Fiction in the non-fiction novel. Analysis of the fictional status based on the narrator

Gemma LÓPEZ CANICIO
Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, España
glcanicio[atgmail.com

Spanish

Abstract: This article tackles, from the figure of the narrator, the problem presented by the fictional statute over non-fiction narrative. Its indeterminacy places in question the literary nature of these stories, which play a fundamental part on the vigent literary paradigm. The objective of this article is to reach conclusions that allow us, from a theoretical perspective, to elaborate a characterisation of non-fiction novels that attends to the issue of their fictional statute, and find a comfortable place in today´s poetry for this kind of stories. To reach this objective, this article will take as a starting point the Hispanic non-fictional story and the conclusions to which we arrive after analysing the use of a narrator in three non-fiction stories. These stories, all from Hispanic origins but very different from one another, are: Operación masacre (1957), Crónica de una muerte anunciada (1981) and Anatomía de un instante (2009). This analysis fits on the Teoría de los mundos posibles (1998), proposed by Tomás Albaladejo, which works as a fundamental tool to determine the nature of the fictional statute in these works.

Keywords: fiction, non-fiction, novel, journalism, narrator