Poetics of subtext in Spanish American narrative: contributions by Borges, Carpentier, and Vargas Llosa to the teaching of creative writing

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to demonstrate that it is possible to counteract the potential influence of Anglo-Saxon creative writing didactics on Hispanic American literary production by taking the fictional poetics and narrative works of canonical Hispanic American authors as a starting point for teaching creative writing to Spanish-speaking students. Opting for the case study as a methodological approach, we analyze the reflection on subtext and its use as a procedure in the works of three fundamental authors of the continental canon: Jorge Luis Borges, Alejo Carpentier and Mario Vargas Llosa. Evidence is provided that, in order to create subtext, Jorge Luis Borges uses the “secret plot” or the “hidden story”, Alejo Carpentier the allegory and Mario Vargas Llosa the “hidden data”.