Débora

''Débora'' is an experimental novella by Ecuadorian writer Pablo Palacio, published in Quito in October 1927. In 2007, the novella was included in a compilation of the author's complete works by publishing house Libresa. The plot of the book follows ''Teniente''—a character who's only referred to by that name and who is never fully defined— during a walk through the streets of Quito in search of a love conquest or any event of importance, which ultimately never comes.

The novella is made up of a series of passages that depict several everyday events in Teniente's walk. These passages are constantly interrupted by the ramblings of the narrator, his comments on the protagonist, and the tedium caused by the very construction of the plot. The passages in the story are not presented in a linear succession of events, but rather form a series of subjective images from the narrator's perspective. Some of the techniques employed in the book include stream of consciousness and metafiction.

The first edition of the book featured drawings by cartoonists and on the front and back covers, respectively.

Analysis

Identity of the protagonist

As a character, Teniente is described as ridiculous, superficial, and unbalanced. These qualities are emphasized by the recurring insults—written in the second person—which the narrator uses to reprimand him. The character's main trait is his "unfulfilled longing," which is expressed through his search for a romantic fling. In his daily life he is a slave to customs and appearances, which leads the narrator to describe him as:

The character is a reference to the July Revolution, which took place on 9 July 1925 and was carried out by lieutenants of the National Army of Ecuador.

According to literary critic and essayist and professor Teresita Mauro Castellarín, the beginning of the novella suggests that the character of Teniente is a schizophrenic split of the narrator himself. The passage in question states:

On his part, professor says that, more than a character, Teniente is a puppet manipulated by Palacio, whose intention would have been to construct a novel that would constitute a puppet show. According to Rivas, the back cover of the novella's original edition would support this interpretation. This back cover, illustrated by cartoonist , depicts a puppet dressed as a military man, pulled by strings that go up to a curtain on which the word ''Guiñol'' is written.

A third possible interpretation is to see Teniente as a metaphor for literary creation and the writing process, which would explain the moment when the narrator expels him from within himself and the narrator's constant ramblings about how to write a novel. In this interpretation, the character of Débora would symbolize the literary ideal that is impossible to achieve, and the insults aimed at the protagonist would stem from the author's inner conflict regarding his work.

The end of the novel shows Teniente dying in an absurd manner just when Débora, the imaginary muse for which the novella is named, enters the scene.

Challenged literary concepts

A constant throughout the novel is the criticism of established models and assumptions about how a novel should be put together or how a story should progress. Common are the statements in which the narrator speaks ironically about the average reader's expectations regarding the text. This happens, for instance, when the narrator speaks of giving Teniente a sweet memory and says:

Or, when describing Teniente's state of mind, the narrator says:

One of the clearest passages, and one that best illustrates Palacio's intention in the novel, happens at a moment when the ramblings have almost completely replaced the plot, so the narrator states, in relation to ''Déboras own text:

Other targets of satire in the novella are the literary genres of romanticism and realism. In the case of romanticism, Teniente is reviled several times by the narrator for expecting to be saved from monotony and vulgarity by some love affair, like those that take place in books or films. In the same vein, numerous passages speak sarcastically of the typical events that would happen in a romance novel, as opposed to the almost complete lack of action in ''Débora''. When the narrator speaks of making up an incentive for Teniente, for instance, he immediately says afterwards:

Even the general plot of the novel, which can be summarized as a man in search of a beloved, could be taken in its entirety as a parody of idealism in the romantic genre, only in this case the search turns out to be completely futile.

In the case of realism, Palacio's criticism focuses on what the author perceives as the falseness of his postulates, assumptions, and narrative techniques, especially his principle of describing reality as it occurs. An example of this is when ''Teniente B''—a character other than the protagonist—tells the story of an adventure and the narrator notices that it had not happened in real life in the way it was written but rather that it had been "transformed by literature." Later on, Palacio outlines his critique of realism in the following terms:

Social aspects

During Teniente's walk around Quito, the narrator makes several observations of a social nature. One of the most notorious is about the modernization of the city, which the ''bourgeoisie'' and the ''nouveau riche''—identified in the text as ''gemebundos'' and ''neo-gemebundos'', despite the level of poverty of the inhabitants—are opposed to on idealistic grounds. While the former do not act and are "legitimately hurt" by this modernization, the ''neo-gemebundos'' are described as "pen and paper revolutionaries" and "slaves to the past" apart from being criticized for doing new things and for being "tied to tradition." According to , this criticism creates an analogy to the dichotomy between literary tradition and the avant-garde.

On the other hand, Teniente's passage through the city's slums is explicit in terms of Palacio's vision of poverty:

Reception

''Débora'' was well received by the Ecuadorian literary circles of the time. In his prologue to the 2005 edition of Palacio's collected works, author points out that in 1927, poet Gonzalo Escudero said about the novel:

A review published in 1928 in Loja newspaper ''Renacimiento'' was also positive, stating that it was superior to ' and that reading the novella was akin to:

That same year, journalist referred to ''Débora'' as follows:

Moreover, Vallejo also points out that in January 1929, Chilean newspaper ''Reflector'' published a review praising the novel's "successful reflection of the intimacy of human beings" and referred to it as "experimental psychological foundation."

Throughout the years, the novella has gained more praise and attracted more attention internationally. Journalist Patricio Lennard, writing for newspaper ''Página 12'', said that the book was "deliciously arbitrary" and that it exposed "a joy for the artificial, for incongruity, for digression."

Furthermore, when referring to the book in his ''Diccionario de autores latinoamericanos'', Argentine writer and translator César Aira said it was like "''Nausea'' as written by Macedonio Fernández."

Finally, literary critic Humberto E. Robles said that the novella represented "a theory and practice of the art of writing an antinovel."

See also

* Ecuadorian literature
* Pablo Palacio (writer)

Notes

References

Bibliography

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By other authors

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External links

{{Wikisourcelang, es, Débora

Novellas
1927 novels
Ecuadorian fiction
Novels set in Ecuador
Ecuadorian novels
Spanish-language novels
Debut novels