Some past questions on
La tía Julia y el escribidor
- Discuss any TWO of the following in La tía Julia y el escribidor and say to what extent you think they are related:
(i) the use of a binary plot structure;
(ii) the mixing of literary genres;
(iii) the use of melodrama and stereotype.
- "También puedo imaginarme escribiendo que ya había escrito que me imaginaría escribiendo que había escrito que me imaginaba escribiendo que me veo escribir que escribo." Discuss the relevance to the novel of this quotation from the epigraph to La tía Julia y el escribidor.
- "¿No sabe acaso que lo primero es siempre el verbo?" To what extent does La tía Julia y el escribidor bear out this statement by Pedro Camacho?
- Discuss the questioning of the genre of autobiography in La tía Julia y el escribidor.
- Examine the structure of La tía Julia y el escribidor.
- "En La tía Julia y el escribidor Vargas Llosa coquetea peligrosamente con la cursilería." Discuss.
- Examine the function of authorship in La tía Julia y el escribidor.
- 'In Vargas Llosa's La tía Julia y el escribidor the process of writing, the role of the novelist, and the relationship between the writer and the reader are examined.' Discuss.
- 'Discuss the extent to which La tía Julia y el escribidor can be considered a realist text.
- Discuss the relationship between the two sorts of writing in La tía Julia y el escribidor: the radio soap operas of Pedro Camacho AND the narration of Varguitas.
Some issues which often come up
- Plot structure (alternate chapters)
- The notion of vasos comunicantes
- Opposition between "real life" and "fiction" – opposition cannot be maintained as chapters "bleed" into each other
- Autobiography
- Sets up expectations of "realism"
- Expectations are ironized in the text – how?
- Compare Tía Julia's reaction to Varguitas' story about the diplomat. Varguitas says: "Es un cuento, un cuento".
- Realism
- "Real life" is shown to be influenced by fictive processes
- Relationship "cabalito para un radioteatro de Pedro Camacho"
- News reporting – is it concerned with the truth?
- "¿Qué cosa es el realismo, señores, el tan mentado realismo qué cosa es?" (Camacho)
- "¿No sabe acaso que lo primero es siempre el verbo?" (Camacho)
- Metafiction and inversion of fiction/reality (reality structured by fiction) – examples of this?
- "Escribo. Escribo que escribo. Mentalmente me veo escribir que escribo y también puedo verme ver que escribo. …" (Epigraph)
- Incest as literary trope – why is this important?
- Use of stereotypes / kitsch / cursi – precursor of postmodern pastiche?
- Importance of popular culture & rise of the mass media – birth of a media-obsessed society (pre-television)
- Postmodernity and postmodernism
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(Information produced by GK)
