It is easier to remember than to order reality. Lo que dijo el trueno (2022) by Fernando Díaz San Miguel

Abstract

This article analyzes the aesthetic functions of memory, memories and dreams in the novel Lo que dijo el trueno (2022) by Fernando Díaz San Miguel. The first part, starting from some introductory data of the novel in question, including some of its postmodern features, is interested in the survival of T. S. Eliot in the literary field. In the second, on the one hand, a brief history of postmodern theories is developed together with the concept of postnationality and, on the other hand, of Cultural Memory Studies, together with some notions of interest for literary analysis. In the third and last section, some functions of memory are systematized in five categories and some representative fragments are analyzed. As part of the results, the resource of memory is articulated, from a postmodern episteme, with some of the functions of dreams and memories in the novel under study to build an aesthetic proposal whose main characteristic is the presence of tense ontological dialogues between reality and fiction, a common feature in historical metafictions.