La ficción como coartada del apátrida: un milagro informal de Fernando Iwasaki

Abstract

The article analyzes the book of short stories entitled “Un milagro informal” (2003) (An Informal Miracle), written by the Hispano-Peruvian author Fernando Iwasaki, in the context of the new trends in Peruvian narrative literature. In a sense, the book’s table of contents allows us to realize that Iwasaki has selected the most representative tales from his genre of short-story telling. Besides, he has anthologized himself and has introduced new tales that provide evidence of a clear evolution in his literary work. Thus, he eliminates any kind of boundaries, not only in those aspects involving subject matters and styles, but also in the different genres. This evolution is clearly represented in the author's forms, the stylistic, even linguistic distance that are present in the tales written in Seville in recent years, when compared with those written in Lima during the eighties. Nonetheless, despite the numerous metamorphoses that Iwasaski’s writings present, there are four main subjects that cover transversally all his short-story telling output, namely, 1) the imaginary element, that bursts abruptly into the world of realism, 2) the eroticism, trimmed with jocular and ludic elements, 3) the parody, presented mainly in the detective genre and 4) the intertextual puns. These four elements are perfectly connected and invite most of the time the use of a sort caustic and corrosivehumour.