El conocimiento como metáfora, aproximación a la narrativa de Gonzalo Torrente Ballester

grantor: University of TorontoThe contemporary Spanish novelist Gonzalo Torrente Ballester (1910-) has been extraordinarily prolific not only in his creative practice but also in his wide-ranging critical commentary, and within his creative works metanovelistic preoccupations abound. Pervading in the expanse of all this writing is a fundamental unifying theme that has eluded those of his critics who have elucidated such valid topics as the theme of power, the relationship between myth and history in his work, his use of fantastic literature, and aspects of his aesthetics. The present thesis proposes that the fundamental philosophical principle underlying Torrente Ballester's work is his view of language as the fragile and protean basis on which knowledge and opinion are acquired and communicated. In his works he points repeatedly to the inadequacy of humankind's cognitive powers, to our inability to know the world objectively; hence the necessity to construct a view of the world (rather than reflect or reproduce it) based on our interaction with it. In the transmission of this relative and vague experience, metaphor comes to hold a crucial place in human discourse; and Torrente's frequent use of niebla as metaphor suggests that it epitomizes the obscure process by which the imagination approximates and divulges the act of knowing. Useful in studying his system is the distinction between living and dead metaphor. The latter has lost the creative capacity that the living metaphor enjoys. This capacity of the living metaphor enables the presentation of knowledge that is constantly in flux, of a dynamic restlessness of impressions. Torrente Ballester encapsulates this process in his phrase "la revolucion permanente" and it is possible to see in it the epistemological impulse for his remarkable productivity. His enthusiasm for "la revolucion permanente" certainly explains his frequent targeting of the non-dialectical, dogmatic discourse typical of the Franco regime, as well as his illustrative use of his lively imagination to invent living metaphors and to channel them through devices of fantasy, parody, irony and humor toward the subversion of such a discourse.Ph.D