The Fantastic, Marginal and Fabulous Night by Francisco Tario

Abstract

Francisco Tario (Mexico City, 1911-Madrid, 1977), whose pen-name was Francisco Peláez Vega, is a little known writer in the Hispanic American literature. Often labeled as “rare”, “extravagant” and “cult writer”; he was first known in Mexico for his first book of fantastic tales, La noche (1943), which was an isolated event and a peculiarity of the time, because the tendency then was the realism, where the native land features took precedence over the elements of fantasy. The exceptionality of his work, bound to the lack of participation of the author to the literary circles, brought him to the oblivion by the critics and by the readers. Nevertheless, thanks to the reedition of some of his works in recent years, there are many critic voices that show interest in his narrative, claiming his incorporation in the canon. The object of this study is to analize five tales of La noche, especially the fantastic component as trigger of marginal speeches. In the book, as in the old fables and children’s tales, the objects and animals talk, and they have human traits. Through the personification, life and voice are given to a group of stigmatized beings, rejected by the society: a coffin, an old gray suit, a wrecked ship, etc.; all of them form a group of “rare” beings which reclaim their marginality and their rights to enjoyment, by opposing the statu quo. Besides embodying the otherness, this fantastic characters hold a metaphorical or allegorical meaning, also consubstantial to the fables, which leads to think in the “neofantastic” term, proposed by Alazraki. Each one of them is a visual representation of a different existential problem concerning to the life of the human being. In this way, the incredible elements do not need the traditional mitigating methods to reach their authenticity, considering that this one is achieved thanks to that secondary methaporical or poetic meaning, hence the lack of ambiguity or hesitation that Tzvetan Todrov demands of any fantastic story.