Laberinto, violencia y parodia : Análisis textual de Pólvora Negra de Montero Glez

This essay examines how the image of the labyrinth appears in the novel Pólvora Negra (2008) by Montero Glez, a novel that we inscribe into the Spanish postmodern literature tradition. The hypothesis of this essay is that the labyrinth works as a main theme or a macro theme for the novel since it recurs frequently and at the same time contains other topics, such as violence. Our analysis shows, using a structural semiotic method, that the presence of the labyrinth occurs in four different ways in the text. The first is in the physical landscape since Madrid in the beginning of the 20th century, the space in which the novel is ambiented, is a labyrinthine town with small, dark, dirty and bad smelling streets. The second is in the structure of society, which is also labyrinthine since it represents an unjust and corrupt social order that is more obvious among the political leading class but that has an effect on all the segments of society. The third is that the physical and mental trayectories of the three main caracthers in the novel are labyrinthine, which is something that the reader can notice throughout the text. The fourth is that the novel itself has a labyrinthine narrative which means that the reader’s project also manifests itself as labyrinthine. The reader of Pólvora Negra has to deal with both the labyrinth in the text and the labyrinth of the text. This essay analyzes the narrator’s voice as well as its function in the novel. The use of parody is abundant in the novel. Two kinds of parody are founded: the historical parody and the parody of the criminal novel