L’Albí, o l’alteritat del monstre en la narrativa fantàstica de Ramon Vinyes

Ramon Vinyes has been known in the literary world because of his being mentioned in García Márquez’s Cien años de soledad as a fictional character, “the Catalan sage”. In fact, he was a poet, playwright and short story writer, who did create his works in his homeland, as well as in Colombia during his exile years, though always writing in Catalan. Vinyes’s most acknowledged short story is “L’Albí” (The Albino), telling the bizarre aftermath of a monstrous presence in a village of the Catalan hinterland. In the present article, the author analyses the ways in which fantasticity and weirdness are used in the configuration of this mysterious character – which is a meaningful projection of otherness – taking into account the function of ideology and parody in the text. Thus, the study argues about the role played by several allusions to English history and significant gothic motives, showing that these elements, along with fantasticity, ideology and parody, build a singular narrative fiction which is at the cutting edge of its contemporary Catalan literary context.Ramon Vinyes has been known in the literary world because of his being mentioned in García Márquez’s Cien años de soledad as a fictional character, “the Catalan sage”. In fact, he was a poet, playwright and short story writer, who did create his works in his homeland, as well as in Colombia during his exile years, though always writing in Catalan. Vinyes’s most acknowledged short story is “L’Albí” (The Albino), telling the bizarre aftermath of a monstrous presence in a village of the Catalan hinterland. In the present article, the author analyses the ways in which fantasticity and weirdness are used in the configuration of this mysterious character – which is a meaningful projection of otherness – taking into account the function of ideology and parody in the text. Thus, the study argues about the role played by several allusions to English history and significant gothic motives, showing that these elements, along with fantasticity, ideology and parody, build a singular narrative fiction which is at the cutting edge of its contemporary Catalan literary context