Vargas Llosa and "Las travesuras de la niña mala", Gabriel García Márquez and "Memoria de mis putas tristes": Followers of Themselves?

Abstract

This article is an attempt to unveil some of the thematic-structural lines shared by Memoria de mis putas tristes and Travesuras de la niña mala, defined as works of old age and differently received by the critics, but linked by their classical make and the centrality of the theme of love. Declared masters of the literary renovation of Spanish Literature, in the last decade Vargas Llosa and García Márquez have raised the flag of tradition to subdue the work of the formal artisan of the word to the arduous toil of the story teller. Thereby, critics have misinterpreted these novels, either with excessive praise or with rejections. If we consider both extremes, we observe that the virtue of these works is rooted in the will to unveil to the reader the original meaning of literature as entertainment, breaking daily life's boredom and making us participate to the fortune of literary characters, as unpunished fellows of their misadventures.