Untitled - Centre for Comparative Literature - University of Toronto

notes
Parts of this paper were presented at the Graduate Student’s Conference for
Romance Language and Literatures at the University of British Columbia. The
author would also like to thank Dr. D. Jan Mennell of Queen’s University and
Dr. Cristina Santos of Brock University for their comments and observations
throughout the development of this paper.
1 These three authors are seen as having written the canonical “novels of the dictator” all
within a couple of years of one another; Gabriel García Márquez’s El otoño del patriarca
(The Autumn of the Patriarch) appeared in 1975, Roa Bastos’ Yo, el supremo (I, the
Supreme) in 1974, and Carpentier’s El recurso del método (Reasons of State) in 1974.
Legend has it that the three agreed to write these novels of the dictator.
2 All translations are from Gregory Rabassa’s translation of Cola de lagartija.
3 “I come with a built-in woman, I’m complete.” (24)
4 “I am complete.” (24)
5 “Manuel’s got three balls, Manuel’s got three balls.” (5)
6 “In my puberty I’d also learned whom to love. When my testicles dropped for good and
my sister Estrella complained for the fi rst and only time, before fi nding warm comfort
between the two of them.” (5)
7 There is, of course, another level to this discussion which remains untouched in this
paper: familial relations, questions of incest, etc.
8 Sherry Velasco in her recent book Male Delivery: Reproduction, Effeminacy, and Pregnant
Men in Early Modern Spain (2006) includes a chapter which considers popular culture
transverse 45