The reinvention of conquest

historiographic metafiction and transculturation in El largo atardecer del caminante

Abstract

Immersed in a postmodern context, a significant part of contemporary Latin American literature tends to have as predominant characteristics questioning the past, the defense of ethnic plurality and stimulation of the fusion between reality and imagination. Moreover, the present article aims to analyze Abel Posse’s work, El largo atardecer del caminante (1992), seeking to identify how this fictional narrative subverts the dominant historical discourse about colonization. In the development of this study, the notions of historiographic metafiction (Hutcheon, 1991) and narrative transculturation (Rama, 1987) were employed, since both concepts contribute to the reevaluation of colonial history, especially in regard to the relationship between European colonizers and indigenous peoples. In reference to the result, it was observed that Abel Posse's work reinvents the colonial past by filling in with fiction the gaps in the life of the Spanish conqueror Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca. In doing so, El largo atardecer del caminante challenges the dichotomy between civilized culture and wild culture, postulating the existence of a symbiotic relationship between foreign and native cultural aspects. This relationship is symbolized through the transformation experienced by Cabeza de Vaca. By living with the indigenous people for several years, he incorporates cultural elements of the original peoples and, at the same time, transfers cultural traits of European society.