Counter-Utopia and Anti-Epic History Writing in Gabriel Miró's El abuelo del rey

摘要

In El abuelo del rey (1915) Gabriel Miró tells of the last member of a provincial dynasty, who in the late 1800s travels to the farthest corner of South America expecting to find glory for himself and for his nation. Instead, he ends up working as a petty clerk. In this article, it is argued that through this un-heroic character Miró questions both the role of the epic in establishing national(ist) imaginings, and the master-narrative of modernity that represents the West as the undisputed universalising force in world history. The ironic tone of the novel underlines the Alicantine author's literary modernity, while the seriousness of the topic reflects his sometimes overlooked intellectuality.View full textDownload full textKeywordsSpanish Modernity, Gabriel Miró, epic narratives, West, ImperialismRelated var addthis_config = { ui_cobrand: "Taylor & Francis Online", services_compact: "citeulike,netvibes,twitter,technorati,delicious,linkedin,facebook,stumbleupon,digg,google,more", pubid: "ra-4dff56cd6bb1830b" }; Add to shortlist Link Permalink http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13260219.2010.487510