gustavo pérez firmat - the structure of el fulgor y l asangre

7/28/2019 Gustavo Prez Firmat - The structure of El fulgor y l asangre

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The Structure of El fulgor y la sangreAuthor(s): Gustavo Prez FirmatReviewed work(s):Source: Hispanic Review, Vol. 45, No. 1 (Winter, 1977), pp. 1-12Published by: University of Pennsylvania PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/472568 .

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THE STRUCTURE OF EL FULGOR Y LA SANGREIN his well-known story, "El Sur," Borges remarks that "a larealidad le gustan las simetrias y los leves anacronismos." Incontext, the statement is intended to explain the curious resem-blances between the two episodes which comprise the story (JuanDahlmann's accident and his trip to the South). But as is usualwith Borges, an apparently straightforward explanation concealsunsuspected complexities, for the symmetries that the reader per-ceives reside not in "reality" but in a literary text. It is not life,but art, that rejoices in the play of symmetry and anachronism.Thus, Borges' statement addresses itself to the work of art's con-cern with form-precisely that quality which distinguishes it fromunmediated experience. Because of the preoccupations it subsumes,the quotation from "El Sur" can well serve as the point of de-parture for a discussion of Ignacio Aldecoa's first novel, El fulgory la sangre.1 Even though Aldecoa's production is generallyplaced in the "linea realista espaniola," 2 a positioning that impliesa bias on the author's part toward the vivid depiction of every-day life at the expense of novelistic form, the outstanding fea-ture of El fulgor is the careful, precise, almost mathematical struc-ture imposed on the narrative material. As in "El Sur," the rawdata of experience is here organized into a balanced, symmetricalwhole of more intricacy than one might at first suspect. My pro-cedure in this paper will be to discuss first the confection of theplot of the novel and then, in light of this, the encompassing struc-tural framework from which the meaning of the work derives.

1Barcelona, 1954. Page numbersin the text refer to this edition.2 F. C. Sainz de Robles, Panorama literario (Madrid, 1955), n, 151.1


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Gustavo Perez FirmatI

El fulgor y la sangre is set in a ruined castle situated on top ofa hill which overlooks an unnamed town in Castile. The castle hasbeen converted into a garrison for the Guardia Civil and housesfive guardias, their families, and a corporal. The action transpiresin one afternoon segmented into seven temporal units, each corre-sponding to a chapter. The first and last chapters are designatedby an indefinite time ("Mediodia," "Crepusculo"), the others bya specific hour ("Dos de la tarde," "Tres de la tarde," "Cuatroy media de la tarde," "Seis de la tarde," "Siete de la tarde").The plotline itself is quite simple: in the morning, during the townfair, one of the guards is killed. The news is relayed by telephoneto the castle and related in the first chapter. For reasons whichgo unexplained, the identity of the casualty is not disclosed untilthe "Crepisculo," when the men return to the post. In the fiveintervening chapters the women of the castle are notified one byone of the death. In every case but one, the communication of thenews coincides with an account of the women's biographies. In"Dos de la tarde" Sonsoles finds out and her biography is nar-rated; in "Tres de la tarde" and "Cuatro y media de la tarde"respectively, Felisa and Maria find out and their biographies arenarrated; in "Seis de la tarde" Carmen and Ernesta find out andCarmen's biography is narrated; in "Siete de la tarde" the chil-dren find out and Ernesta's biography is narrated. The dissem-ination of the news follows a chain-like pattern. Ruiperez, one ofthe two guards who had stayed in the castle, first receives the in-formation. He tells Felisa and Pedro Sanchez. Pedro notifiesSonsoles, who tells Maria. Maria tells Carmen and the children.Carmen tells Ernesta. The first and last chapters, then, containall of the action per se (the news of the killing, the discovery ofthe victim's identity), and frame the remaining five, linked to eachother by the title designations as well as by the parallelisms incontent.

Adopting Norman Friedman's typology, the storyline of Elfulgor would be classed as an "action plot," the kind common tomost forms of popular fiction.3 Its interest stems not from the

3 "Forms of the Plot," in Theory of the Novel, ed. P. Stevick (NewYork, 1967), pp. 145-66.

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Structure of "El fulgor y la sangre" 3thought or character of the parties involved (we do not meet theparticipants in the shooting until the last chapter), but from theanticipation of the eventual outcome. In El fulgor the action plotappears in unusually simple form. Of the "basic puzzle and solu-tion cycle" which Friedman sees as underlying its different in-carnations,' all we have is a statement of the puzzle (in the firstchapter) and its solution (in the last). The variegated fabric ofepisode and incident that usually weaves these two together is miss-ing, the anguished wait of the women being interrupted only bytwo inconsequential visits from the priest and mayor. Even so,Aldecoa manages to build up considerable suspense. The refer-ences to the approaching storm, increasing in frequency as thedenouement draws near, create an atmosphere of impending doom.The interpolated biographies not only protract the end but injectvariety into the necessarily monotonous presentation of the women'sespera. And when the "Crepusculo" finally arrives, Aldecoa or-chestrates the revelation so that the reader is the last to find out.5

4 C"Forms of the Plot," in Theory of the Novel, p. 158.5 A detailed examination of the handling of the men's return could con-stitute a study in itself. From the beginning of "Crepdsculo" it is evidentthat the locus has shifted to the convoy of returning men ("El pueblo estabaenfrente. El pueblo era una mancha violeta claro en las blancas fachadas,un morado oscuro en los rojos tejados. El castillo estaba silueteado por elsol poniente" p. 343), and yet, because the narrator adopts a strict third-person personalized point of view, the identity of the men through whose eyesthe landscape is seen remains a mystery. The reader is put in the position ofbeing too close to make out the faces. As the scene progresses, Aldecoa keepsdangling the carrot before our collective noses by gradually and obliquelypiecing together a description of the men: "El ramaje se adensaba . .. Elcaminillo recto, disparado desde el pueblo al campo, era ya corto, tan eortoque a la mirada se ofrecia como para andarlo en dos zancadas . . . Ellos hanhecho un alto . . . Y este polvo del camino, blancuzco, suave, caliente comola piel humana, cubre en la marcha la negrura de los botos y el verde de losuniformes agrisfndolos. Y los rostros, como los uniformes, estan tambi6ngrises" (pp. 843-44). Once the figures have been fleshed out, an anonymousinterlocutor speaks the first line of dialogue ("Lo mejor es evitar el pueblo"p. 344). As the men pass the town, the townspeople find out the identity ofthe victim ("Saben que desde las casas del pueblo son contemplados. Sabenque los que los contemplan no hablan y sienten miedo de lo que estan viendo"pp. 344-45). As they climb the hill, Ruip6rez finds out ("Ruiperez estamirandolos desde el puesto de la guardia bajo el torre6n. Ya lo sabe" p.345). And when the time finally comes to inform the reader, Aldecoa avoidsdirect statement: "Baldomero, con el rostro oscuro . . . Guillermo, que Ileva


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Gustavo Perez FirmatSuspense is also sustained by the way in which the uncertainty

of the reader is channeled into the expectation of alternative end-ings. The news of the "baja" sets in motion four possibilities.The casualty could either be one of three guards (Baldomero,Maria's husband; Cecilio, Carmen's; Guillermo, Ernesta's), or theCorporal, Francisco Santos. As the story unfolds, two of the pos-sibilities fade into the background. Using diverse kinds of insinua-tion, Aldecoa leads the reader to believe that the probable victimis the Corporal or Guillermo. Throughout the novel the death ofthe Corporal appears as the most expedient solution. The fact thathe is single marks him as an outsider. The five couples coalesceinto a natural unit from which he is excluded: "El pabellon estabadividido en seis departamentos. Uno para el cabo comandante ylos otros cinco para los guardias. El cabo era soltero, los guardiasvivian con sus familias" (p. 9). When Maria is told about thecasualty, she has to stop herself from wishing that it be the Cor-poral (p. 126), and as the afternoon wears on, the thought of theCorporal's death acquires the insistence of an obsession ("Volviael oscuro pensamiento a dar vueltas en su cerebro como un tor-bellino" p. 283). The arrival of a letter late in the afternoongranting the Corporal a transfer alerts the reader to the prospectof an ironic resolution. The possibility of Guillermo's death isprepared in an analogous manner. It is suggested first by thedisposition of the biographies. Aldecoa inserts the stories of thewomen whose husbands had remained in the castle in the earlychapters, and leaves Ernesta's for last, an order which hints at agradual convergence on the character who will occupy the spotlightduring the desenlace. The other women repeatedly comment thatErnesta, being the youngest and most vulnerable, would be the leastable to accept death ("Si a esa criatura le han matado el maridova a dar en loca" p. 126; "Ernesta esta como quien dice en laluna de miel y esto le va a sentar como un tiro. Aparte de que esmuy joven" p. 193). During the narration of her biography weare told that she became engaged to Guillermo at a feria, a factwhich, like the arrival of the letter, allows for an ironic resolution.dos fusiles . . . Ceilio, que camina pegado a las angarillas . . . Francisco,el cabo Francisco Santos" (p. 345). In view of such a passage, it is strangethat S&inz de Robles would speak of Aldecoa's "desden por los trucos deloficio" (Panorama literario, II, 150).

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Structure of "El fulgor y la sangre"Within the spectrum of four possible endings, the two discussed

above stand at opposite extremes. Given the fact that a death hasoccurred-and this is never in doubt-Guillermo's would be themost pathetic, the Corporal's the least so. By highlighting thesetwo alternatives Aldecoa schematizes one of the oldest and mostbasic decisions confronting any writer of fiction, that of choosingbetween a "happy" and an "unhappy" ending. Unexpectedly,the reader finds himself before one of those novels that dramatizethe techniques of novel writing. The clarity with which Aldecoasets up the traditional devices of foreshadowing and irony, thetransparency, in fact, of his overall approach to the question ofplot, tend to efface the illusion that the guard's death reflects areal-life situation. The different components no longer appear aslegitimate elements in a human drama, but as topoi, which is to saythat they are not moored in reality but in literary conventions.The plot of the novel unfolds so nitidly, so traditionally, that itbecomes a parody of itself.If in the development of the plot Aldecoa resorts to the topoiof novelistic technique, in its resolution he resorts to the internallogic of his novel. In either case, the abandonment of mimeticcriteria continues. As has been pointed out, the body of El fulgorconsists of five chapters; these are arranged in perfect symmetry:from the first ("Dos de la tarde") to the third ("Cuatro y mediade la tarde"), two-and-a-half hours elapse; from the third to thefifth ("Siete de la tarde"), another two-and-a-half hours, totalingfive hours from first chapter to last. We have, consequently, fivecouples, five chapters, five hours. With this in mind, the denoue-ment seems logical and even necessary. In a fictive universe ap-portioned in groupings of five, the Corporal, the sixth member ofthe community, does not fit. The death of any other of the menwould have destroyed the concinnity of the system; the death ofthe Corporal, by removing the foreign element, enhances it. Theplot can therefore be seen as an autonomous, self-correcting mech-anism the parts of which relate to each other in perfectly sym-metrical ways.6

6 The need to enclose, to make a pattern, which the tight construction ofthe plot reveals, also manifests itself in some of the descriptive sections of thenovel: "La colina. El caser6n. La mafana. La colina, el caser6n y lamafiana formaban un todo agrio y gris, dulce y fulgurante. Por la colina,

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Gustavo Perez FirmatThe foregoing analysis, however, fails to touch upon many key

issues. In El fulgor the plot is displaced. The characters in-volved in the shooting are not the protagonists of the novel; the"five women of the castle," to whom Aldecoa devotes most of hisattention, play no part in the unravelling of events. In a sense,the game of exposing the conventions of fiction goes on, for insofaras the women do not participate they are spectators, and as spec-tators, doubles of the reader. El fulgor can then be looked uponas a novel about the responses of the reader to the reading of anovel. But this interpretation, enticing though it may be, still doesnot come to terms with the minuteness of Aldecoa's treatment ofcharacter. The bulk of the novel is given over to an anatomy ofthe personality of the five women, with the plot subservient to thiscentral emphasis.A novelist who conceives of the novel as primarily an explora-tion into human psychology has two options as regards plot: he caneither disregard it altogether (E. M. Forster's "As for plot-topot with plot, break it up, boil it down"),7 or he can construct oneso artificial that the usual assumptions about its imitation of realitydisappear. We find the former approach in novels like Azorin'sLa voluntad and Benjamin Jarnes' El profesor inutil. The latteris illustrated in El fulgor. The disengagement of plot and char-acter permits Aldecoa to use the plot merely as a kind of automaticon-and-off switch to stir and still the pertinent reactions in theprotagonists. The complete artificiality with which it is wroughtstresses the purely mechanical nature of its function. The murderof the Corporal is as necessary to the novel as the act of openinga book is to the reading of it, and with respect to the meaning ofthe work, just as significant.

IIThe five central chapters consist of an agglomeration of numer-ous scenes and vignettes placed chronologically on two temporal

hacia el caser6n traqueteaba la tartana rompiendo la calma de la mafiana"(p. 26). Instead of presenting the landscape as a cluster of disjointed im-pressions, Aldecoa conjugates them into a "todo." The description recallsthe paradygmatie Gestalt formation of three dots which the observer connectsinto a triangle. In this instance the unifying force is the "tartana," whichbrings together colina, caser6n, and manana.7 Aspects of the Novel (New York, 1927), p. 101.

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Structure of "El fulgor y la sangre"axes. The first covers a span of nearly two decades extending fromthe years immediately preceding the Civil War up to about 1950;it includes the account of the women's biographies from childhoodor adolescence through their husbands' assignment to the castle.The second covers events in the novel's present, the day on whichthe killing takes place. In the first of these chapters, "Dos de latarde," scenes in the past and present alternate on a one-to-onebasis. In succeeding chapters the tendency is to join several scenesinto one sequence and so reduce the number of temporal switches,an arrangement which allows for a more coherent presentation ofa related series of events. "Tres de la tarde," "Cuatro y mediade la tarde," and " Seis de la tarde " each consist of three sequencesin the past and three in the present. The three past segments fol-low the same pattern: the first deals with the years before the war;the second, with the war itself; the last, with the aftermath of thewar. In "Siete de la tarde" there are two sequences in each ofthe time frames. The first sequence in the past describes eventshappening before or during the war, the second picks up onErnesta's life eight years after the war. The scenes in the presentare usually distributed among the characters so as to get a crosssection of their thoughts and behavior at one given moment. Oneof the sequences in "Tres de la tarde," for example, is comprisedof four scenes, each of which opens by focusing in on a differentwoman: "Felisa sudaba" (p. 72); "El caracter de Maria Ruiz eracomo sus ufas" (p. 74); "Sonsoles no deseaba decir nada a Felisa"(p. 76); "Mientras en la galeria se secaba la ropa, Carmen, sentadaen una butaca de mimbre . . . hojeaba una revista de cine" (p.78). To summarize: the narrative technique of these chapters ischaracterized by intersecting pendular movements, one in timefrom past to present, and one in space from character to character.The sequences in the present depict the characters as figures on aflat surface; the flashbacks provide the added dimension of depth.The transitions between the two temporal frames are facilitatedby the linking of contiguous scenes.8 The most typical link is con-tinuity of focus. The first scene in a sequence will often featurethe same character as the last scene in the preceding one (pp. 16,

s A technique reminiscent of La colmena and El Jarama. See J. Ortega's"El sentido temporal en La colmena," Symposium, 19 (1965), 115-22; and"Tiempo y estructura en El Tarama," CHA, 67 (1966), 801-08.

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Gustavo Perez Firmat72, 149, 182, 194, 236, 257). The linkage can also be based on asimilarity in subject matter. The flashback sequence which re-counts Felisa's life during the war concludes with her father, JuanMartin, walking back to his house: "Juan camin6 hacia su casa.Principiaba una lluvia fina y helada. Iba pensando . . " (p. 102).The next one, in the present, begins, "Andar, andar y no dejar deandar." Similarly, a scene in "Dos de la tarde" ends withSonsoles wishing to move away from the castle ("Quisiera cambiar.Marcharnos a algun sitio diferente" p. 41); the flashback whichfollows relates her arrival at her father's town, where she is tolive with some relatives ("Cuando Sonsoles llego al pueblo de supadre, no fue bien recibida por sus tios . . ." p. 41). One of theflashbacks in "Siete de la tarde" ends, "Alguno habia muerto"(p. 305), a statement that applies equally well to the state of af-fairs in the present.Scenes can also stand in contrast to one another. In many in-stances there is an implied opposition between the portrayal of acharacter as a child and as an adult. The last words of a scenein "Dos de la tarde" are, "Sonsoles llamo a su hijo" (p. 18); thenext scene begins, "La abuela de Sonsoles . . ." The chiasmicrelationship between the two phrases (Sonsoles-hijo / abuela-Son-soles) underscores the reversal in roles. At times the contrast iscaused by a brusque change in the environment or mental state ofthe characters. The first vignette in "Dos de la tarde" containsan account of the lynching of Sonsoles' father, which she observesfrom a hill. The following scene shows her sitting in the shadesewing and talking to Felisa. The contrast turns to irony withher first words, "Con la guerra se hicieron fortunas" (p. 16).One of the flashbacks in "Siete de la tarde" pictures Ernestahappily coming back home to get married; her driver says, " jLade vueltas que da el mundo! Hace dos afios la triste eras tu,criatura, y ahora soy yo el que esta alicaldo y desmadejado. Lade vueltas que da el mundo, Ieh?" (p. 334). In the scene whichfollows the wheel has come full spin again; Ernesta and the otherwomen are tensely waiting for the men to return.

General relationships between the two time frames underlie theformal connections between individual scenes. With respect to theemotional constitution of the women, the past and present areclearly related as cause and effect. All of the biographies revolve

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Structure of "El fulgor y la sangre"around two pivotal events: marriage and war. These conditionthe intensity of the women's reactions to the death of the uniden-tified guard. Marriage makes them affectively dependent on themen; memories of the war heighten the suffering that attaches toa consideration of their death.The interdependence between past and present is also reflectedin the temporal design of the novel. The two sequences embodydifferent conceptions of time. The past sequence of events, nar-rated with the matter-of-factness of a chronicle, unfolds in whatcan be termed impersonal or objective time.9 This is the typeusually associated with mechanistic models of the universe. Itspoint of reference is the calendar, and it is frequently spoken ofin conjunction with events: "Todo esto lo vio Sonsoles la mananadel cinco de mayo de 1937" (p. 16); "A principios del ano 1936murio la madre" (p. 64); "En febrero hubo una gran huelga"(p. 66); "Durante el mes de enero del ano treinta y nueve, losasuntos de la familia de Juan Martin se complicaron" (p. 111);"En el invierno de 1948 fueron destinados al castillo" (p. 117);"Carmen entr6 en la peluqueria a principios del ano treinta ycinco" (p. 211); "Las elecciones del 1936 fueron movidas en elbarrio" (p. 217); "A finales de septiembre cayeron algunas tor-mentas que hicieron crecer el arroyo" (p. 305). On the otherhand, the narration of scenes in the present incorporates personal,subjective time; what George Poulet has called le temps humain.Human time requires no objective standard; its measure is manhimself. In the novel its distinguishing quality is its uneventful-ness. Unlike that of the past, the narrative space of the presentis occupied only by "pequenos movimientos y largas charlas" (p.10). We see this conception of time operating in the followingdescription of one of the guards: "Ruip6rez, con las manos sobreel fusil, sentia pasar el tiempo por sus pulsos. Una pulsaci6n eraun granito caido en el reloj" (p. 73). The pulse, whose normalcyis commonly gauged by reference to a clock, becomes its own chro-nometer. As the transmutation implies, the speed with which hu-man time passes is a function of the individual's disposition. Ina state of excitement, the pulse beats faster and time accelerates;

9For the articulation of these concepts I am indebted to H. Meyerhoff'sTime in Literature (Berkeley, 1955), especially pp. 4-14.

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Gustavo Perez Firmatin a subdued state, the pulse returns to its normal rate and timeslows down.The two varieties of time progress at different rates. Objectivetime is compressed, subjective time is dilated. In the accounts ofthe women's lives, entire days, months, or years are crowded intoone laconic phrase: "Transcurrio un aiio" (p. 27); "Y otro afio. . . Y otro afio" (p. 48); "Los meses del hospital se sucedieron"(p. 110); "Pasaron seis anios" (p. 115); "Tenia ya trece afnos"(p. 131); "Pasan dos dias" (p. 265). Since the signposts of ob-jective time are events, these are also compressed: "Se casaron.Poco despues era destinado a un pueblo de Andalucia el guardiaCecilio Jimenez" (p. 276); "Acabo la guerra. Regresaron hombresal pueblo, un poco desconocidos para todos, transformados. Algunofalto. Sonsoles conocio a un primo suyo" (p. 19); "Pedro San-chez y Sonsoles fueron novios poco tiempo. Un verano se casaron.Los parientes se alegraron. La boda coincidio con el traslado dePedro a otro puesto" (p. 42). The precipitous procession ofevents in the past gives the impression of a newsreel. By con-trast, the scenes in the present assume the immobility of tableaux.One excerpt will suffice to illustrate.

En el reloj del Ayuntamientodel pueblodieronlas dos. Eran las dosde la tarde. La campana pequefiaextendi6 la noticia por los campos.Las dos: uno y dos. El alcalde dormitaba,sentado en una butaca demimbre. El eura leia el periodieo.Entro Sonsoles.--- Quequieres?Pedro agachola cabeza,se pas6 el dorsode una mano por los labios.-Tengo que darte una malanoticia.Sonsoles se le qued6mirando con fijeza, como si miraseun objeto sinesperanza,quePedro sintio aquellamiradaen la frente y no alzo la cabeza.-Han matado a un companiero.Pedro esperaba a pregunta,pero Sonsolesno la hizo. Siguio:-Es necesarioque vayas advirtiendoa las mujeres de lo sucedido.No lo traeran hasta tarde. No se sabe a quien le ha tocado. Tiu meentiendes,& erdad?-Te entiendo.El reloj del Ayuntamientorepiti6 la hora. Las dos de la tarde y unminuto. Exactamenteun minuto. (pp. 57-58)

During this conversation dramatic time has slowed down to thepoint that it approximates the time of reading, an equivalency

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Structure of "El fulgor y la sangre"which holds true throughout the sequences in the present and whichdiffers sharply from the disparity between the two in many partsof the biographies. Even one instant is prolonged by the deviceof recasting the same thought in successive sentences: a) En elreloj del Ayuntamiento del pueblo dieron las dos; b) Eran las dosde la tarde; c) La campana pequefa extendio la noticia por loscampos. Las dos: uno y dos. Or: a) Las dos de la tarde y unminuto; b) Exactamente un minuto. Evidently, if one is workingfrom within a mechanistic system, the preceding sentences areabsurd. Two statements which follow each other in time cannotboth indicate the same hour, especially not "exactly." But thestandard here is the human pulse, and the anxiety felt by thecharacters construes one instant as a duration.In his manipulation of time Aldecoa employs essentially differ-ent narrative methods; in one case the emphasis is on summary,in the other on scene. This procedure contributes to the effectiveportrayal of the women's wait. The fact that almost twenty yearsof history can share "equal time" with one afternoon points outthe enormity of their anguish. The superposition of temporalplanes also provides a clue to the total meaning of the work; itsuggests that El fulgor, more than being a study of the post-CivilWar Spanish psyche, develops a traditional novelistic theme: theclash between human sensibility and social circumstances. Sub-jective time is an emblem for the individual; objective time, forthe milieu in which he moves. Their lack of synchronization ex-presses the individual's inability to adapt to an environment hecannot control. From this same superposition of planes the bookreceives its title. "El fulgor" refers to death as it is phenomeno-logically perceived by the individual (". . un fulgor que era elprincipio de no ver para siempre" p. 74); "la sangre," to theobjective manifestation of the individual's death.

IIII would like to end my discussion with some synthesizing re-

marks based on the opening sentences of the novel. The narratoris describing Pedro Sanchez as he keeps the watch.De vez en cuando arrastrabael pie por la pista de las hormigasyproduciael desastre. Luego, aburridamente,ontemplabaa triste y per-

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Gustavo Perez Firmatfecta organizaci6nde los insectoshasta que la normalidady la urgenciaen la normalidadvolvian. Su mirada, arrastrindose por la tierra, ledescubriapequefias cosas para las que iba creando imAgenesque lasaislaban,las circuiany les dabannuevos valores que impediansu olvidomomentineo.The passage can be commented in at least three different directions.First, it is quite appropriate that a novel so concerned with timeshould begin with an adverbial phrase of time, one which, more-over, conveys the idea of intermittency that typifies Aldecoa's nar-rative technique. Second, the destruction and restoration of thepath of the ants anticipate the action of the novel; the lives of thewomen will also be disrupted fortuitously, only to return to theirnormal course at the end. Third, and most importantly, the pas-sage fixes the author's position vis-a-vis his subject. In the firstsentence the word "desastre" does not appear to suit the context;normally it is too strong a word to characterize the vexation ofants. But this is the point. Aldecoa approaches his subject withthe intention of multiplying its dimensions. He takes five commonwomen, ants of the human species, members of the class he hasidentified as "la pobre gente de Espafa," 10and raises their suf-fering to the level of disaster. By keeping them steadily in thereader's purview, he magnifies their stature until it attains near-mythic proportions. In effect, intimations of mythic parallels lin-ger just beneath the surface: Felisa states that "habia momentosen que todo le parecia como una historia vieja recien contada"(p. 156); the situation of the women waiting for their husbandscalls to mind the plight of Penelope waiting for Odysseus; theiranguish, caused in large measure by the experience of a war, echoesthat of the protagonists of Euripides' Trojan Women. Aldecoa'sart, then, cannot be represented by the mirror which copies life,but by the lupa which recovers its apparently negligible aspects.Like Pedro, the novelist isolates "pequeias cosas" and, by con-verting them into separate and bounded images, that is, by struc-turing them, ensures their survival.

GUSTAVO ]REZ FIRMATThe University of Michiganlo Quoted in E. G. de Nora, La novela espafola contempordnea(Madrid,1973), In, 304.

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gustavo pérez firmat - the structure of el fulgor y l asangre

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