find it
quite arguable that Cronica digs up the social roots of
a simple crime: the narrative tension built up over
Nazar's death and innocence highlights both the social
prejudice at work in the expectation of the bride's
virginity and the villagers' ignorance of Nazar's
endangered life. Besides, the narrative presents a
reinvestigation and rewriting of the historic basis of a
mystery, and thus constructs a contemporary response to
a past case through a literary itinerary. In contrast,
in Palomino Molero, the major question posed in the
narrative is the local people's doubt about the solution
of the crime: they suspect that the officer's greed has
made them collude with the criminals and make up more
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
213
complicated backgrounds for the case. Therefore, the
two texts diverge in that Palomino Molero criticizes the
local people not as participants in the construction of
the mystery, but as "readers" of the mystery who deny
the "reading" offered by the detective. In other words,
the villagers in Palomino Molero are more a voice than
they are characters: they represent a force resisting
any official, affirmative ending to the story of the
crime.
One could ask whether the criticism of social
defects should be accessed within fiction on a realistic
base or, better, on a textual base. This question,
together with the problem of the "reader" in the text—
most obviously represented by the local people who keep
an eye on the police's work— offer another perspective
to access the question about this text's genre. In
comparison with Cronica de una muerte anunciada, one
could find that the paradigm of mystery started with the
murder case is diverted in Palomino Molero by the
frequent replacement of the narrative of the case with
that of the affair. The narrative structure of this
text does not support the development of the criminal
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
214
case into a mystery discourse that could dominate the
text. In such a situation, when we study the problem of
the "reader" in the text, Lituma's role in the
narrative's development should also be considered in
light of the question of how "reading" works in the
presentation of the mystery.
As mentioned previously, some critics argue that
Lituma is a parody of Watson, and that the text thus is
driven by mysteries of the "affair" and the crime.
However, in the narrative's presentation of the
relationship between the mystery and its reader, this
character also mediates between the case, the affair and
the villagers— the reader in the mystery. Thus we meet
another aspect of the reading of Palomino Molero: the
"reader" (as character in the story) facing the genre-
centered reading.
Out of a sense of personal burden more than social
responsibility, Lituma informs the local people and
therefore also the reader of the two cases, of some
crucial facts at the beginning of the narrative:
— Es— asintio Lituma— . Lo averigumos
y es. Palomino Molero, de Castilla.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
215
Solo que eso no resuelve el misterio
de quien lo mato ....
— iAcaso la autoridad alia en Talara
no es usted, compadre? — Se
sorprendio Josefino.
— El Teniente Silva y yo somos la
autoridad policial. La que no coopera
es la Aviacion. Y como el flaquito
era avionero, si ellos no cooperan,
quien carajo va a cooperar ....
— Es verdad, ... no puedo quitarme al
flaquito [Molero] de la cabeza. Tengo
pesadillas .... (9-10)
For a moment, it seems that the murder has a true impact
in Lituma's life: "Se habia estado divirtiendo con los
juegos del Teniente, pero se acordo del flaquito y se le
acabo la diversion" (27). Meanwhile in the narrative,
Lituma is loyal neither to Silva nor to the
investigation of the criminal case, and that his role
thus is different from that of Watson in the
presentation of the mystery. Yet one could still argue
that Lituma functions as Watson in the narrative at one
spot— in the Talara area, among the local people. He
thus functions as a Watson only for the "readers" in the
story: for the villagers who are desperately curious
about both the crime and Silva's affair, and who would
frequently rely on Lituma for information.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
216
However, the true importance of the local people as
readers of the mystery is not that they interact with
Lituma or Silva during the investigation of the cases
but that they support, and even "take-over," the
development of the case in certain stages of the
narrative. For example, in the last chapter of the
novel, the parallel developments of the crime
investigation and Silva's "affair" are ended when
Lituma'’s and the local people's investigations diverge:
— Ya no puedo mas de la curiosidad—
dijo el guardia [Lituma], bajando la
voz .... i,No me va a contar que paso
la otra noche entre usted (Adriana) y
el Teniente?....
— Tambien se ha dicho que pudo ser
algo de espionaje, mas que de
contrabando--oyo decir a Don
Jeronimo, quien se habia puesto de
pie y conversaba con la pareja de
Zorritos .... Se le he oido al dueno
del Cine Talara. Y Don Teotonio Calle
Frias es hombre serio ....
— Cuando el rio suena, piedras trae—
corroboro Marisa.
— En fin, Doha Adrianita, no se
moleste por la pregunta, tengo que
hacersela porque me come— susurro
Lituma, buscando la palabras— £Se
acosto con el Teniente? ....
— Como te atreves a preguntarme eso
— Que Palomino Molero descubrio que
pasaban secretos militares al Ecuador
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
217
y que por eso lo mataron .... (179—
81)
Lituma begins to focus on Silva's "affair," while the
local people— the readers of the mystery— begin to
challenge what the police, as well as the reader outside
the text, have just finished reading about the crime.
They offer a reaction to the mystery in the text, before
the reader of the text ever can. As "readers," the
local people challenge the generic construction of the
text. In other words, they appear to be a threat, if
not a destructive force, against the credulity of the
police's work. The structural problem of the mystery
arises from the embedding of these "readers" into the
text: they simulate the real reader's participation in
the textual communication, by prejudging the mystery,
and thereby alter the story's reception. The "sharp
turn" in the Palomino story in the end of the narrative
can be perceived not only as revealing new but
potentially false leads, but also as shifting from
presentation to reception of the mystery.
More so than the other plots in the text, this
function of the local people as "readers" is the main
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
218
challenge to the construction of the mystery of the
crime. These "readers'" presence throughout the whole
narrative, not only at the end, makes the text a closed
circle. Their role in the narrative is to set up what
can be called the "trap of the big fish." "Big fish"
seems to have a broad allusion to any hidden power at
work in the manipulation of crimes or scandals in
countless Western detective stories, with backgrounds
ranging from the Cold War to global economic crisis.12
But it never possesses a definition. In Palomino
Molero, the question about the "big fish" could be
viewed as encouraging the "readers" (the villagers) to
proceed not with the mystery investigation but with the
"reading." What the finding of the "big fish" can
promise to the "readers" is not justice or relief, but
the pleasure of observing the case. Under such an
expectation, a story that does not provide any "big
fish' to its readers would be condemned. This was the
response to Palomino Molero, whose case is "ruined" when
the "readers" in the story reject the deviation of the
Molero case from the conventions of the detective genre.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
219
In this novel, the "big fish" behind the murder is
a definite expectation, if not a belief, among the
people, from the villagers to the soldiers in the
airbase, and even Lituma and Silva, who for a moment
would comment that the case "depende de los peces gordos
[big fish]" (155).13 Such a "trap" can also cause the
outside reader's expectation of the involvement of some
"big fish" in the criminal case. In other words, by
inquiring, from the beginning of the narrative, about
the possible role of the powerful class in the crime,
the people undermine the question of who killed Palomino
Molero. The narrative presentation of the criminal
investigation is sustained by the people's unbroken
doubt about the "big fish." This "trap" keeps the
solution questionable in the eyes of its reader and
diverts the reader from detecting the text's
construction of the mystery. Kristal observes that the
clues to the mystery remain unexplored, but the reader
"has little reason to care" about the lack of "necessary
information to confirm the solution ..." (156). This is
because of the presence of the "trap."
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
220
When a narrative falls into this "trap," a genre
conscious reading is doomed to fail. The masses' role
as "readers" in the story casts the shadow of a "big
fish" over the scene of reading, which limits the
reader's view and turns the suspense into an
expectation. This destroys the usual openness of the
mystery narrative, encouraging the reader to pursue a
preset goal that finally denies the mystery's validity
and causes it to fail in a generic sense. Aside from
the narrative's move toward invalidity, the "readers" in
the story help to form a denial to the solution of the
mystery, a denial that provide the text with a
protective armory against questioning from outside the
text. Thus the actual reader of the text is excluded
from the mystery, since it is predigested by the reader
inside the text. What the actual reader finds in this
case is a denial, instead of a construction, of mystery.
Another question regarding the masses as "readers"
in the story is that, like the characters involved in
the murder, they also form part of the "text-object,"
facing the examination from the reader outside the text.
How is one to read them if they act only as readers in
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
221
the narrative? If they, as characters, only provide a
"reading" in the story? Many traditional detective
stories use reading as a mode of narrative. As George
Grella notes, "the quest motif often supplies its
structure" as the reader attempts to close the gap
between question and solution (412) . The role of
reading is to establish the mystery's credibility for
the reader. The communication between reader and text
is established through a double reading— the detective
working from within, and the reader working from outside
of, the criminal case. But in Palomino Molero, the
reading is not the detective's work, but the local
people's, and their reading actually does not do much to
examine the mystery's milieu, in which they themselves
play a part. That is to say, the primary feature of
traditional detective fiction, the reading by the
detective, is missing. The detective's function as
reader is partially replaced by the local masses, who
read only the outcome of the mystery, but not the
relation between different factors that constitute the
mystery.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
222
If we note the narrative working of Palomino
Molero, unlike that of Cronica de una muerte anunciada,
does not support a critical inquiry into the social
problems behind the crime, we may also examine the
"readers'" role as representatives of society in the
novel. Auden remarks that detective fiction involves
five elements, "the milieu, the victim, the murderer,
the suspects, the detectives" and that the milieu is
often a "closed society" (402). These five elements,
all seen in Palomino Molero, are also aspects for a
generic reading that may help to support the traditional
detective narrative through the revelation and omission
of selected information in a story. These factors are
coded into the text through the narrative and
interpreted through the reading. The detective is the
one that makes these elements a matter of reading, and
turns the reading into an act of participating in the
narrative through the detection and connection of
different pieces of information. That is to say, reading
within a genre means recognizing these factors'
interrelate in a way that supports the narrative
structure. Such a situation implies the
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
223
indispensability of a "milieu" that marks the "body" of
mystery as an object. The reader, in order to
participate in the narrative development, has to start
from outside the object of reading. Otherwise, even if
one is "set up" as a reader, one does not possess all
the conditions necessary to read the text in accordance
with its genre. This is the situation of the villagers
who play the reader's role and form the society or the
"milieu" for the crime mystery in Palomino Molero. Yet,
they turn the narrative tension between the detective
and the mystery into a tension between the reading and
the mystery.
A mystery can take the form of an examination of a
society. On the other hand, society is the soil from
which grow different crisis including crime. In
composing a story, the writer of detective fiction may
attempt, though not necessarily achieve, an
interpretation of the society. Also, in many literary
texts that are influenced by, or extend the conventions
of, detective fiction, the barrier of the genre are
often broken through writing about society. In Palomino
Molero, "society" is represented by the public as the
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
224
reader of the social events. The local people keep
focusing on the two cases (the crime and love affair),
and shift critical attention away from their own
society. In limiting the generic reading, these
"readers" also limit the reading of themselves. This
occurs at the level of the mystery's reception, not of
social revelation.
Like La ciudad y los perros, the mystery of
Palomino Molero goes beyond the solution of the crime,
though in a different way. One cannot be certain if
this is a story of a failed murder investigation, or a
story about a failed reading of a murder mystery. This
mystery threatens the body of text itself and makes the
narrative construction generically weak and conflicted.
This narrative not only has challenged the detective
genre with the semblance of a destructive mode of
mystery presentation, but also has challenged the
writer's credit as an author whose subject is Latin
America. As I noted at the beginning of this study,
some critics have insinuated that this text is an
example of the failure to revive the detective genre in
a Latin American setting. Others, represented by Roy
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
225
Boland, try to provide a reasonable interpretation of
the dilemma by offering the writer's personal experience
and arguing that we should not only act as "detectives"
in reading the text but also in understanding the
author's life.
The detective genre has an uncompromising side. At
the point that an author cannot reconcile the
controversy between the reader's desire for mystery and
the banal reality he means to criticize, his textual
practice undermines the conventions of the genre, and
may even constitute a "de-generic" practice. Although
one may argue that the text also underscores the tension
between the author and the reader over the reading of
the detective genre, it is more significant to note that
the core of the generic reading, the mystery, is not
carefully built but named, in the narrative. It lacks
the structural support from the narrative that would
hold the inquiry through to the end. The detectives as
well as the local people are free only to name the
mystery. The local people are in an ambiguous zone of
neither being able to access the mystery, nor to dismiss
it. So they have to re-make it, to back up the text.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
226
The weakness of the mystery threatens to weaken the
whole narrative. Therefore, this text cannot exactly be
read as a detective fiction, even though it shows many
of the genre's elements. It may be more exact to say
that it parodies mystery, emphasizing the detective's
fate as well as the mystery author's dilemma.
Touching upon the issue of parody, one should note
that some critics would consider some "serious" writers'
mystery texts as parodies of the detective genre with a
higher literary ambition. Some studies of Palomino
Molero also try to dig out more "profound" meaning in
the text's representation of the real problems of Latin
America, still considering the text's genre to be
experimental or parodic. Janice MacDonald suggests that
many stories parody the detective genre's conventions.
On the one hand, the reception of the text as a
detective story is based on the reader's recognition of
the original and primary formula; on the other, the form
of the fiction itself involves the detective's action to
parody those of the criminals (63-64). However, when
identifying a text as a genre's parody, one has to be
cautious. Though parody may be a function in a
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
227
formulaic text, a text may also perform some parody of
the formula, resulting in the deconstruction of its
genre. By reviewing the problematic parallel
construction of the mystery (between the crime and the
love affair) in Palomino Molero and the text's own
commentary on the mystery (presented through the
public's role as "readers" in the story), one may find
that the text does not use parody to form or simulate a
formulaic narrative, but that the narrative itself forms
a parody of the formula of the detective genre by
dissolving the mystery. This suggests that the text
offers an "anti-genre" that earlier critics have not
appreciated.
£,Quien mato a Palomino Molero? not only
differentiates between the parody as a device for
constructing and undermining the narrative through the
conventions of detective fiction, but also touches upon
the questions of writing about Latin America revealed by
the difference between the mystery's Latin American
setting and the common notion that the genre is rooted
in a worldwide Western culture of consumerism. Thus,
the question of writing Latin America through the
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
228
detection of its crime mysteries is equally a question
of how to write a detective story in a land where Agatha
Christy already sells well, and where the type of games
and modus operandi differ from those of the West.
Another novel by Vargas Llosa, Lituma en los Andes, will
allow us to explore other aspects of this question.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
229
Notes
1 Roy Boland notes that other critics such as
Harguindey and Cornejo Polar hold similar opinions
(160).
2 Vicente Cabrera, on the other hand, argues that
they form a kind of Peruvian Quixote-Sancho combination
"que empiezan briosos la aventura y acaban en el puro
desengano" (639). Roy Boland holds a similar point of
view, which will be examined later in this work.
3 See "El escritor argentino y la tradicion" (270).
4 See Badenberg (290), Weaver (171), and Kristal
(153) .
5 Badenberg argues that this passage is the evidence
showing Lituma as an apprentice detective, or a
"Watson." However this is the only occasion in the
whole text that shows the contrast between Silva's
confidence and Lituma's confusion about the case. As
the investigation progresses, the reader will find that
none of them actually possesses a control comparable to
Holmes' over Watson and mystery.
6 The voyeurism scene as an important event in
Silva's "affair" is presented with an important "short
cut" in the investigation of the crime— Alicia's tip,
showing that the criminal case and the love affair are
tracked in a parallel fashion in the narrative (113-14) .
7 Later critics, such as Kristal, also agree with
this point (Temptation of the Word 151) .
8 Boland notes: "Es bien sabido por el critico
vargasllosiano que los libros del peruano—tanto novelas
como teatro—estan inspirados por experiencias que han
marcado de forma candente la vida del autor: los
autodenominados 'demonios' personales, historicos y
culturales .... Los 'demonios' de Vargas Llosa, siempre
inscritos, latentes, subyacentes, constituyen la
prehistoria de cada una de sus novelas; ellos son los
signos invisibles que el critico, en una arriesgada
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
230
hermendutica, se ve obligado a identificar y descifrar
para llegar a desentranar la significacion de una novela
vargasllosiana" (161-62).
9 Arnold Penuel holds a similar point of view and he
considers this novel, comparable in many ways with
Cronica de una muerte anunciada, Vargas Llosa's attempt
to "establish a novelistic dialogue with his Colombian
counterpart" (951).
10 "[E]s evidente que ambas novelas estan elaboradas
a base de entrevistas con amigos, familiares, y amigos
de los protagonistas asesinados" (Boland 166).
11 Chapter III discusses "delay" as a term for the
way in which a mystery is constructed, and also as an
element to provide the reader with the pleasure of a
generic reception.
12 Examples of the variety of mystery backgrounds
can be found in Jacques Barzun's A Book of Prefaces to
Fifty Classics of Detective Fiction, and in Ralph
Harper's The World of the Thriller, among others.
13 The power of the "big fish" in controlling the
crime's solution is also mentioned on pages 9-10, 21-23,
31, 49, 181-182, when the local people discuss the
development of the investigation and possible suspects.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
231
Chapter V
Lituma en los Andes: The Mystery of Loss and the Lost in
Mystery
Le Perou\ Ahi estaba: inmenso, misterioso,
verdegris, pobrisimo, riquisimo, antiguo,
hermetico.
(Lituma en los Andes 19)
On criticizing the "failure" of mystery in Quien
mato a Palomino Molero, Julio Ortega raises the question
"quien mato a Vargas Llosa" (978), implying that
conforming with a popular genre, if not with popular
interests, could become an embarrassment for a serious
writer. However, one not-so-welcome novel alone will
not be able to announce the end of a writer's creative
life. Vargas Llosa's criminal mystery, Lituma en Los
Andes (1993), can be taken as a response to Ortega's
critique, as it provides some new perspective from which
to examine the writing of the Peruvian social-political
problems through a genre structured narrative.
Written in 1993, just years after his defeat in the
presidential election in Peru, this novel won the
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
232
Planeta Prize for Vargas Llosa and marked a new start
for the writer who had chosen to exile himself from Peru
and acquire Spanish citizenship. In contrast to his
previous novels, the story is set in the Andes, a region
that, though being internationally renown for scientific
studies and tourist interests, had seldom been
represented in Vargas Llosa's fictional works before the
1990's. In his novels such as La ciudad y los perros,
Pantaleon y las visitadoras, and Quien mato a Palomino
Molero, the mountainous region is merely mentioned in
the end as a cold, remote, and strange place where the
protagonist is transferred by military authorities as
punishment and cover-up of some scandals.1 The writer
himself states in 1985: "Los Andes no aparecen en mis
libros, o aparecen apenas de paso, creo que por una
razon, porque mi experiencia del mundo andino es una
experiencia muy pobre, muy escasa" (Coloquio 31). After
Quien mato a Palomino Molero, however, in which the
Andes becomes the destiny of his protagonist for the
third time, the writer first attempts to depict this
region, following Lituma, the most recurrent figure in
his fictions. Lituma en los Andes can be read as a
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
233
sequel to Palomino Molero, one that continues police
officer Lituma's adventure after the Molero case. Since
the Andes, never viewed closely in the author's previous
works, becomes the central stage of this narrative, one
may ask what the Andes means for the writer and for the
literary world he sets up with his explorations of other
regions in Peru.2
The Andes as depicted in this novel are a world
full of mysteries and conflicts in the eyes of the
protagonist, Police Sergeant Lituma, who has been
transferred to a post in the Naccos area to protect a
road construction site after the scandalous Palomino
Molero murder case in his hometown area.3 Like La ciudad
y los perros, the novel contains two parts and an
epilogue. The first part is divided into five chapters.
The story begins with three missing-person cases in the
area of Lituma's jurisdiction. The missing people are
Pedro Tinoco, a mute and retarded boy who used to be a
servant for the police; Casimiro Huarcaya, an albino;
and Demetrio Chanca, a highway foreman. The narrative
in each chapter contains three sections, each following
a different clue. The first section is about Lituma's
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
234
investigation of the disappearance, the second section
narrates incidents happening in the Andes, including the
Shining Path (Sendero luminoso or Senderistas)
guerrilla' attacks and past encounters between this
military rebellious force and the three missing people.
The third is a love story between Tomas Carreno,
Lituma's assistant, and Mercedes, a young prostitute
from Lituma's hometown Piura. Before coming to the
Andes, Tomas is a fugitive, who has killed a drug dealer
in order to save Mercedes. In this narrative structure,
the first clue is based on the encounter between Lituma
and the Andean world, the second is about the stories of
the Andes, and the third is a story outside the Andes,
of the police's past. The investigation of the crime is
the connection among the different stories.
During the investigation, Lituma frequents Don
Dimnisio's and Doha Adriana's bar at the Naccos camp, as
he suspects that the barkeepers may know some secret of
the disappearance. There he hears different rumors
about the three vanished people, that they might run
away to join the Senderistas, or might be killed by the
guerrillas, or be taken away be the pishtacos (vampire),
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
235
the Andean monsters in which many local people believe
(65). While Lituma feels lonely and helpless in the
"strange" land, as well as troubled by the lack of clue
to the cases, the second section of the first five
chapters, which focuses on the Senderistas' activities,
reveals more information about the social and political
situations in the Andes, which can be considered a
background for the missing cases. Under their stiff
Marxist doctrines, the guerrillas maintain strong
hostility to all government officials, property owners,
and foreigners. Since the disappearances happen around
the same time that the guerrillas attack some other
innocent people, Lituma suspects them to be the guilty
party. Moreover, all three missing people have had
previous encounters with the guerrillas. Pedro had
witnessed their killing of the vicuna herd in a natural
reserve. Casimiro had been sentenced to death due to
his affair with an Indian girl who later became a
guerrilla. Demetrio Chanca, formerly Llantac, the
lieutenant governor of Andamarca, had escaped from the
Senderistas when they attacked his village, and has
lived in Naccos under his new name since then. By the
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
236
end of the first part, it seems that the guerrillas are
the center of conflict in the Andes, a threat for
everyone including the two policemen, and the major
suspense of the mystery hangs over the relationship
between the three missing people and the guerrillas.
However, in Part II, which consists of four
chapters, the narrative focus changes from the Sendero
Luminoso to don Dionisio and Doha Adriana, the
barkeepers. In this part, Lituma survives an avalanche
and learns from a Danish engineer about the still-
performed indigenous rite that sacrifices human beings
to the Andean spirits or monsters. This discovery makes
him link the missing people with the superstitions that
reign the local community. In parallel with Lituma's
continuing investigation of the mystery, Doha Adriana
talks about her fighting with the Andean monsters and
life in the Andes in the past. Her narration develops
gradually from fantastic tales of human beings who once
challenged the Andean monsters to more realistic
observations of the depression in the Andean region,
which is connected to the cases of the missing people;
these stories help Lituma to figure out this couple's
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
237
role in the mystery. By the end of the novel's second
part, the mystery is apparently solved as a tragedy
caused by the superstitions of the indigenous people who
try to avoid the recession of the local economy through
human sacrifices to the Andean spirits. But, in the
epilogue, while Tomas recuperates his once lost love
with Mercedes, and the two policemen receive orders to
abandon their post in Naccos, Lituma makes a last
investigation at the local bar and finds out that the
Senderistas in fact are an indirect cause of the murders
of the three victims. Thus, although the different
parties of the Andean society— the police, the workers
of road construction, the indigenous people, and the
guerrillas— seem ideologically diverse or in contrast,
they prove to be interrelated and together form the
world of mystery in which Lituma feels lost. Throughout
the investigation, Lituma is repeatedly struck by
nostalgia for Piura, his coastal hometown, which makes
him feel more alienated from the harsh environment of
Naccos. Even the solution of the missing-murder cases
does not help him to feel adapted to, or accepted in,
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
238
the Andean region, but confirms his status as a
stranger.
In their studies of Lituma en los Andes, critics
such as Arnold Penuel, Mary Berg, and Raymond Williams
have focused on issues other than the criminal mystery.
From their points of view, the rebellion of Sendero
Luminoso and the Andean myth are central themes of the
Andes, a literary image of Peru. Vargas Llosa himself
also connects explicitly the rebellion and the
superstitions, although without mentioning the crime
investigation when asked to comment on the novel
(Rebaza-Soraluz, 21).4 However, one should ask why these
two phenomena, rooted in different socio-cultural soils
of the Peruvian life, are set together in the text, and
also, what is the common ground for their
representations? Penuel suggests that the Andes are
depicted as a world of different types of violence, and,
indeed, the theme of violence functions as a key
connection for the stories in the novel (453-454). Berg
views the stories as an ambitious "narrative
multiplicity" with simultaneously juxtaposing and
contrasting representations of the Peruvian life that
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
239
have "calculated and often very dramatic effects" (25).
Williams interprets such "narrative multiplicity" as a
way of observing the reality of Peru as a "postmodern
country" that escapes rational understanding ("un pais
posmoderno que escapa a la comprension racional" 150).
These critics prefer to examine these phenomena as
independent issues, somehow ruling out the criminal
mystery as a constructive factor basic to either the
representation of different types of violence or the
conforming of different stories. However, as the above
summary of the novel's narrative structure indicates, it
is arguable that the criminal mystery is the core of the
novel on which the development of all other themes
depends. That is to say, the narrative about the
detective Lituma's work serves as a vehicle that moves
forward the representations of different problems in
Peruvian life. The narratives about the Senderistas and
the Andean myths follow the rhythm of Lituma's criminal
investigation, unfolding in response to his questions
and becoming more mysterious as his uncertainties about
the crime itself grow.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
240
The Senderistas are under immediate suspicion when
the three missing persons cases are reported to the
police: "A estos (the missing people) no creo que los
hayan matado se los habran llevado, mas bien, a su
milicia. A lo mejor hasta los tres eran terrucos. £A
caso Sendero desaparece a la gente? La mata, nomas, y
deja sus carteles pare que se sepa" (15). The three
cases also initiate the suspense of the two policemen's
fate in the Andes: "'Ya los tenemos encima a los
terrucos' penso Lituma, .... 'Cualquier noche vendran'"
(12). The community's fear of the Senderistas is
maintained through an episode which describes the
guerrillas' attack on some innocent tourists. In the
following chapters, while Lituma and his subordinate try
to find out the possible relationship between the
missing cases and the guerrillas, the narrative about
the past encounters between the three vanished people
and the guerrillas reveals more details of the
guerrillas' doctrines and activities. This rebellious
force is extremist and irrational, and it has been
committing atrocities against the Nature and
communities. One may regard these revelations as a sign
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
of the social conflicts in Peru. On the other hand,
such information also provides the reader a chance to
consider the guerrillas' role in the mystery, since
their activities concern all the parties related to the
crimes: the victims all have confronted them before
their disappearance; both the detective and local people
feel their threat; and they keep executing innocent
people in the area during the time of Lituma's
investigation. The narrative of the Senderistas'
atrocities forms a clue that parallels Lituma's
suspicion of the guerrillas in the missing case and
gives the reader access to the mystery. That is to say,
such information makes the mystery open and puts the
reader in a position no inferior to the detective
character in terms of examining the available clues.
Therefore, the Senderistas' involvement in the missing
case should be regarded not only as a social problem or
setting for the criminal case, but also as an important
element in the construction of the mystery.
While the police wonder about the possible
connection between the guerrillas and the missing
people, the past encounters between these two parties
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
242
help to clean Senderistas from further suspicion, as
they in fact have spared the lives of two of the victims
and lost the trace to the third one.5 Another question
thus rises: who else can harm the victims? In the mean
time, though for Lituma, the threat of the "Terrucos"
(Senderistas) is present, and his fear of a sudden
attack lasts until the end of the text, he also begins
to pay attention to other clues to the mystery.
With the investigation proceeding, Lituma's
attention is drawn from the "Terrucos" to another
dimension of the Andean life— myth and superstition.
The key figures in this transformation are Don Dionisio
the barkeeper, and his fortune-telling wife. This
couple holds a different theory about the disappearance
from the beginning of the text, and they are the only
people who talk openly about the victims. Dona Adriana
comments on the third vanished person that "[a Demetrio
Chanca] lo iban a sacrificar para aplacar a los malignos
que tantos danos causan en la zona. Y que lo habian
escogido a el porque era impuro ..., porque se habia
cambiado de nombre" (41). For another victim, Don
Dionisio suggests: "A Casimiro Huarcaya tal vez lo
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
243
desaparecieron por darselas de pishtaco .... Era una
bola que corria el mismo ... yo lo oi mil veces gritando
como un verraco: 'soy pishtaco y que. Terminare
rebanandoles el sebo y chupandoles la sangre a todos'"
(65). Before actually paying attention to the
superstition of the local people, Lituma wonders that
the barkeepers might be the guerrillas'' conspirators
(47). As Lituma's attention turns to the local
superstitions in the second part of the text, the
protagonists in the middle section of the following
chapters also shift from the Sendero Luminoso to the
barkeepers, especially to Dona Adriana, whose narration
in Part II of the text offers another perspective from
which to view the Andes.
Adriana describes a mythological world, which
Lituma's knowledge of the indigenous religions and
rituals confirms. In the beginning, the policeman does
not take the Indian rituals seriously, as he questions:
"j,De veras los indios creen eso? .... £,Crees que Dona
Adriana puede ser complice de los terrucos? i,Que esta
cojudeandonos a su gusto con la historia de los diablos
de los cerros?" (13 and 47). The Danish engineer
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
244
"Escarlatina" Stirmsson advices him about the Andean
"superstition" from the stand of a "civilized" outsider:
Los huancas eran unas bestias,
Escarlatina .... Tu mismo nos
contaste las barbaridades que hacian
para tener contentos a sus apus. Eso
de sacrificar ninos, hombres,
mujeres, al rio que iban a desviar,
al camino que iban a abrir, al
templo o fortaleza que levantaban,
no es muy civilizado que digamos
...— se encogio de hombros el
profesor Stirmson--. Claro que eran
unas bestias. <,Algun pueblo de la
antigiiedad pasaria el examen? £,Cual
no fue cruel e intolerante, juzgado
desde la perspectiva de ahora? ...
no tienen explicacion racional.
(177-78)
Dona Adriana's story provides Lituma a more vivid
description of the Andean spirits. The so-called bruja
(witch) tells of her life as if it were an Andean
legend. She has helped her first husband to go inside a
labyrinth cave and killed a pishtaco who takes young
girls from their village as offerings. Her second
husband Dionisio used to lead an entertainers' group.
He is a local celebrity who has the power to bring
people to carnivals wherever he visits. He settles down
in Naccos with Dona Adriana when the economy in this
region experiences recession.6
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
245
Critics have not paid as much attention to
Stirmsson's comment of the primitive land as to Dona
Adriana's mythical tales. Based mainly on the matching
of the names of Dionisio and Adriana to the original
Greek myth of Dionysus and Ariadne and the tales of the
killing of the minotaur, Arnold Penuel suggests: "Of
particular interest in Lituma are the perspectives
issuing from the novel's principal intertexts. The
novel displays an impressive interweaving of Greek
mythology, Christian iconography, and Peruvian
indigenous beliefs and superstitions, both ancient and
modern" (441-42). Mary Berg suggests that myth "is a
central narrative force in Vargas Llosa's novel;
references to the Greek Dionysus and Ariadne are
conspicuous throughout the book" (30). She concludes:
"Christian communion in which flesh and blood are
consumed ... Andean belief in cannibalistic pishtacos
and expiatory rites involving human sacrifice, Greek
accounts of human beings sacrificed to minotaurs ... all
of these are fused by Vargas Llosa into one powerful
meditation on the irrational in human civilization and
specifically on the force of the irrational in the
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
246
Andean areas of Peru" (33). Both Berg and Penuel have
provided comparative analysis between the plots of the
Dionisio-Adriana story and the Greek Dionysus myth.
Within the context of criminal mystery, however, the
author's borrowing a myth prototype cannot be read as
serving the sole purpose of myth recreation.
Alhough further examination of the role of myth in
Vargas Llosa's novel is necessary, an immediate question
here is how to detect the textual position of the Andean
myth. Myth is a basic literary form with extensions
into different socio-cultural dimensions, as John
Vickery explains:
First, the creating of myths, the
mythopoeic faculty, is inherent in
the thinking process and answers a
basic human need. Second, myth forms
the matrix out of which literature
emerges both historically and
psychologically. As a result,
literary plots, characters, themes
and images are basically
complications and displacements of
similar elements in myths and
folktales. ... not only can myth
stimulate the creative artist, but it
also provides concepts and patterns
which the critic may use to interpret
specific works of literature ... The
ability of literature to move us
profoundly is due to its mythic
quality, to its possession of ... the
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
247
mystery in the face of which we feel
an awed delight or terror at the
world of man. (ix)
Vickery's summary is based on a literary dimension
involving the artists, the works and the critics, in
which the artistic communication is a primary goal.
The myth in Lituma en los Andes however, can not be
viewed directly in such a dimension. First, it is not
the type of myth (or mythological representation)
recounted from what is held in the indigenous traditions
that could translate a certain primitive, symbolic
significance to the modern world. It is a story within
a story, told by a "bruja" who claims herself to have
some supernatural powers, and who is a suspect in the
criminal investigation. Although it can be argued that
the "myth" told by a character should still be
considered a myth, and a story-in-a-story is still the
author's creation, one needs to note as well the context
of criminal mystery in which the myth is narrated. As
David Bidney points out, "Myth is said to have its mode
of necessity and its own mode of reality .... Myth is
not something freely invented but a necessary mode of
feeling and belief which ... seizes upon human
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
248
consciousness" (Vickery 5). Therefore, in the case of
Lituma en los Andes, one has to consider the identity of
the myth teller. Doha Adriana is first of all a suspect
instead of a "story teller" in the novel. Before the
account of her pishtaco-killinq legend in the second
part of the text, she has tried to relate the missing-
people to the Andean monsters (44-45). Her mythical
stories— centered on the Andean spirits instead of the
victims— start only after the policeman's attention
shift from the Senderistas to the Andean superstition
during the investigation of the crime.
On examining the story told by Dona Adriana, Smartt
Bell praises Vargas Llosa for smoothly braiding together
first-person narration and third-person narration. But
why must the mythical story of pishtacos be told? The
context of such story is that Dona Adriana is under
Lituma's inquiry (135). She is under the pressure to
talk, to answer a policeman's questions in order to
clear his doubts.7 The story that involves the Andean
myth is apparently the major subject of her talk, which
draws the reader's attention to a matter different from
the detective's concern, but, this does not mean that
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
249
the "myth" should be read separately from the narrative
of the mystery.
In his study of the problems of myth in modern
literature, Michael Bell emphasizes the term
"mythopoeia," or mythmaking, instead of "myth," as his
concern is "not with myth as a traditional content or as
a means of literary organization. It is rather with the
underlying outlook that creates myth; or, ... sees the
world in mythic terms;" therefore, the focus of myth
reading should be the question of "what relationship is
being suggested between ancient and modern" (1-2) . On
reading Doha Adriana's story, one may ask, for instance,
what relationship is being suggested between past and
present events (the crime) in the Andes, since,
different from a common myth with supernatural factors
and symbolic meanings, her story makes explicit a
serious concern about the social and economic conditions
in the Andean region. At first, she talks about how a
pishtaco threatens her village and how she and her first
husband manage to kill it, commenting: "Asi ocurrio
cuando Naccos [the local economy] vivia de la mina Santa
Rita y asi esta ocurriendo ahora, que vive de esta
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
250
carretera. Las desgracias no vendran de los terrucos
... ni de los pishtacos . .., estos vienen siempre en los
tiempos dificiles ..." (184). Then, she reveals how the
social conditions have affected her own life: "Seguiamos
viajando .... Hasta que los caminos empezaron a volverse
peligrosos con tanta matanza y los pueblos a vaciarse y
a encerrarse en una desconfianza feroz hacia los
foraneos ..." (248).
The final part of her story, however, describes a
more tangible concern of the Dionisio couple— the
current road construction in Naccos:
Aqui [Naccos] nos conocimos, aqui se
enamoro Dionisio de mi .... Se hablo
anos de anos, antes de que se
decidieran a construirla [la
carretera]. Lastima que cuando
empezaron los trabajos y aparecieron
ustedes [la policia] con sus picos,
palas y barrenos, fuera tarde. La
muerte le habia ganado la pelea a la
vida. Estaba escrito que la carretera
nunca se terminaria .... Tambien las
oigo, en el corazon que late dentro
del arbol y en el de la piedra ....
La muerte de Naccos esta decidida. La
acordaron los espiritus y ocurrira. A
menos que .... Repito lo de tantas
veces: a grandes males, grandes
remedies. (270)
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
251
With this concern for Naccos' fate, Dona Adriana's
narration transforms from pure storytelling to
justification of human sacrifice as a means of saving
the region. In the end, she even insinuates how the
victims of the sacrifice are chosen:
...yo he visto lo que fue Naccos
antes de que se llamara Naccos y
antes de que la decadencia le ganara
la pelea a las ganas de vivir. Aqui
hubo mucha vida porque hubo tambien
mucha muerte ... Antano la gente se
atrevia a enfrentar los grandes danos
con expiaciones. Asi se mantenia el
equilibrio. La vida y la muerte como
una balanza de dos costales del mismo
peso ... iQue hacian para que la
muerte no le ganara a la vida? ... el
varon que el pueblo elegia en cabildo
como cargo para las fiestas del
proximo ano, temblaba. Sabia que
seria principal y autoridad solo
hasta entonces; despues, al
sacrificio. No se corria, no trataba
de escaparse ... conforme y orgulloso
de hacerle un bien a su pueblo. (271—
72)
A differentiation, if not a gap, is notable between the
beginning of her narration— a mythical story from long
ago--and its ending, which comments on current social-
economical situations. Nevertheless, two basic ideas
remain unchanged throughout her narration: that of the
superstitious belief in the Andean spirits and of
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
252
herself as a heroine who tries to save the village.
Thus her story should be examined not only as a
description of Andean life but also as self
justification in a specific circumstance.
Her narration provides a broad overview of the
social life of the region, while leaping over the crimes
that currently threaten the area, and thus, helps her to
avoid actually talking about her role in the missing-
murder cases. At this point, one may doubt that her
story is a "real myth," and think that it is perhaps a
"borrowed" one, a way to escape any direct confrontation
with Lituma's quest. If her account of the Andean
social situation does not make her story more
believable, it at least makes the story-teller seem more
sincere, with both her concern for the depression and
her suggestion of how to save the community. Therefore,
the purpose of her story functions more as a means of
persuading for the inquiring detective than as a
symbolic description of Andean primitive culture. Such
"myth" serves the purpose of a character before serving
the construction of the text.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
253
Another noteworthy issue related to the problem of
myth is that Dona Adriana's explanation of human
sacrifice parallels Lituma's accusation of her and her
husband as guilty in the missing-murder cases (268).
Like the stories about the Senderistas, the development
of Adriana's story corresponds to the pace of the
narrative of the criminal mystery and to the move of the
detective. On the other hand, Adriana's story, aside
from its persuasive defense against Lituma's suspicion,
bears a logical explanation for the superstition: it is
due to the local people's desperation when facing the
foam-like prosperity.8 Depression is the social
background for both Adriana's story and the Senderista
movement. It is as well a cause of the missing-murder
cases, as the narrative later discloses that the
vanished people have been sacrificed to "appease" the
mountainous spirits and "protect" the road construction,
a project on which the survival of the Naccos' economy
depends. Although the depression is related to
different aspects of the mystery— the criminal cases,
the Senderista activities and the myth— it is explicitly
present only in Adriana's story. Therefore, Adriana's
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
254
"myth" can be considered a truth-telling that affords
the reader access to the solution of the crimes, as it
strongly implies the motive behind the crime. As
William Righter notes, "to represent something is to
become the mark of a truth, either occult or abstract"
(8). In other words, the more supernatural or
irrational her story seems, the closer it gets
(implicitly) to the answer of the criminal mystery.
Smartt Bell and John Updike lament that the novel
is not long enough to develop thoroughly the different
topics touched upon in the narrative. Smartt Bell
suggests: "perhaps a novel with so many characters and
subplots and socio-religio-political complexities simply
needs to be longer ...." (2-3). Updike criticizes:
"there are arresting, plausible evocations in Death in
the Andes ... but they exist as adumbrations of some
larger, more relaxed, less manipulative work, with the
same title, which has not been written" (86).9 But one
needs to see that the different themes of the Andean
life— from the Senderistas to the mountainous ghosts,
are not independent of each other in the textual scope.
They share with the criminal mystery a common social
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
255
ground of depression, and they are both presented
within the detective's tracing of a crime. Both issues
are revealed first as possible causes of the crime, and
in the end, as social and cultural factors that strongly
motivate the guilty party. Thus the reader can examine
the Senderista movement and the Andean superstitions not
apart from, but within the presentation of the mystery.
In other words, tracing the novel's mystery can expand
and embrace different perspectives for the reader-
detective to gain access to the problems of the
mysterious Andes.
However, as the studies of Berg and Penuel suggest-
-even though they overlook the story of the crime— the
different aspects of Andean life that appear within the
crime novel does not mean that they function only as
part of the mystery or that they are insignificant
outside the context of the detective story. With the
exposure of the different kinds of crisis, the
policeman's investigation expands to a more complicated
experience through which the Andean world is observed as
a mystery. It is not unusual for some traditional
detective stories to present a criminal case in relation
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
256
with some pressing contemporary social issues, but
Lituma en los Andes does this so as to develop a sense
of mystery not only around, but also well beyond, what
is typically the primary tension of a mystery— that
between the detective and the criminal. In other words,
it "mysterizes," as it were, the Andean world and puts
under examination not only a concrete crime but also an
expanded mystery of the region. In this novel's end, it
is not the criminal case but the Andean world that
remain mysterious for the detective. It can be said
that the detective solves a mystery of crime only to
find himself confronting a mystery more complicated. To
understand the narrative's construction of the mystery
and the nature of the Andean world that the author tries
to depict, this "expanded mystery" should not be
ignored.
Vargas Llosa presents the mystery of the Andes as a
case of loss. First, it is the loss of the rational,
albeit differently perceived by different characters.
For the detective, a rational conclusion of the criminal
case would be based on his knowledge of the irrational
factors in the Andean world, such as superstitions,
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
257
extremism, and the foam economy— crisis rooted in both
ancient and modern times. In the guerrillas'
activities, there is the loss of a rational measure of
the world, which results in intolerance and atrocities.
For the people of Naccos, especially those who perform
the human sacrifices, the fear of the economic crisis
has made them succumb to barbarism as a way out of
desperation. Second, the multiple conflicts at
different social levels reveal a loss of power for the
"powerful"— the ruling machine of the country. Though
they are the official representative of the surveillance
and disciplinary force in Naccos, Lituma and his
assistant are isolated from the community, estranged
from the Andean natural environment, and threatened by
the Senderistas. They try to perform their duty as
detectives, only to find themselves impotent to restore
the social order or impose justice. Even before the
government's decision to close the police post at
Naccos, the social order in this area is already
abandoned to chaos. In sum, the loss of social
confidence that results in the loss of lives is also an
element in the mystery of the Andes.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
258
The detective's loss of power brings up another
aspect of the mystery. If the Senderistas' movement and
the "myth" of local superstition mark the criminal
mystery as problems for the detective, a third one, the
problem of the detective himself, clearly marks the
"expanded" mystery of the Andes. Lituma personally
faces two problems throughout the investigation of the
crime: homesickness and confusion in the hostile social
environment in which he must work.
In the earliest nineteenth-century examples of the
modern detective genre, the mystery confronting the
detective is the central element of the narrative. The
prototypical detectives, such as Dupin and Holmes, seem
immune to social defects. Later, with the development
of the sub-genre of the hard-boiled thriller, the
problems of the detective himself begin to draw critical
attention.10 As Calwelti observes, the hard-boiled
detective story "embodied significant shifts in both
archetype and cultural mythology" within a context of
social chaos and breakdown; and the detective "had his
own code of behavior that did not correspond to that of
society in general" (Adventure 61). The difficulties
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
259
that the detective faces form a context of "survival and
profession" in which the detective struggles between the
challenges produced for him by the criminal and the
problems in his own life (Landrum 5). Such is the
situation of Lituma in the Andes, but, unlike the
detective in a thriller who, according to Todorov,
"loses his immunity, constantly risks his life ... and
is integrated into the universe of the other characters,
instead of being an independent observer as the reader
is ..." ("The Typology of Detective Fiction" 51),
Lituma, though constantly feeling threatened by some
hostile forces, is obviously an isolated figure in the
mountainous region. His role can be considered a
combination of the classical and the hard-boiled type of
detective, since he, on the one hand, traces the
criminal mystery as a traditional cool observer, and, on
the other, faces challenges from the social environment.
The hostility Lituma experiences in the Andes comes
from two sources: the community and the natural
environment. First, the local people's mistrust of him,
an outsider and a representative of the ruling force,
makes communication difficult:
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
260
i,Se burlan de el [Lituma]? A ratos le
parecia detras de esas caras
inexpresivas, de esos monosilabos
pronunciados con desgano, como
haciendole un favor, de esos ojitos
opacos, desconfiados, los serruchos
se reian de su condicion de costeno
extraviado en estas punas ... de su
incapacidad para resolver estos casos
(37) .
His assistant Tomas, who knows the region better,
similarly advises him: "No crea que la gente del
campamento es fria con usted porque es costeno. Sino
porque es un policia. A mi tambien me miran de lejitos,
pese a ser cusqueno. No les guatan los uniformados"
(72) .
The Senderistas present Lituma with a more serious
challenge. From the beginning of the novel, Lituma not
only regards them as a negative part of Andean life and
as suspects in the missing-persons cases, but also views
himself as their potential victim: "£,Por que [los
senderistas] no los habian ajusticiado a el y Tomasito?
Por sadicos tal vez. Querian romperles los nervios ..."
(35)
Lituma's view of the natural environment of the
region is that of a stranger as well: "No tengo mas
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
261
remedio, entiendome ... Esas tormentas andinas, con
rayos y truenos, no lo haclan feliz; nunca se habia
acostumbrado a ellas. Siempre le parecia que iban a
aumentar, aumentar, hasta el cataclismo" (135).12 Such a
view concerns how the natural environment forms a
significant challenge for Lituma less than that how he
subjectively perceives the Andean world as a mystery in
whole:
Toda la tierra, llena de charcos y
riachuelos que brillaban ... Y ahi
estaba, en el horizonte de la
Cordillera, donde las piedras y el
cielo se tocaban, esa coloracion
extrana, entre violeta y morada, que
el habia visto reproducida en tantas
polleras y rebozos de la indias, ...y
que para el el color mismo de los
Andes, de esta sierra tan misteriosa
y tan violenta. (142-43)
For Lituma, his position of estrangement in Andean life
and his feeling of depression about the criminal mystery
eventually lessen the sense of justice or responsibility
necessary to his task as detective:
No hay duda que muchos aqui saben muy
bien lo que paso, aunque no quieran
abrir la boca. Los unicos papanatas
que estan en la luna somos tu y yo.
£No te sientes un gran cojudo aqui,
en Naccos, Tomasito? .... No es que
me importe nada esclarecerlo,
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
262
Tomasito. Por el trabajo, quiero
decir. Pero yo soy muy curioso. Se me
ha metido el gusanito de saber que
les paso [a los desaparecidos]. (145-
46)
In such a situation, Tomas becomes important to Lituma's
investigation and survival, not only because he is a
"cusqueno" from the mountainous area who speaks Quechua
and helps Lituma when the latter has difficulties
understanding the local society, but also because his
narration of a love adventure with a girl from Lituma's
hometown becomes a spiritual shelter for his homesick
officer.13
Homesickness for Piura, his coastal town,
contributes to Lituma's feeling of strangeness in the
mountains:
Como otras veces, sintio la presencia
aplastante y opresiva de las montanas
macizas, del cielo profundo de la
sierra. Todo iba hacia lo alto, aqui.
Con todas las celulas de su cuerpo
anoro los desiertos, las llanuras sin
termino de Piura, alborotadas de
algarrobos, de rebanos de cabras y de
medanos blancos. ^Que hacia aqui,
Lituma? (103)14
For Lituma, nostalgia for Piura represents a rational
life that he perceives in opposition to his negative
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
2 63
perception of the Andean world: "Tenia una voz algo
arrastrada, como si, al hablar de lo profundo de su
cerpo treparan hasta su lengua piedrecitas. Alla en el
norte, en Piura y Talara, Lituma nunca creyo en brujas
ni brejerias, pero aqui, en la sierra, ya no estaba tan
seguro" (40) . The antagonism between these two worlds
in Lituma's mind is also demonstrated by his attention
to Tomas's love story, in which he tries to detect a
"Piurana" mystery, the mystery of the identity of
Mercedes. This mystery invokes an intertextual
dimension that evokes Vargas Llosa's previous novels,
such as La casa verde and Quien mato a Palomino Molero.15
Before further examining the inter-textuality, one
should note that Lituma, besides being the detective in
a criminal case, also performs the role of researcher in
the Andean world, since his quest and confusion as a
stranger extends beyond the scope of the crime, into
different aspects of life— from local society, to his
assistant, and to himself. Therefore, to solve the
mystery of the Andes, one cannot exclude the detective's
own problems.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
264
In classic detective stories, the investigator of
crime is usually a sharp-eyed character who guides the
reader through a tale's riddles. In Lituma's case,
though he manages to find out the answer to the criminal
mystery, he is not a guiding figure, but rather one who
himself is lost in an hostile environment.16 Like the
detective figures in the previously studied two novels,
he does not have control over his investigation.17
Moreover, he worries a great deal about losing his
cultural identity: "Por mas que lleve uniforme, yo no
existo" (105). Only his homesickness keeps him
conscious of who he is--or who he was. Therefore, while
a reader of conventional detective fiction usually
expects to find out the truth about a criminal mystery
through the detective's moves, the reader of Lituma en
los Andes can also expect to see to what extent the
detective gets confused and lost in the mystery of the
Andes, a mystery that entails sociocultural conflicts
that the detective encounters. In other words, one can
examine the mystery of the Andes through the different
roles Lituma plays beyond the investigation of the
crime.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
265
Throughout the narrative, Lituma feels a strong
sensation of being a coastal native, a counterpart to
the serruchos (people from the mountains).18 While the
foreign tourists— those killed by Senderistas— who see
the culturally heterogeneous nation as a whole (19),
Lituma possesses an insider's view of his country, with
sensibility of differences and conflicts. Lituma's
regional-cultural identity serves as a foundation from
which he observes various aspects of the Andean world,
from its natural environment to the local life and
drastic events such as crimes and guerrilla attacks.
Lituma is also a passer-by in the Andes, not only
because he is transferred to Naccos and then transferred
away by the police department, but also because he, like
a traveler on a brief trip, does not possess enough
knowledge of the mountainous region. The Andes remains,
in the end, a mystery for him. Like a visitor who
already holds a different cultural mindset, he needs to
depend on some "tour guide" to decipher what to him
seems mysterious. The novel depicts such a relationship
through Lituma's meeting with "Escarlatina" Stirmsson,
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
266
the Danish engineer, who enlightens him with information
about the human sacrifices.
As previously mentioned, however, Lituma's
"traveling" is not only through the Andean mysteries,
but also through an intertextual space, as a critical
examiner of Tomas's story. In addition to the criminal
investigation, the Senderistas' activities, and the
Andean myth, Tomas' love adventure with Mercedes is the
fourth clue of the narrative. At the beginning of the
text, one may consider this part of the narrative an
independent episode coming from nowhere, but, gradually,
one finds that Lituma, as a curious and nostalgic story
listener, actually participates in the narration of
Tomas's and Mercedes's adventures.19 When the policemen
see their life in the Andes as a "prison," Tomas' story
provides a spiritual escape and allows Lituma to recall
his "lost paradise"— Piura (144, 177). Some critics
show very little interest in Tomas' love story. Smartt
Bell calls it "absurdly naive" (1). Mary Berg considers
it a "soap-opera-like love interest" (27). Both ignore
Lituma's active participation in the narrative of this
story and his tracing of a mystery in it. In fact, in
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
267
addition to the investigation of the crime, Lituma also
has doubts about his story-telling companion: "Tambien
Tomasito tenia su misterio. Eso de ponerse a llorar en
las noches, de repente. iSeria solo por la piurana?"
(106), and he soon begins to question the identity of
Tomas'’ lover. Tomas' story not only serves as a relief
for the lonely detective but also as an additional
mystery which Lituma can investigate with a rationality
that does not function well in the Andean mystery. Like
the criminal case, this story helps to expose the
detective's own status as a figure situated between
different textual and ideological dimensions. That is
to say, if in his investigation of the crime mystery
Lituma faces the conflicts between different ideologies
(from Marxist doctrines to superstitions and Andean
rituals) and regional cultures (Piura versus. Naccos),
in his examination of Tomas' story raises the question
of intertextuality.
Lituma's examination of Tomas' story derives out of
sporadic comments and focuses on the mystery of
Mercedes' identity, as he wonders if she is the "Meche"
that he has met in Piura in La casa verde?20
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
268
— Y que fue de esa Meche que su amigo
le vendio a la tortillera para seguir
jugando al poquer?— Pregunto Tomas.
— Se hizo humo, nunca mas se supo—
repuso Lituma. Un misterio que
intrigo a todo Piura .... Y la Chunga
jamas quiso decirnos palabra sobre
que fue de la Mechita.
— Los desaparecidos lo persiguen a
usted, mi cabo, por lo visto. No le
eche tanto la culpa a Dionisio ni a
Dona Adriana, ni a los terrucos ni a
los pishtacos. Por lo que veo, el
culpable de esas desapariciones
podria ser usted. (196-97)21
From the perspective of the two police, the case of the
piurana Mercedes in the past and the missing-murder case
at present are equally challenging. Tomas' story thus
not only reminds Lituma of his past, but also provokes
his investigation of mystery in an intertextual
dimension.22 With his multiple roles in the text, Lituma
can be considered not only a man "lost" in the
mysteries, but also a connector between two different
worlds, between the world where he comes from—
represented by Mercedes's story, a world pre-existing in
other texts, with the values of the costenos— and the
world in which he is now lost, the Andes. Although
Lituma feels that his status in Andean society is
unstable and feels marginalized by the local people, as
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
269
a central figure in the narrative, he possesses an
important space of "in betweenness," a space where the
modern meets the indigenous, the familiar meets the
strange, nostalgia meets confusion, and the current text
meets the author's previous ones. Lituma's "space"
cannot be located in a specific territory, but is
carried by him during his mystery-confronting journey.
Lituma represents a new model of detective not seen
in Western traditions, but one who somehow invokes Ed
Christian's proposal of the post-colonial detective.
Following Homi Bhabha's post-colonial theory of
"liminality," Ed Christian points out that in the case
of the post-colonial detective— the detective in the
post-colonial land— there is the condition of "being
within a space made by the meeting of two borders, a
space which serves as a threshold between the two ....
Often, the detective is this space, this area of
overlap, this space of meeting ..." (13) .23 Christian
suggests that such detectives "are themselves sites of
hybridity," comparable to "other post-colonial elites,
such as academic" (12-13). Considering the mystery in
Lituma en los Andes that expands to include cultural and
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
270
regional sensibilities, one may ask if this novel can
also be put under a "post-colonial examination, with
Lituma as the "site of hybridity" and "space in
between."
To examine this question is to observe the function
of "elite" in Latin American society as a figure that
represents the meeting of different cultures. Alejo
Carpentier's Los pasos perdidos, a text that explores
this topic, can be taken as a reference for the case of
Lituma. Written in 1953, and based on the author's true
experience in Venezuela, this novel narrates the story
of an artist who, tired of hypocritical modern life,
journeys into the primitive forest region of Venezuela
searching for an ancient musical instrument. Under the
influence of an ancient civilization, he actually
experiences a spiritual recognition for another homeland
and another self during his search. In the end, though
he loses the path toward the primitive village where he
once stayed, he accomplishes a cultural relocation for
himself between the modern and the primitive worlds,
bearing the distance of thousands of years (239-41).
Though not involving any criminal mystery and though
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
271
centering on a cultural pilgrim in Latin America, this
novel also presents a case of being lost. I will not
attempt a comparative study of the two texts, as they
obviously differ from each other in many ways— from the
construction of their narrative, to their major themes,
to the perspectives from which each views the Latin
American cultures. They are not equally valued by the
critics either.24 This study will only take the problem
of being lost presented in Los pasos perdidos as a
reference that can shed light on both Lituma's situation
and on the attitude of in Lituma en los Andes toward the
Latin American society and culture, since, like Lituma,
the protagonist of Los pasos experiences the loss of
cultural stability inherited from the modern world when
challenged by a primitive land.
Both novels depict a spiritual journey that the
protagonist undertakes while carrying out a concrete
mission. The central clue for Los pasos perdidos is the
search for an ancient musical instrument, while Lituma
en los Andes is about the investigation of the Andean
mystery sparked from a criminal case. Both searches
entail revelations about different aspects of primitive
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
272
cultures, such as myth, history, ancient beliefs,
economy, and the influence of the outside world.
In both texts, the protagonists' sense of being
lost are in part a rethinking of the relationship
between civilization and barbarism. Carpentier
poetically observes how primitive civilization serves as
a vital source for his protagonist's spiritual life,
even as he faces the problem that primitive
civilization, though central to his own journey, is
still marginalized as subordinate in the Westernized
world in which he lives. In Vargas Llosa's novel,
Lituma's contact with primitive culture through his
investigation of a crime is more cautious and is
dominated by his view that barbarism is a factor in all
primitive civilizations.25 He sees the indigenous
culture as a negative influence in local society, which
also results in his feeling of being lost in the Andes.
His spiritual journey is colored by nostalgia for the
outside world (his own world) and by his sense of the
conflict between the values of his world and that of the
Andes. Unlike Carpentier's protagonist, he hardly makes
any reconciliation with the primitive world. Therefore,
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
273
along with his mystery-solving experience, Lituma not
only carries the "space" where the borders of two worlds
meet, but he also represents the border of his world,
against which the primitive land is defined and deemed
inferior.
In both novels, the major problems the protagonists
face are not solved but lost or left behind due to their
own social and cultural conditions, and both
protagonists must ultimately leave the primitive land.
Conscious of the historical distance between the
primitive and the modern world, a distance carried by
him, which also forms part of the Latin American
identity, the protagonist of Los pasos perdidos is
ultimately unable to locate a cultural homeland. By
depicting this distance, Carpentier establishes a view
of Latin American history and values, in which the loss
of contact or communication replaces, if not reconciles,
the conflicts between different aspects of civilization.
Lituma en los Andes, however, manifests a view of
mystery that sets the two worlds in opposition. For
Lituma, the Andes represents a mystery that he could
leave alone but not solve. The Andean people appear as
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
274
a community holding its own view of mystery, one that is
rooted in the social and natural conditions, and Lituma
feels no obligation to understand their philosophy,
which he detests as superstition and judges as
unacceptable to a modern modus operandi.26 Unlike the
protagonist of Los pasos perdidos, he cannot observe the
Andean world from a position of "in betweenness," nor
can he measure the differentiation between his world and
the Andes from a historic perspective. His conclusion
of the journey in the Andes is pessimistic: "Ya no me
importa .... ya baje la cortina, ya eche Have. Me ha
llegado mi nuevo nombramiento. Me ire ... y me olvidare
de la sierra" (304). The harsh Andean environment, with
crimes and natural disasters, is to him a site of
failure. His strong preference for the world of "his
own" outweighs any inclination to further his
understanding of the primitive land, other than
demonizing it. Lituma displays skepticism and hostility
toward the Andes, even though these feelings are often
covered by nostalgia for his hometown. Lituma sees
himself as an exile whose identity dwells in the world
from which he comes. To better understand what factors
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
275
back up the negative presentation of the Andean society
as a land of terrorism, barbaric rituals, and
unpredictable natural disasters, we must examine the
author's own perceptions of this region.
The attitudes toward the primitive world of those
two novels are in almost direct contrast. If Los pasos
perdidos is a "pilgrim at home" (in Echevarria's term),
then Lituma en los Andes will be an exile at home, a
difference that can be understood in part as resulting
from each protagonist's respective professions: one is
an artist-researcher who focuses on the appreciation of
the cultural achievements; and the other is a policeman,
who must deal with the most negative elements in
society. But, as the major background of the story, the
primitive world also provides a basis from which to
observe the ideological differentiation between the two
texts as well as between their authors.
Carpentier is positively receptive to the
indigenous culture, whose protagonist actively seeks
contact with it with an attitude of goodwill and a
desire to experience the spiritual shelter the primitive
world provides as an escape from the decadence of modern
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
276
life. The role Carpentier tries to perform throughout
Los pasos perdidos— and in his life— is that of a
spokesman for Latin American culture. His presentation
of the New World is both lyric and critical.27 Vargas
Llosa, however, like Lituma, is a stranger to the Andes,
as he admits:
Aunque yo he nacido en la sierra,
casi no he vivido en la Sierra. He
estado siempre de paso ... y el mundo
de los Andes, que es un mundo que me
fascina, es un mundo que he sentido
siempre .... Es un mundo que responde
a otra mentalidad, que tiene otra
tradicion historica, donde se habla
otra lengua, una lengua que yo no
entiendo, que tiene un paisaje que
para mi es un paisaje sumamente
exotico. (Coloquio 31)
This statement implies the dilemma of the writer who is
expected to write about the complexity of his country,
meanwhile feeling somehow powerless in handling the
cultural heterogeneity and conflicts. Vargas Llosa's
experience with certain major Peruvian problems cannot
be directly compared to some other native writers such
as Arguedas, as Vargas Llosa himself comments:
His [Arguedas's] case is exceptional
because he experienced those problems
in his own life: the problem of two
cultures; the problem of societies
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
277
living together without communication
under immense tension and violence;
the problem of the Indians; the
problem of bilingualism; the problem
of societies living at different
historical levels; ... and the
problem of the type of literature
that could emerge therein. Arguedas
took all of this personally, as his
own problem. (Rebaza-Soraluz 22)
Though the above mentioned problems are more or less
touched upon in Lituma en los Andes, they are not
problems of the "author's own." In other words, Vargas
Llosa's view of the Andes is more ideologically
critical, just as Lituma's feeling of alienation results
not so much from geographical circumstances as from
sociocultural ones.
When one considers Michael Bell's and Updike's
criticism that the various plots and socio-religio-
political complexities in this novel are not fully
developed, one needs also to question whether this novel
means to develop them fully or merely uses them to mark
a particular ideological image of Peru. Vargas Llosa's
depiction of the irrational activities of the Sendero
Luminoso, one of the major problems of Peru and the
Andean world in this novel, is consistent with his
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
278
criticism of this movement as a "form of extreme
intolerance, a unilateral division of history,
reminiscent of a Jacobin" (Rebaza-Soraluz 21). He
detests it as an obstacle to Peruvian democratic
progress while showing no profound understanding of the
issue.28 The other problem, the superstition of the
pishtacos, as argued previously, is represented through
the mythical story of Dona Adriana, which alludes to the
local crisis and tries to justify the bloody Andean
ritual, and which thus can be read as implicating her
role in the crime. Additionally, since the mythical
story is told not only as an expression of local
people's belief but also in response to the detective's
critical examination, it forms part of the expanded
Andean mystery, which involves a critique of local
society. Therefore, one should question the author's
motive for such myth re-writing.
Vargas Llosa himself explains:
[t]he actual characteristics of the
novel were born of the impression
that the news of the invasion of
Pishtacos in Ayacucho left upon me
.... It provoked a huge commotion in
the shantytowns, in the poorest slums
of Ayacucho, where the rumor of an
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
279
invasion of Pishtacos ... provoked a
phenomenon of mass hysteria and even
lynching. Evidently, this was coming
from the sediment that had been
stirred about and brought up to date,
due, of course, to the very
particular political and economic
circumstances that the region was
experiencing. This struck a vein
with me that eventually resulted in
Death in the Andes [Lituma en los
Andes]. (21)
For Vargas Llosa, the pishtaco problem is not only a
mythical factor in the traditions of the primitive land,
but also a result of the current social crisis. He
claims that his motivation for writing about this
problem is to show "how certain myths are perennial, are
always there because evidently the types of questions
that brought them about have not been completely
resolved (they are questions that reappear under certain
circumstances); and also how the idea of modernity and
progress is such a precarious idea; and how beneath all
this lies an atavistic force belonging to a certain
tradition that is not easily uprooted" (Rebaza 21).
Therefore, the mythical story has as its background what
the author perceives as social vulnerability and the
loss of order, and contributes to an allegorical
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
280
representation of his lack of confidence in this
society.
Vargas Llosa used to see himself as a stranger to
the Andes, and has explained that this is why he has not
previously written about the mountainous region. Lituma
en los Andes, then, should be considered a breakthrough
into what was for him once a forbidden land. However,
the novel's examination of the Andean mysteries from a
stranger's perspective, one marked by nostalgia and
confusion that recognizes only chaos in Andean society,
presents the reader with yet another "mystery": should
this novel be read as an entry into the Andean world or
as an alienation, "mysterization" or "demonization" of
this remote site in the author's literary world?
Besides presenting a case of loss, Vargas Llosa does not
provide more answers to the mysteries of Andes. The
Senderistas, the pishtacos, and even Nature itself are
depicted as similarly untraceable and life threatening.
Another component of the narrative, the mythical story,
is one "borrowed" from the Greek myth rather than one
rooted in Andean tradition. Moreover, Lituma, the
novel's central figure, who is more familiar with the
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
281
outside world, the world of the author's previous works,
is himself lost. Lituma does not provide any real
insights into this primitive land of his country, but
must himself depend on a foreigner, the Danish engineer
Stirmsson, to uncover the secret of the crime. From the
beginning and throughout the narrative, his feeling of
being lost in the mysteries and his shock at the natural
and human atrocities leave little space for further
understanding of the Andes. The coincidence between the
writing of this novel and Vargas Llosa's own exile to
Spain following his defeat in the presidential election
suggests that his critical portrayal of the Andean world
is perhaps related to his own spiritual alienation from
his homeland. In other words, Vargas Llosa's journey
out of Peru can be taken as a background of Lituma's
journey out of the Andes, if they are not taken as pure
coincidence.29
This chapter has reviewed three aspects of the
"mystery" in Lituma en los Andes: the crime, the
mysterious Andean world, and the social critique that
emerges from the exposure of the detective's own
problems and which resonates with the author's own view
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
of the world. The Andes, presented as a mystery, a
rival of the protagonist-detective, is a central figure
in all these aspects. In traditional detective stories,
a region is not as crucial a factor as a specific crime
scene, since the narrative follows the investigation of
the mystery, not the detective's problematic contact
with his surroundings. However, in the case of Lituma
en los Andes, it is the detection of the regional
problems that bring access to the criminal mystery, even
as some poetic and historic significance— if not a
positive understanding— of the region dwells in the
dismantling of the mystery. In sum, with the story of a
criminal case that expands to include a mysterious land,
a story that points to the author's own ideological and
political views, an inter-textual scope that interweaves
the author's previous works, and the reader's
participation in uncovering the text's riddles, the
author's writing of the land itself becomes a mystery.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
283
Notes
1 In Pantaleon y las visitadoras, Captain Pantaleon
is transferred to the mountainous area after the
exposure of the military prostitute service that his
superiors had secretly ordered him to organize. In La
ciudad y los perros, Lieutenant Gamboa is similarly
punished due to his perseverance in investigating a
crime that may damage the fame of the military school,
see Chapter I.
2 Peru can be divided geographically into three
parts: the coastal, the forestal, and the mountainous
(Andean) regions. Vargas Llosa's novels are set in
different areas; for example, La casa verde, Pantaleon y
las visitadoras, El hablador are set in the coastal and
forest areas while La ciudad y los perros, La tia Julia
y el escribidor and Conversacion en La Catedral are set
in the capital, Lima.
3 See Chapter IV.
4 Vargas Llosa comments: "The phenomenon of the
shining Path is present [in the text] because its
members, the Senderistas, appear there, ... there is
something more that if not dialogical and not at all
political, which is a mythology ..., that is why I have
also re-created this in the case of Dionysus, the world
of the Pishtacos, and the world of Andean mythology"
(21) .
5 The guerrillas treated Pedro Tinoco in a friendly
manner, and in the albino's case, the executioner
chooses to spare his life. See 56-57 and 227.
6 Adriana's story parallels the Greek myth of
Dionysus who rescues Ariadne after her helping Theseus
kill the minotaur.
7 See 135-38.
8 Doha Adriana reasons: "Repito lo de tantas veces:
a grandes males, grandes remedios" (270). Also see 271-
72.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
284
9 His opinion is first quoted by Raymond Williams
(149) .
10 As Calwelti notes, this sub-genre began in the
United States during the 1920's and 1930's, typically in
works by Dashiel Hammett and Raymond Chandler (Adventure
61). In their novels, the detective often finds himself
in fatal encounters with the criminal. He can no longer
remain a calm and meticulous analyst, but somehow a
vulnerable anti-hero, facing not only challenges from
the criminals but also the indifference of society.
11 Also see 105 and 285.
12 Also see 103 and 142.
13 From the beginning of the text, Tomas serves as
interpreter for Lituma in his efforts to understand the
indigenous language Quechua (11). He also advises the
officer about the reasons for local hostility (72).
14 Also see 177.
15 Both novels are set in the Piura area. Lituma
appears as one of the main characters in La casa verde
(1968). The central clue of the narrative is the story
of the brothel "La Casa Verde."
16 As Lituma complains: "Nunca entendre una puta
mierda de lo que pasa aqui" (35).
17 In La ciudad y los perros, the detective
character has to give up the investigation under the
pressure of his superior officers; in Palomino Molero,
the policeman also encounters noncooperative officials
involved in a crime. In both novels the detectives
receive not credit, but punishment, for their work.
18 Lituma views his Andean experience as a "coastal"
person's adventure: "Le habia pasado un huayco encima,
... y ahi estaba, averiado pero vivo. 'Los piuranos
somos huesos duros de roer' penso" (208). See also 71,
73, and 177.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
285
19 Tomas' s narration often intertwines with Lituma's
requests for more information about the adventure, and
is sometimes interrupted by Lituma's own memory of his
hometown Piura. See examples in page 63, 87, 89, 91,
131-32, 164, 166.
20 See page 196-97, 289, 296, 304.
21 La Chunga is a main character in La casa verde,
owner of the house of prostitution "La casa verde" in
Piura.
22 Also see 192-96, and 289, in which the plot of La
casa verde is recounted as Lituma's memory interweaves
with Tomas's narration.
23 Homi Bhabha presents this theory in The Location
of Culture and Nation and Narration, in which he
describes the post-colonial elites' cultural function as
mediators between Western influence and their homeland.
24 As Roberto Gonzalez Echevarria points out, Los
pasos perdidos is not only the most important work of
Carpentier, but also one of the most important in the
Spanish American literature: "... es obra de sintesis de
toda la tradicion literaria hispanoamericana, y en la
que Carpentier hizo un balance critico de su propia
obra. En los pasos perdidos se somete a prueba, no solo
la literatura hispanoamericana, sino la misma
posibilidad de escribir desde Hispanoamerica. Son tan
trascendentales las preguntas de las que surge esta
novela de Carpentier, que debe ocupar un lugar de
importancia, no solo en la historia de la literatura,
sino en la del pensamiento hispanoamericano" (Carpentier
15-16). Lituma en los Andes, however, is not considered
among Vargas Llosa's most important works, nor is it
valued as an ambitious attempt to illustrate a Latin
American cultural image with philosophical depth.
25 See 178.
26 Lituma sees the Andean world as chaotic as a
whole: "Gracias a Escarlatina lo aclare, antenoche. Le
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
juro que hubiera preferido no averiguarlo. Porque eso
que les paso es lo mas estupido y lo mas perverso de
todas las cosas estupidas y perversas que pasan aqul"
(261).
27 For more analysis of Carpentier's role in the
development of contemporary Latin American culture, one
can refer to Echevarria's The Pilgrim at Home.
28 In "El Peru en llamas," Vargas Llosa reveals that
his knowledge of this movement is based on different
studies published in recent years while his personal
examination of it is rather limited (42).
29 Note that Vargas Llosa assumed Spanish
citizenship during his exile, which qualified him to
receive the 1993 Planeta Prize for this novel.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
287
Conclusion
This work has examined the criminal mysteries of
three of Vargas Llosa's novels. Although these texts
can be considered examples in which the elements of the
detective genre are used and transformed to achieve the
author's literary goals, they do not represent the full
scope of the mystery writing in Latin America, nor do
they eliminate the border between detective fiction as a
popular genre and "high" literature. However, they
provide the reader with a channel through which to view
how mystery is represented as a literary and social
matter, and to see the development of the generic
elements that differentiate Latin American mystery from
its Anglo-American counterparts.
As a highly acclaimed writer with an eminent
trajectory of fictional writings that express his strong
sense of social-political commitment, Vargas Llosa is
expected to write about the complexity of Peruvian life.
Yet, mystery forms an important part of his writing.
The three texts each address some major problems in both
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
the constructions of their crime mystery and their
writing of the Peruvian world. They can be viewed as a
whole, representing a thematic and structural expansion
beyond the traditional detective genre.
For La ciudad y los perros, the problem can be
called a double dilution of the mystery. That is to
say, the detection of some possible solutions to the
murder mystery in the military school is firstly
"diluted" due to the intervention of the higher
authorities, and the transfer of Lieutenant Gamboa who
has intended to perform the role of detective. Then,
the author's strategic erasure of Boa, a crucial
character whose confession reveals a hidden clue to the
murder, leads the reader to a final suspicion but not
the solution of the case. The mystery is left open for
both the reader and the writer.
The murder case in Quien mato a Palomino Molero is
presented to the detective in hostile circumstances,
with both the guilty party— the military force— and an
indifferent community impeding the investigation. The
community's disbelief about the police's function is the
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
289
basic tone throughout the narrative, and the search for
an answer turns out to be a search for what could be a
"valid" mystery in the eye of the local people. In
their examination of the detective work, these people
perform the role of a critical reader in the narrative,
while simultaneously challenging the true reader's
participation in the solving of the mystery. In other
words, the mystery in the narrative is pre-consumed by
the reader in the story, and narrows down the common
reader's expectations about reading a mystery. However,
such a pre-consumption has not prevented the reader from
criticizing the text for a lack of generic intensity,
and questioning the limits of the author's exploration
in the literary field.
In Lituma en los Andes, the investigation of the
mystery expands from a missing-murder case to the whole
Andean world. Depicting several cultural and
ideological conflicts between the modern and primitive
worlds as seen through the eye of the detective, the
author appears to express his own attitude toward
Peruvian society. In this text, his writing about Peru
suggests a cultural alienation between the protagonist,
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
290
a "social elite," and the unfamiliar and underdeveloped
homeland, a situation that can also be approached as a
mystery with an intertextual engagement that involves
the writer's own social conditions and political
experience, his previous works, and the reader's
examination of the problem at an allegorical level.
Though each emphases a different problem in its
presentation of a mystery, all three texts tell stories
set within the milieu of certain problematic
communities: a chaotic, scandalous military school, a
town of disbelief and gossips, and a remote, mysterious
Andean village controlled by desperate superstitions.
Each is similarly hostile to the detective, indifferent
to the victim, and eventually works to prevent a
definite solution to the mystery from being found.
Their hostility, combined with the flaws of the
detectives and their superior officers, result in the
weakness and failure of the investigation.
In all three texts, the detective figures are not
able to function as effectively as their Anglo-American
prototypes, since their investigations and processes of
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
291
logical reasoning are often presented as secondary to
the problems that threaten their personal well-being in
the community. Unlike the prototypical detective, they
are bound to the investigation not by a sense of social
responsibility but by their hierarchical affiliation to
the military or police force. Gamboa from La ciudad y
los perros and the policemen in Quien mato a Palomino
Molero and Lituma en los Andes share a similar fate of
being punished and transferred away by the higher
authorities, who, embarrassed by the investigation,
leave the criminal case in a state of scandal, the
community in chaos, and the solution or justice in
suspension. The fate of the detectives points to
another aspect of these texts' construction of the
mystery that differs from that of classic detective
stories: there is an absence of power in the three
texts, in which no party is strong enough to withstand
the challenge of the social crisis initiated by a crime
or to restore order. In such a situation, the solution
to the mystery often falls in the hands of the reader.
The narrative structure of La ciudad y los perros
is open for the reader to examine a hidden clue provided
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
292
by a main character's monologue when the detective's
work is blocked by his higher authorities. In Palomino
Molero, the reader encounters the local people as the
"internal" reader who questions the validity of the
crime mystery before the "external" reader can question
the generic flaw in the textual construction. By
reading Lituma en los Andes as not only a particular
crime, but also a broader mystery about Peruvian society
in which it occurs, a mystery that includes an
intertextual engagement with the author's previous
novels, the reader can put the author's own cultural-
political conditions under examination and consider his
ideological inclination as a component of the mystery.
In all three texts, the solution of a single crime
becomes a secondary concern for the reader, whose bigger
challenge is the textual complexity of a novel that
combines the elements of the detective genre with a
critique of both Peruvian life and Vargas Llosa's own
literary world. The reader can consider Vargas Llosa as
a serious writer who complies with elements of a popular
genre to expand his literary experience in these three
texts. One may also read these texts as generic works
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
293
that contribute to, even if they cannot be included in,
the "high" writing. In either case, one should note
that Vargas Llosa's writing of mystery is related to his
writing of the "self," of his own position in Peruvian
culture.
La ciudad y los perros is set in the military
school that Vargas Llosa once attended, with various
autobiographical plots presented through different
characters. In Palomino Molero the detectives'
difficult situation reflects a dilemma for the writer's
role in the investigation of an actual massacre that
happened in Peru, an investigation strongly criticized
by different parties of Peruvian society. Lituma en los
Andes carries a sense of alienation from, and even
hatred for, the primitive land, which implies a
connection between the exile of the main character and
the author's own. Meanwhile, the last two novels also
contain narrative clues related to the author's earlier
texts, such as La casa verde, and revive different
Peruvian communities in an intertextual scope, a scope
that is supported by the author's own literary and
political experiences. The formation of these
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
294
communities in Vargas Llosa's literary representation
reveals the Latin American world as a cultural challenge
in his own life. If Vargas Llosa's Peru should be
recognized as a poetic representation of certain
personal experiences, it is even more noteworthy that in
each of these texts, both his portrayals of the Peruvian
communities and his self-revelations are accomplished
through his depiction of the detective's confrontation
with the mystery surrounding a crime. That is to say,
for Vargas Llosa, writing about Peru is not a literary
endeavor separate from writing mystery.
Through his mystery novels, Vargas Llosa examines
the Peruvian society as a structure of power. His
writing about Peru often focuses on the conflicts
between different power systems, including those at the
center of power and those at the margin, such as the
ruling power and the oppressed, the conservative and the
odd, the law enforcement and the outlaw. In these three
texts, the mystery narrative proceeds with a textual
power structure around the conflicts between the
detectives, the criminal, the detective's higher
authorities, and the reader— both in and outside the
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
295
story, a structure that is also marked by the
ineffective detective work and the incompetence of the
ruling force. Vargas Llosa thus criticizes the weakness
of a society in which a personal effort to bring about
justice often fails due to specific cultural or
political situations, with the borders blurred between
civilization and barbarism, justice and injustice,
freedom and confinement, and the rational and
irrational.
Unlike in classic detective stories in which the
detective often empowers the rest--the criminal, the
offended community, and the reader— through his solution
of the mystery, in Vargas Llosa's fiction, the different
parties find themselves alternately empowered and
disempowered through the unraveling of the mysteries.
There is no absolute winner in the battle against the
crime and the ensuing social crisis, and no master who
maintains the order in the community. As the writer of
such mystery complexities, Vargas Llosa simulates the
detective's condition, being the artist on the one hand,
and under the reader's challenge on the other. In other
words, the writer, like a never-retiring detective, is
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
296
expected to provide new cases and solutions, while being
bound to the problems and critiques incurred by these
cases.
Although this writer's work cannot represent the
writing of mystery in Latin America in general, it does
provide some answers to the question of how one writes
mysteries in a world where the social and cultural
conditions and the modus operandi are different from the
central places of the West. As critics have noted, the
trends in Hispanic crime mystery include the mimicking
of Western prototypes and the application of the genre
to an ideological purpose. The first is more often
related to a commercially motivated move, and the second
constitutes a serious examination of the Latin American
world within a generic dimension. Vargas Llosa's
fiction, as demonstrated by the three texts, however,
cannot be simply labeled as fitting into either trend.
Like many other Latin American writers, Vargas Llosa
adapts the conventions of the detective genre for his
own ends; meanwhile, as this study has shown, the
problems in the construction of his mysteries go well
beyond matters of genre. Unlike many of those who write
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
297
within the genre, his narratives not merely serve an
ideological purpose that underlies the representation of
the social-political transformations of his country, but
also set up an interconnection among the use of generic
sources, the writer's social-political commitment, and
the reader's examination of not only the texts but also
the writer's life as a cultural phenomenon. As the
comparisons between Vargas Llosa and some other Latin
American writers indicate, his works represent on the
one hand, certain directions in which mystery narrative
takes within and beyond the generic dimension, and on
the other, the task of writing Latin America that
undergoes transformations and challenges in different
cultural scopes. Vargas Llosa's mysteries, therefore,
can be taken as part of a literary endeavor that
contributes to the fortifying of the Latin American
cultural body more than to the expansion of the
detective genre.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
298
Bibliography
Abella, Encarna. "Satira y parodia de la novela policial
en El tunel de Ernesto Sabato." Romance 1(1988
Fall): 66-75.
Allen, Dick and David Chacko ed. Detective Fiction:
Crime and Comprimise. New York: Harcourt Brace
Jovanovich, Inc., 1974.
Alvarez-Borland, Isabel. "From Mystery to Parody:
(Re)Reading of Garcia Marquez's Cronica de una
muerte anunciada." Symposium 4 (1984-1985): 278-86.
Auden, W.H. "The Guilty Viscarge." Ed. Allen and Chacko.
400-10.
Badenberg, Nana, Alexander Honold and Susanne Horstmann.
"^.Quien mato a Palomino Molero?: Vargas Llosa y la
novela policial." Revista de critica literaria
latinoamericana 2 (1989): 277-316.
Baker, Rilda. "Of How to Be and What to See While You
Are Being: The Reader's Performance in The Time of
the Hero." Ed. Rossman and Friedman. 3-14.
Baldridge, Cates. Graham Greene's Fictions: The Virtues
of Extremity. Columbia (MO): U of Missouri P, 2000.
Baldussi, Rosa Boldori de. Mario Vargas Llosa: un
narrador y sus demonios. Buenos Aires: Editorial
Fernando Garcia Cambeiro, 1974.
Barthes, Roland. "Delay and the Hermeneutic Sentence."
Ed. Most and Stowe. 118-21.
Barzun, Jacques and Wendell Hertig Taylor. A Book of
Prefaces to Fifty Classics of Detective Fiction.
New York: Garland, 1976.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
299
Bell, Madison Smartt. "Mountains of the Mind." 18 Feb.
1996. New York Times on the Web. 28 Jun. 1998.
chttp://www.nytimes.com/books/98/06/28/specials/llo
sa-andes.html>.
Bell, Michael. Literature, Modernism and Myth: Belief
and Responsibility in the Twentieth Century.
Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1997.
Bell, Steven and Leonard Orr, eds. Critical, Theory,
Cultural Politics, and Latin American Narrative.
Notre Dame: U of Notre Dame P, 1993.
Berg, Mary G. "Narrative Miltiplicity in Vargas Llosa's
Lituma en los Andes." La Chispa '95. Ed. Claire
Paolini. New Orleans: Luisiana Conference of
Hispanic Language and Literature, 1995. 25-38.
Bidney, David. "Myth, Symbolism, and Truth." Ed.
Vickery. 3-13.
Binyon, T. J. Murder Will Out: The Detective in Fiction.
New York: Oxford UP, 1989.
Boland, Roy. "Demonios y lectores: Genesis y reescritura
de ^Quien mato a Palomino Molero?" Antipodas Dec.
(1988): 161-82.
- - -. Mario Vargas Llosa: From "Pantaleon y las
visitadoras" to "Elogio de la madrastra". Auckland:
U of Auckland P, 1988.
Booker, Keith. Mario Vargas Llosa Among the
Postmodernists. Orlando: U of Florida P, 1994.
Borges, Jorge Luis and Bioy Casares. Seis probelmas para
Don Isidro Parodi. Buenos Aires: Emece, 1984.
Borges, Jorge Luis. Jorge Luis Borges: Obras Completas.
4 vols. Barcelona: Emece, 1996.
- - -. Conversations. Ed. Richard Burgin. Jackson: UP of
Mississippi, 1998.
- - -. Discusion. Buenos Aires: Emece, 1960.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
300
- - "El cuento policial." Jorge Luis Borges: Obras
completas. Vol. 4. 189-197.
- - -. "El escritor argentino y la tradicion." Jorge
Luis Borges: Obras completas Vol. 1. 267-74.
- - -. "Hombre de la esguina rosada." Historia universal
de la infamia. Madrid: Alianza, 1993. 93-108.
Browne, Ray Broadus. Heroes and Humanities: Detective
Fiction and Culture. Bowling Green (OH): Bowling
Green State U Popular P, 1986.
Cabrera, Rosa Maria. "La muerte en dos tiempos: Gringo
viejo de Carlos Fuentes y ^.Quien mato a Palomino
molero? de Mario Vargas Llosa." Actas del X
Congreso de la Asociacion de Hispanistas (1992):
507-14.
Cabrera Vicente. "Modos de narrar y niveles de realidad
en ^Quien mato a Palomino Molero?" Revista
interamericana de bibliografia 4 (1991): 634-62.
Calvino, Italo. Six Memos for the Next Millenium. Trans.
Patrick Creagh. New York: Vintage, 1993.
Cano Gaviria, Ricardo. "Realidad real y realidad
ficticia." El buitre y el ave fenix: Conversaciones
con mario Vargas llosa. Barcelona: Anagrama, 1972.
121-48.
Carbajal, Brent. "Love and Sex in Mario Vargas Llosa's
Quien mato a Palomino Molero." Hispanic Review
Summer (2000): 267-78.
Carpentier, Alejo. Prologo. El reino de este mundo.
Caracas: Monte Avila, 1992. 1-12.
- - -. Los pasos perdidos. Madrid: Catedra, 1985.
Castro-Klaren, Sara. "The Time of the Hero: Machismo and
No Exit." Understanding Vargas Llosa. Columbus: U
of Southern Carolina P, 1990. 21-39.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
301
Cawelti, John. "Canonization, Modern Literature, and the
Detective Story." Ed. Delamater and Prigozy. 5-16.
- - -. "The Concept of Formula in the Study of Popular
Literature." Ed. Hoppenstand. 730-36.
- - -. Adventure, Mystery and Romance. Chicago: U of
Chicago P, 1976.
Chanady, Amaryll ed. The Spanish American Identity and
Constructions of Difference. Minneapolis: U of
Minnesota P, 1994.
Chesterton, G. K. "A Defense of Detective Stories." Ed.
Haycraft. 3-6.
Christian, Ed. The Postcolonial Detective. New York:
Palgrave, 2001.
Chrzanowski, Joseph. "Mario Vargas Llosa y la
interpolaridad vida-ficcion." Chang-Rodrxguez,
Raquel ed. La historia en la literatura
iberoamericana: Textos del XXVI congreso del
Instituto Internacional de literatura
iberoamericana. N.p.: 317-25.
Cortazar, Julio. "Continuidad de los parques." Julio
Cortazar: Los relatos. Vol. 2. Madrid: Alianza,
1985. 7-8.
Cortinez, Veronica. "De Poe a Borges: La creacion del
lector policial." Revista Hispanica Moderna June
(1995): 127-36.
Davison, Ray. Camus: The Challenge of Dostoevsky. Exeter
(UK): U of Exeter P, 1997.
De Kaplan, Olga Steimberg. "Historia y ficcion en el
discurso literario de la postmodernidad."
Transformaciones de una cultura: Literatura
latinoamericana y "Postmodernidad". Ed. De Kaplan.
N.p. (Argentina): S.M. de Tucuman, 1996. 161-81.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
302
De Quincey, Thomas. "Murder as One of the Fine Arts."
Ed. Allen and Chacko. 168-71.
Delamater, Jerome and Ruth Prigozy eds. Theory and
Practice of Calssic Detective Fiction. London:
Greenwood Press, 1997.
Diaz, Cesar. La novela policiaca: Sintesis historica a
traves de sus autores, sus personajes y sus obras.
Barcelana: Acervo, 1973.
Dick Gerdes. Mario Vargas Llosa, Boston: Twayne
Publishers, 1985,
Donald L. Shaw's "Humor e ironia en Pantaleon y las
visitadoras." Antipodas I (Dec. 1988): 61-73,
Donoso, Jose. Historia personal del 'boom.1 Barcelona:
Seix Barral, 1983.
Dorfman, Ariel. Some Write to the Future: Essays on
Contemporary Latin American Fiction. Trans. George
Shivers. Durham: Duke UP, 1991.
Dove, George. Suspense in the Formula Story. Bowling
Green, OH: Bowling Green State U Popular P, 1989.
- - -. The Reader and the Detective story. Bowling
Green, OH: Bowling Green State U Popular P, 1997.
Eagleton, Terry. The Illusions of Postmodernism. Malden
(MA): Blackwell Publishers, 1996.
Echevarria, Roberto Gonzalez. Alejo Carpentier: The
Pilgrim at Home. Ithaca, (NY): Cornell UP, 1977.
- - -. Myth and Archive: A Theory of Latin American
Narrative. Cambridge (England): Cambridge UP, 1990.
Eco, Umberto. "Between Author and Text." Interpretation
and Overinterpretation. Ed. Stefan Collini.
Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1996. 67-88.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
303
Eco, Umberto and Thomas A. Sebeok eds. The Sign of
Three: Dupin, Holmes, Peirce. Bloomington (IN):
Indiana UP, 1988.
Ellis, John, M. "Textuality, the Play of Signs, and the
Role of the Reader." Against Deconstruction.
Princeton: Princeton UP, 1989. 113-36.
Elmer, Jonathan. Reading at the Social Limit: Affect,
Mass Culture, and Edgar Allan Poe. Stanford:
Stanford UP, 1995.
Ewert, Jeanne. "'A Thousand Other Mysteries':
Metaphysical Detection, Ontological Quests." Ed.
Merivale and Sweeney. 179-198.
Feal, Rosemary Geisdorfer. Novel Lives: The Fictional
Autobiographies of Guillermo Cabrere Infante and
Mario Vargas Llosa. Chapel Hill (NA): U of North
Carolina P, 1986.
Fernandez, Ariel. Tres en la literatura de nuestra
America: Borges, Vargas Llosa, Campos Menendez.
Santiago (Chile): Ediciones Tamarugal, 1984.
Figueroa, Armando. "El regreso del cabo Lituma: Dos
mundos andinos vistos por Mario Vargas Llosa."
Quimera 122 (1994): 40-44.
Filer, Malva. "Vargas Llosa: el novelista como critico."
Ed. Rossman and Friedman. 148-61.
Franco, Jean. "The Nation as Imagined Community." Ed.
Aram Veeser. The New Historicism. New York:
Routledge, 1998. 204-121.
Fuentes, Carlos. El valiente mundo nuevo: Epica utopia.
Mexico: Fondo de Cultura Economica, 1990.
- - -. Geografia de la novela. Mexico D.F.: Fondo de
Cultura Economica, 1993.
- - -. "El afan totalizante de Vargas Llosa." Ed.
Giacoman and Oviedo. 162-17 8.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
304
Garcia Marquez, Gabriel. Cronica de una muerte
anunciada. La Habana: Casa de las Americas, 1981.
- - -. "The Solitude of Latin America." Trans. Marina
Cataneda. Ed. Julio Ortega. Gabriel Garcia Marquez
and the Power of Fiction. Austin: U of Texas P,
1988. 87-91.
Gerdes, Dick. Mario Vargas Llosa. Boston: Twayne
Publishers, 1985.
Giacoman, Helmy F. and Jose Miguel Oviedo, eds. Homenaje
a Mario Vargas Llosa: Variaciones interpretativas
en torno a su obra. Long Island City (NY): Las
Americas, 1972.
Gidley, Mick. "Elements of the Detective Story in
William Faulkner's Fiction." Ed. Landrum and
Browne. 228-4 6.
Grella, George. "Murder and the Mean Street: The Hard-
Boiled Detective Novel." Ed. Allen and Chacko. 411-
29.
Greene, Graham. A World of My Own: A Dream Diary. New
York: Viking, 1994.
Grossvogel, David. Mystery and Its Fictions: From
Oedipus to Agatha Christie. Baltimore: John Hopkins
UP, 1979.
Harper, Ralph. The World of the Thriller. Cleveland: P
of Case Western Reserve U, 1969
Harrowitz, Nancy. "The Body of the Detective Model:
Charles S. Peirce and Edgar Allan Poe." Ed. Eco and
Sebeok. 179-97.
Haycraft, Howard, ed. The Art of the Mystery Story: A
Collection of Critical Essays. New York: Carroll &
Graf Publishers, Inc., 1975.
- - -. "The Whodunit in World War II and After." Ed.
Haycraft. 536-42.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
305
Hazera, Lydia D. "Strategies for Reader Participation in
the Works of Cortazar, Cabrera Infante and Vargas
Llosa." Latin American Literary Review 13.26
(1985): 19-34.
Hernandez de Lopez, Ana Maria, ed. Mario Vargas Llosa:
Opera omnia. Madrid: Pliegos, 1994.
- - -. "Sentido detectivesco en Cronica de una muerte
anunciada." Cuadernos de ALDEEU 3 (1987): 105-114.
Hernandez Martiin, Jorge. Readers and Labyrinths:
Detective Fiction in Borges, Bustos Domecq, and
Eco. New York: Garland Publishing, 1995.
Hilfer, Tony. The Crime Novel: A Deviant Genre. Austin:
U of Texas P, 1990.
Holquist, Michael. "Whodunit and Other Questions." Ed.
Most and Stowe. 149-74.
Hoppenstand, Gary, ed. Popular Fiction: An Anthology.
New York: Longman, 1998.
Hutter, A. D. "Dreams, Transformations and Literature."
Wilkie Collines. Ed. Pykett. New York: St. Martin's
Press, 1998. 175-96.
Irwin, John. Mystery to a Solution. Baltimore: John
Hopkins UP, 1994.
Jimenez, Onilda. "Un nuevo fenomeno de la literatura
cubana: la novela policial." Revista de Cultura 9
(1980): 93-100.
Johnson, Barbara. "The Frame of Reference: Poe, Lacan,
Derrida." Ed. Muller and Richardson. 213-51.
Kermode, Frank. "Novel and Narrative." Ed. Most and
Stowe. 175-96.
Kerr, R.A. "The Secret Self." Mario Vargas Llosa:
Critical Essays on Characterization. Potomac (MA):
Scripta Humanista, 1990. 35-41.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
306
Knight, Stephen. Form and Ideology in Crime Fiction.
Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1980.
Kluckhohn, Clyde. "Myth and Rituals: A General Theory."
Ed. Vickery. 33-44.
Kristal, Efrain. Temptation of the Word: The Novels of
Mario Vargas Llosa. Nashville: Vanderbilt UP, 1998.
Lafforgue, Jorge and Jorge Rivera, ed. Asesinos de
papel: Ensayos sobre narrativa policial. Buenos
Aires: Ediciones Colihue, 1996.
Lafforgue, Jorge. "La ciudad y los perros: Novela
moral." Homenaje a Mario Vargas Llosa. Ed. Giacoman
and Oviedo. Long Island: Las Americas, 1972. 99-
124.
Lambert, Gary. The Dangerous Edge. New York: Grossman
Publishers, 1976.
Landrum, Larry, and Pat Browne and Ray Browne, eds.
Dimensions of Detective Fiction. N.p.:Popular
Press, 1976.
Lastra, Pedro. "Un caso de elaboracion narrativa de
experiencias concretas en La ciudad y los perros."
Homenaje a Mario Vargas Llosa. New York: Las
Americas, 1972. 23-36.
Lee, Rodriguez. Juegos sicologicos en la narrative de
Mario Vargas Llosa. Miami: Ediciones Universal,
1984.
Lichtblau, Myron. "El lector y el discurso narrativo en
^.Quien mato a Palomino Molero?" Explicacion de
textos literarios 2 (1996-1997): 65-72.
Lindstrom, Naomi. Twentith-Century Spanish American
Fiction. Austin: U of Texas P, 1994.
MacAdam, Alfred J. Textual Confrontations: Comparative
Readings in Latin American Literature. Chicago: U
of Chicago P, 1987.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
307
MacDonald, Janice. "Parody and Detective Fiction." Ed.
Delamater and Prigozy. 61-72.
Mandel, Ernest. Delightful Murder: A Social History of
the Crime Story. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P,
1984.
March, Kathleen. "Cronica de una muerte anunciada:
Garcia Marquez y el Genero Policiaco." Inti 39
(1994): 61-70.
Marcos, Juan Manuel. De Garcia Marquez al postboom.
Madrid: Origenes, 1986.
- - -. "El genero popular como meta-estructura textual
del post-boom latinoamericano." Rivista monografica
2 (1987): 268-78.
Martinez Morales, Jose Luis. "Asesinato, la novela del
lector." Texto Critico 36-37 (1987): 54-67.
Mazzei, Norma. Postmodernidad y narrativa
latinoamericana. Buenos Aires: Ediciones
filofalsia, 1990.
Merivale, Patricia and Susan Sweeney. "The Game's Afoot:
On the Trail of the Metaphysical Detective Story."
Ed. Merivale and Sweeney. 1-24.
- - -, eds. Detecting Text. Philadelphia: U of
Pennsylvania P, 1999.1-24.
Michnik, Adam and Mario Vargas Llosa. "Des entrevistas
con Mario Vargas Llosa: Optimismo de la historia."
Cuaderno Hispanoamericano April (1998): 7-14.
Miller, D. A. "The Novel and The Police." Ed. Most and
Stowe. 299-326.
Most, Glenn and William Stowe, eds. The Poetics of
Murder: Detective Fiction and Literary Theory. San
Diego (CA): Harourt Brace Jovanovich, 1983.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
308
Muller, John and William Richardson, eds. The Purloined
Poe: Lacan, Derrida, and Psychoanalytic Reading.
Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1988.
Murch, A. E. The Development of the Detective Novel.
London: Peter Owen. 1958.
Mutis, Guido. "Asesinatos y erudicion: Modos y
tendencias de la novelapolicial angloasjona."
Estudios filosoficos 28 (1993): 45-66.
"Mystery." Corripio diccionario de terminologia. 1st ed.
306.
Navarro, Desiderio. "La novela policial y la literatura
artistica." Texto critico 6 (1980): 135-48.
Ortega, Julio. "Garcia Marquez y Vargas Llosa,
imitados." Revista iberoamericana 137 (1986): 971-
78.
Oviedo, Jose Miguel. Mario Vargas Llosa: La invencion de
una realidad. Barcelona: Seix Barral, 1982.
- - -. Mario Vargas Llosa: A writer's reality.
Barcelona: Seix Barral, 1985.
- - -. "La tia Julia y el escribidor or the Coded Self-
Portrait." Ed. Rossman and Friedman, Mario Vargas
Llosa: A Collection of Critical Essays. Austin: U
of Texas P, 1978.
- - -. "Historia de Mayta: Una reflexion politica en
forma de novela." Antipodas I (Dec.): 1988. 142-
159.
Owen, Kathleen Belin. "The Game's Afoot: Predecessors
and Pursuits of a Postmodern Detective Novel." Ed.
Delamater and Prigozy. 73-84.
Panek, LeRoy Lad. An Introduction to the Detective
Story. Bowling Green: Bowling Green State U Popular
P, 1987.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
309
Peavler, Terry J. and Peter Standish, eds. Structures of
Power: Essays on Twentieth-century Spanish-American
Fiction. Albany (NY): State U of New York P, 1996.
Penuel, Arnold M. "Intertextuality and the Theme of
Violence in Vargas Llosa's Lituma en los Andes."
Revista de Estudios Hispanicos. 3 (1995): 441-60.
- - -. "The Uses of Perspectivism in Vargas Llosa's
^Quien mato a Palomino Molero?." Hispania 73
(1990): 943-52.
Perricone, Catherine R. "Artistic craftsmanship in
Vargas Llosa's ^Quien mato a Palomino Molero?" La
Chispa 87: Selected Proceedings. Ed. Gilbert
Paolini. New Orleans: Tulane UP, 1987. 213-37.
Porter, Dennis. The Pursuit of Crime: Art and Ideology
in Detective Fiction. New Haven: Yale UP, 1981.
Premat, Julio. "El crimen de la escritura: La novela
policial segun Juan Jose Saer." Latin American
Literary Review. July-Dee. (1996): 19-37.
Priestman, Martin. Crime fiction: From Poe to the
Present. Plymouth: Northcote House, 1998.
- - -. Detective Fiction and Literature: The Figure on
the Carpet. New York: St. Martin's, 1990.
Pyrhonen, Heta. Murder from an Academic Angle: An
Introduction to the Study of the Detective
narrative. Columbia (SC): Camden House, 1994.
Ramsay, Raylene. "Postmodernism and the Monstrous
Criminal: In Robbe-Grillet's Investigative Cell."
Ed. Merivale and Sweeney. 199-214.
Rebaza-Soraluz, Luis. "Demons and Lies: Motivation and
Form in Mario Vargas Llosa." The Review of
Contemporary Fiction. 1(1997): 15-24.
Righter, William. Myth and Literature. Boston: Routledge
and Paul, 1975.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
310
Rodriguez Monegal, Emir. "Madurez de Vargas Llosa."
Mundo Nuevo 3 (1966): 62-72.
Rossman, Charles and Alan W. Friedman, eds. Mario Vargas
Llosa: Estudios criticos. Madrid: Alhambra, 1983.
- - -. Mario Vargas Llosa: A Collection of Critical
Essays. Austin: U of Texas P, 1978.
Rowe, William. "Liberalism and Authority: The Case of
Mario Vargas Llosa." Ed. Yudice, Franco and Flores.
45-67.
Sayers, Dorothy. "The Omnibus of Crime." Ed. Allen and
Chacko. 351-83.
- - -. "Aristotle on Detective Fiction." Interpretation.
3 (1995): 405-15.
Setti, Ricardo A. Conversas com Vargas Llosa. S§o Paulo:
Brasiliense, 1986.
Shaw, D.L. "Three Post Boom Writers and the Boom." Latin
American Literary Review. Jan-June (1996): 5-22.
- - -. The Post-Boom in Spanish American Fiction.
Albany: State U of New York P, 1998.
Simpson, Amelia. Detective Fiction from Latin America.
Rutherford (NJ): Fair-leigh Dickingson UP, 1990.
- - -. Introduction. New Tales of Mystery and Crime from
Latin America. Simpson, Amelia ed. London:
Associated UP, 1992. 11-23.
Sklodowska, Elzbieta. "An Interview with Mario Vargas
Llosa." The Missouri Review 16 (1993): 113-36.
- - -. "Transgresion parodica de la formula policial en
la novela hispanoamericana." Hispanica
Posnaniencia. 171-183.
- - -. La parodia en la nueva novela hispanoamericana.
Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 1991.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
311
Solotorevsky, Myrna. Literatura-paraliteratura: Puig,
Borges Donoso, Cortazar, Vargas Llosa. Gaithersburg
(MD): 1988.
Sommer, Doris, George Yudice. "Latin American Literature
from the Boom On." Postmodern Fiction: A Bio-
Bibliographical Guide. Ed. Larry McCaffery. 189-
216.
Standish, Peter. "Contemplating Your Own Novel: The Case
of Mario Vargas Llosa." Hispanic Review 1 (1993):
53-63.
Stavans, Ilan. "Detectives en Latinoamerica." Quimera 73
(1988): 24-27.
Swanson, Philip. The New Novel in Latin America:
Politics and Popular Culture after the Boom. New
York: Manchester UP, 1995.
Symons, Julian. Bloody Muder. New York: Viking, 1985.
- - -. Mortal Consequences. New York: Harper and Row,
1972.
Szmetan, Ricardo. "'Los albaniles', de Vicente Lenero,
dentro de las novelas de detectives." Confluencia.
4, no. 2 (1989 Spring): 67-71.
Taggart, Kenneth M. "La tecnica del contrapunto en
<;Quien mato a Palomino Molero?" Hernandez de Lopez
ed. 151-58.
Tani, Stefano. The Doomed Detedctive: The Contribution
of the Detective Novel to Postmodern American and
Italian Fiction. Carvbondale: Southern Illinois UP,
1984.
Thompson, John. Fiction, Crime and Empire: Clues to
Modernity and postmodernism. Urbana: U of Illinois
P, 1993.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
312
Todorov, Tzvetan. "The Typology of Detective Fiction."
The Poetics of Prose. Ithaca (NY): Cornell UP:
1997. 42-53.
Vargas Llosa, Mario. La ciudad y los perros. Vol. 1 of
Obras Escogidas: Novelas y Cuentos. Ed. Alfredo
Rivas. Madrid: Aguilar, 1973.
- - -. La casa verde. Barcelona: Seix Barral, 1968.
- - -. Conversacion en La Catedral. Barcelona: Seix
Barral, 1979.
- - -. Pantaleon y las visitadoras. Barcelona: Seix
Barral, 1981.
- - -. Historia de Mayta. Caracas: Seix Barral, 1984.
- - -. La tia Julia y el escribidor. Barcelona: Seix
Barral, 1977.
- - -. El hablador. Barcelona: Seix Barral, 1987.
- - -. Quien mato a Palomino Molero. Madrid: Seix
Barral, 1986.
- - -. A Writer's Reality. Ed. Myron I. Lichtblau.
Syracuse: Syracuse UP, 1991.
- - -. Lituma en los Andes. Barcelona: Editorial
Planeta, 1993.
- - -. "La historia interminable." Ed. Hernandez de
Lopez. 15-19.
- - -. "Coloquio/Respuestas." Semana de autor: Mario
Vargas Llosa. Madrid: Instituto de Cooperacion
Iberoamericana, Ediciones Cultura Hispanica, 1985.
30-35.
- - -. El pez en el agua. Barcelona: Editorial Planeta,
1993.
- - -. "El Peru en llamas." Desafio a la libertad.
Madrid: Aguilar, 1994. 37-41.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
313
- - Una historia no oficial. Ed. Miguel Garcia-
Posada. Madrid: Espasa Calpe, 1997.
- - -. El lenguaje de la pasion. Mexico: Aguilar, 2001.
Vickery, John, ed. Myth and Literature: Contemporary
Theory and Practice. Lincoln: U of Nebraska P,
1973.
Walker, Ronald G. and June Frazer, eds. The Cunning
Craft: Original Essays on Detective Fiction and
Contemporary Literary Theory. Macomb: Western
Illinois U, 1990.
Walsh, Rodolfo. "Noticias sobre cuentos policiales
argentinos." Diez cuentos policiales argentinos.
Ed. Rodolfo Walsh. Buenos Aires: Libreria Hachette,
1953. 1-10.
Weaver, Wesley J. "Una aproximaicion psicoanalitica a
^.Quien mato a Palomino Molero?" Narrativa
hispanoamericana contemporanea: Entre la vanguardia
y el posboom. Ed. Hernandez de Lopez. Madrid:
Pliegos, 1996. 167-78.
Williams, Raymond. Mario Vargas Llosa. New York: Ungar,
1986.
- - -. The Postmodern Novel in Latin America: Politics,
Culture, and the Crisis of Truth. New York: St.
Martin's Press, 1995.
- - -. "Los niveles de la realidad, la funcion de lo
racional y los demonios: El hablador y Lituma en
los Andes." Explicacion de textos literarios. 25
(1996-1997): 141-54.
Winks, Robin. Modus Operandi. Boston: David R. Godine,
Publisher, 1982.
- - -, ed. The Historian as Detective: Essays on
Evidence. New York: Harper & Row, 1969.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
314
- - -, ed. Detective Fiction: A Collection of Critical
Essays. Woodstock (VT): Countryman Press, 1988.
Woodward, Vann. "On Believing What One Reads." Detective
Fiction. Ed. Robin Winks. 24-38.
Yudice, George. "Postmodernity and Transitional
Capitalism in Latin America." Ed. George Yudice,
Franco and Flores. 1-28.
Yudice, George, Jean Franco and Juan Flores, eds. On
Edge: The Crisis of Contemporary Latin American
Culture. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P, 1992.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.

Linked assets

University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses

Conceptually similar

PDF

From the ruins of empire: Afrohispanic writings of Equatorial Guinea, the Caribbean and Spain, 1980--2000

PDF

L2 use and development of mood selection in Spanish complement clauses

PDF

Las "nuevas novelas" de Max Aub: Renovacion e innovacion en la literatura espanola de posguerra

PDF

Ariel, o episodios en la vida literaria de Roberto Fernandez Retamar

PDF

Mutaciones de La Malinche: Itinerarios de una leyenda en Mexico y los Estados Unidos

PDF

Los cuerpos de Eva Peron: Anatomia de un pais huerfano

PDF

Empires of the habanera: Cuba in the cultural imaginary of Catalonia

PDF

Pinks, pansies and punks: The rhetoric of masculinity and American literary culture from the Depression to the sexual revolution

PDF

Seeing ghosts: Readings on the effectivity of phantasms

PDF

Acquisition of Spanish verb morphology by bilingual children. A longitudinal study between the ages of 2;9 and 3;3

PDF

At wit's end: The rhetoric of humor and the ends of talk

PDF

Social networks and phonetic variation: A family network in Santiago de Chile

PDF

A variationist study of relative clauses in Spanish

PDF

Legal topographies

PDF

Undecidable cases: Investigations into lyric modes and affective processes

PDF

The maternal theme in Garcia Lorca’s folk tragedies

PDF

The acquisition of L2 Spanish pronunciation in a study abroad context

PDF

Linguistic attitudes in the Basque Country: The social acceptance of a new variety

PDF

Proceso de debilitamiento consonantico en el Espanol de Santiago de Chile: Variables fonologicas y estilisticas

PDF

A critical edition with a study of the style of "la relacion" by Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca

Asset Metadata

Creator Sun, Haiqing (author)

Core Title The mystery of Peru: Investigations of Mario Vargas Llosa

Contributor Digitized by ProQuest (provenance)

Degree Doctor of Philosophy

Degree Program Spanish

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag Literature, Latin American,Literature, Modern,OAI-PMH Harvest

Language English

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c16-241420

Unique identifier UC11334838

Identifier 3093422.pdf (filename),usctheses-c16-241420 (legacy record id)

Legacy Identifier 3093422.pdf

Dmrecord 241420

Document Type Dissertation

Rights Sun, Haiqing

Type texts

Source University of Southern California (contributing entity), University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses (collection)

Access Conditions The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the au...

Repository Name University of Southern California Digital Library

Repository Location USC Digital Library, University of Southern California, University Park Campus, Los Angeles, California 90089, USA