Didactismo, risa y casos novohispanos en La portentosa Vida de la Muerte (1792), novela de Joaquín Bolaños

In this article, we present a new interpretation of La portentosa Vida de la Muerte (1792), a text by the New Spanish author Joaquín Bolaños that has recently been brought back from obscurity. Our research is grounded in an aesthetic perspective that, drawing from Bakhtin and Beltrán, allows us to c...

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Bibliographic Details
Author: Molina Morales, Guillermo
Format: article
Publication Date:2025
Country:Perú
Institution:Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú
Repository:PUCP-Institucional
Language:Spanish
OAI Identifier:oai:repositorio.pucp.edu.pe:20.500.14657/204034
Online Access:https://revistas.pucp.edu.pe/index.php/lexis/article/view/31657/27784
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14657/204034
https://doi.org/10.18800/lexis.202501.014
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:La portentosa Vida de la Muerte
Didactic novel
Satire
Cases
Novela didáctica
Sátira
Casos
https://purl.org/pe-repo/ocde/ford#6.02.06
Description
Summary:In this article, we present a new interpretation of La portentosa Vida de la Muerte (1792), a text by the New Spanish author Joaquín Bolaños that has recently been brought back from obscurity. Our research is grounded in an aesthetic perspective that, drawing from Bakhtin and Beltrán, allows us to classify the work as a didactic novel, thus resolving certain critical misunderstandings. Within the framework of didacticism, laughter functions as a form of censure against undesirable human behaviors. In addition to the already extensively studied modern satire, we introduce the presence of Menippean satire, which connects the novel to the realm of traditions. Finally, we examine the depiction of the New World in the novel through three cases that stand out for their detailed portrayal within an essentially allegorical narrative framework.