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- Title
Elogio de la madrastra y Los cuadernos de don Rigoberto: una vanitas contemporánea.
- Authors
Martí-Peña, Guadalupe
- Abstract
Elogio de la madrastra and Los cuadernos de don Rigoberto are two of the most visual novels written by Mario Vargas Llosa. In both, paintings and painters play a role of the utmost importance with regard to the plotting, the fleshing out of the characters, and the composition and erotic appeal of the novel. This essay analyses the relationship these two novels have with vanitas paintings. At times considered as mere still-life, the vanitas painting depicts transience and semiotically recalls the vanity and vacuity of all worldly pursuits in the face of death. This analysis shows how Elogio and Los cuadernos share various formal and conceptual characteristics of vanitas paintings, and participate in the paradoxical nature of the vanitas: an admonition to restrain from all carnal pleasures and an invitation to enjoy them, carpe diem combined with memento mori.
- Subjects
PAINTING; VARGAS Llosa, Mario, 1936-; ART &; literature; ART in literature; SPANISH fiction; VANITAS (Art)
- Publication
Bulletin of Hispanic Studies (1475-3839), 2004, Vol 81, Issue 1, p55
- ISSN
1475-3839
- Publication type
Article