sleeping beauty meets count dracula. intertextualities in horacio

SLEEPING BEAUTY MEETS CO UNT DRACULA .
INTERTEXTUA LITIE S IN HORACIO QUIROGA'S
EL ALMOH AD6N DE PLUMAS .
Pat ricia Anne Odber de Baub eta
Unive rs ity of Birmingham
El intento de Quiroga es torpe y trivial , y la
perver si6n latent e en el tema se convierte en un
mero esca lofrio s in rnisterio' .
This essay will not d eal w it h the issue of authorial
intentiona li ty. Instead, w e prop ose to demonstrate that EI
almohad6n de plumas is neith er torpe nor trivial. Rather, it is
particularly forceful p iece of writing and Rub en Cotelo's
critical judgment com pletely fails to take account of a number
of elements present in the text of El almohad6n de plumas which
enhance rather than detract from its effectiveness. We shall
examine Q uiroga's 'doble uso del horror', though no t from the
same perspective as Etcheverry/, hi s handling of fanta sy
elernents'', and the rea de r's resp onse to a ll of these. However,
before embarki ng on such a discussion , it would be useful to
clarify w ha t is under sto od by 'effectiveness', and Michael
Riffaterre's definition offers us as useful a point of de pa rture as
any:
The effec tiveness of a text may be defined as th e
degree of its perceptibility by the read er; the
more it attracts its attention, th e better it resist s
his man ipulations and withstands the att rition of
h is s uccessiv e re adin gs, th e mor e it is a
Fragmentos volA "e2, pp. 19-39
20
Patricia Anne Odber de Baubeta
monument rather than just an ephemeral act of
communication, and therefore the more literary
it is".
Quiroga's story has certainly attracted the attention of
numerous critics (and 'ordinary' readers); it stands up to
repeated readings; it challenges our perceptions and there is no
doubt that it lends itself to more than one interpretations.
However, we do need to identify and analyse those
mechanisms that render the story effective. It is manifestly
inadequate to suggest that the story is well-written because it
complies with Quiroga's own Decalogo del perfecto cuentista.
Instead, we prefer to argue that the effectivenesso of £1
almohadtm de plumas also stems from its relationship with the
intertext, both that of the writer and that of the reader. By
intertext, we mean:
The corpus of texts the reader may legitimately
connect with the one before his eyes, that is, the
texts brought to mind by what he is reading".
The specific reader response which we are concerned is,
according to Riffaterre, the 'intertextual drive':
The urge to understand compels readers to look
to the intertext to fill out the text 's gaps, spell out
its implications",
Intertextuality may fulfil several functions . According to
Laurent Jenny, its principal function is to transform the
significance of the text", and that is arguably the role it assumes
in Quiroga's short story. At the same time, there are discernible
conflicts and tensions in the intertext of EI almohadon de plumas
that enhance the horror of the story. Because of one set of
elements in the intertext, the reader is led to expect one kind of
denouement; because of other intertextual consituents, he is
confronted with another. This dissonance in the intertext is to
some extent responsible for the shock and repugnance
experienced by the reader, the 'efecto' that the author achieves",
There are other factors in play, among them the surprise ending
with its 'sup ues to toque cientfflco", though this has been
Sleeping Beauty Meets...
21
perceiv ed as ironic. Margo Glantz considers that the true horror
of £1 almohad6n de plumas derives from the locating of the
monster in the midst of ordinary, everyday life:
La exp licaci6 n racionalista parece hundir en el
an onim ato cotidiano la presencia del
inse ct o- vampiro , p ero es justa mente esta
coexistencia tan cercaria, este simbolismo de
factura tan concreta, 10que produce el terror mas
hondo!' ,
The intertex t of the £1 almohad6n de plumas consists of at least
two di stinct but related traditions: the fairy tale, notably
Sleeping Beauty, and th e go thic/vamp ire story, particularly
Bram Stok er's Dracula". The forme r is a genre with which we
are all fa miliar' :', and eve n though Sleeping Beauty may not be
uppermost in our thoughts as w e read £1 almohad6n de plumas,
our read in g experience of this and othe r fair y tales is brought
to bear on Quiroga's short story, cond itioning our expectations
(particularly of a happy end ing), and serving to point up the
hor ror of the conclusion".
Fairy tales a re the first form of the story with which many
of us have our first contac t, and although it would be ab surdly
simplistic to presume that Quiroga read Sleeping Beauty then
d ecided to use it or allude to it in his work IS, there is no doubt
tha t on several occasions he makes un equivocal statements
ab out his pr eference for a genre which owes much to th e fairy
tales and presen ts problem s or cha llenges identical to those of
its precu rsor" . Certainly, ther e is firm evide nce that fairy tales
con stituted part of Quiroga's vast read ing experience and are
th erefore as sig n ifica n t in his interte xt as th ey are in the
read er 's17.
The firs t third of this story contains a series of elements
w hich we might find in a convention al fairy tale. In fact, on
exa mining Sleeping Beauty, it is po ssibl e to tra ce a number of
apparent parallels between the tw o stories. Howe ver, reading
Q uiroga's £1almohad6n de plumas is in so me ways like hearing
a d is co rdant e ch o o f the Sleeping Beauty. Mo st of the
reminiscen ces occur very ea rly in Quiro ga 's sto ry, but th ey are
crucial for th e reader's response later on. The omniscient
22
Patricia Anne Odber de Baub eta
third-person narrator makes a series of observations that serve
as reminders of the Sleeping Beauty story18, but which also create
an atmosphere in which th e reader will feel uncomfortable and
disoriented, sensing that eve nts are not following any safe,
predictable pattern. Ins tead he becomes increasingly aware of
what might be term ed 'distorted in tertextualities', In Sleeping
Beauty, as in so many other fairy tales , the hero /prince and
heroine /princess ge t married and, sooner or later, depending
on the version w e read, live happily ev er , Quiroga begins his
narrative with w hat sho uld be the happ ies t of all occasions, a
marriage, but his story becomes progressively mo re hopeless,
un til it ends with th e death of the 'fai ry prince ss' Alici a. Because
the story opens with such a d isconcerting remark as 'Su luna
de m iel fue un largo escalofrio' (p . 157) the reader is bound to
question what is h appeni ng 19, This is not th e usual way to
describe a honeymoon, an event tr ad ition ally associated with
joy" la ughter, mo m en ts of shared hap piness and socially
ap proved sex ua l fulfil me nt. The connotations of 'escalofrio', on
the other hand, are more us ually fear, terror or pain. The
tension set up by this antithetical relationship between noun
and adjective refl ects the relationship between text an d
intertext20,
According to one theorist, there are several forms of
intertextuality, among them citation and allusiorri'. Here we
prefer to talk in terms of correspondences between text and
intertext. As far as Sleeping Beauty and El almohadon de plumas
are concerned, there are a number of correlations. (For the
purposes of this comparison, we shall be using Angela Carter 's
translation of Perrault's version. Grimm's version is simpler,
less frightening, and completely omits the ogress epi sode, as
can be seen in the co mparison that follow s 22 ,
Perrault's version of
The Sleeping Beauty:
Grimm's version, Briar-Rose
or The Sleeping Beauty:
King and Queen unab le to
have ch il d r e n. Go o n
pilgrimages to holy places,
finally she ha s a daughter.
The Queen is bathing when a
crab comes out of the water to
tell her that she will have a
daughter.
Sleeping Beauty Meets...
Godmothe rs invited - all the
fai ries in the kingdom that
th e y co ul d find - 7 in
number.
23
There are 13 fairies in th e land
but because the King only has
12 gold pl ates, only 12 are
invited to th e christening.
Each fairy to giv e the ba by a
gift s o tha t she would be
perfect. Old fairy no t inv ited
because she hadn 't left her
lower for more th an 50 years
- eve ryone th ought she wa s
dead or under a sp ell. Because
she isn't e xpected, no gold
plate or cu tlery. Takes offence
and mutters so me threats . A
younger fai ry hides behin d a
wall-hanging to mak e good
any damage the O ld Fairy
might do. Says the prin cess
will pi erce h er hand on a
spind le and die. Good fairy
modifies th e 'gift'; princess
will not die but sleep for 100
years th en be awoken by a
prin ce. Kin g prohibit s
sp indles, under pain of death .
15 ye ars later th ey are on
h olida y at a sum mer
resid ence and the princess
climbs up to the attic.
Find s a n old woman
sp in n ing, tries for herself,
pierces her hand and falls into
a deep sleep .
Th e princess climbs up to a
tower in their ow n castle, not
a holiday hom e.
The Good Fairy hastens to the
palace and casts a spell on
eve ryone except her parents
Every o ne go es t o s lee p,
inclu ding t he Kin g a n d
Queen.
24
Patricia Anne Odber de Baubeta
so that the princess won' t be
lonely when she w akes up .
100 years later, there is a new
king, from anothe r family. His
son is curious abo ut the forest
where he goes hunting; finds
o u t abo u t the prince s s,
legends, and decides to check
ou t the fores t. Kneels in front
of her and she wakes up. No
kiss.
They talk, the palace awa kens
an d they get ma rried .
The prince returns hom e the
next d ay but d oes not tell his
parents what has happen ed .
Spe n ds ni gh t s w it h th e
pri n cess but goes ho me . 2
yea rs la te r th ey h av e tw o
ch ildren, a girl, Dawn, and a
bo y, Da y, wh o is m ore
beautiful than his sister. The
prince doesn't tell his moth er
because he is afraid of her s he is a n ogress , a nd is
tempted to ea t children . Once
his fa ther has d ied he
announces his marriage and
br in gs h is fam ily to th e
palace. Then he goes to war
a n d le a v es his mot he r in
cha rge of the kingdom. She
to
ea t
he r
d ecid e s
Var iou s princes try to rescue
h e r b u t get caug h t in t he
hedge and di e a miserable
death. A prince arrives, the
hedge opens up for him , and
h e walks throu gh . The
princes s wa kes u p a t th e
moment of the kiss.
The pala ce awak en s and
carries on as if ther e had no t
a n int erval of a hundred
yea rs . Briar-Rose and th e
prince ge t married and 'live
happily to th e end of their
days' .
Sleeping Beauty Meets...
25
grandchild ren and daughterin -law, b u t is foiled by the
butler w ho saves them. When
she even tually find s out she
has been tricked, she is about
to put th em to d eath, but the
king returns home in time to
save them, she dies in st ead
and the family live happily
ever after.
What are the points of contact between Sleeping Beauty and El
almohad6n de plumas?
Sleeping Beauty
El almohad6n de plumas
sh e
w ou ld
hav e
the
disposi tion of an angel; she
w as beautiful as an angel
she w ill fall into a deep sleep
that will last fo r a hund red
ye ars; she had had plenty of
ti me to dream of w hat she
w ould say to him; her good
fairy had made sure she had
sweet dreams during he r lon g
slee p .
rubia, angelical
fa iri es , s pells, mag ic ring,
pa lace
th en he arrive d a t a cou r tyard
tha t seemed like a p lace where
only fear live; an awful silence
filled it and the look of death
wa s on eve ry thi ng; he w ent
th rough a marble cour tyard .
sofiadas nmer ias; an tiguos
suenos: aun vivia dorm ida en
la cas a hostil; pronto Alici a come nz6 a tener al ucinaciones.
prod ucia una otona l impresi6n de palacio encantad o
La casa en q ue vivia influia no
poco en sus estremecimientos;
la b la nc ura del p ati o
silencioso - frisos, colu mnas y
es tatuas de marrnol: Den tro ,
el br illo glacia l del es tuco, sin
el mas leve rag uno en las alt as
pa redes , afirmaba aquella
sensaci6n de desapacible frio ;
espanto callad o.
26
Patricia Anne O dber de Baubeta
The reminiscences in the Quiroga text are not numerous, but
they are sufficient to act as signposts for th e read er, poi nting
him in one part icul ar d irection . One of these is tripling' 'the use
of the patterns of three as a formulaic p rincipl e'. See for
exa mp le, the firs t description of Ali cia, with thr ee adjectives
clustered together, " Rubia, an gelical, y tirnida" (p . 157). The
couple spe n d three m onths together befor e Alicia falls ill.
Qu iroga singles out three elements in th eir home, all de signed
to enhance o ur impression that Alici a is imprisoned in an
enc hanted pal ace - "frisos, columnas y es ta tuas de ma rrnol "
(p . 157). And th ere are othe r fea tures in com mo n, among th em
th e conscious use of a linear narr ative techni que", an d the
isolation of th e protagonist, defined by Max LUthi as "one of
the governi ng principles in the fa iry tale"" . El almohad6n de
plumas is narrat ed with total linearity, its tem poral progression
clearly delineat ed from the time of Alicia's ma rriage to Jordan
in April th rough three months of 'dicha especial', th e Autu mn
spent in "este extrano nido d e amor" (p. 157). Then th ere are
then the "dlas y di as" of Alicia's influe nza. It is as th ou gh
Qu iro ga wer e cold-bloo de dly marking off Alicia's last da ys on
a calendar, the last day she spends out of bed, th e following day
when the doctor is sum mone d . The read er th en accompan ies
Alicia through th e "cinco di as y cin co neches" it tak es for th e
monster - somew ha t rem iniscent of Poe's monster in Murder
in the Rue Morgue - to kill her. Quiroga 's narrative is almost
brutally spare - "Alicia muri6, p or fin" (p . 159). There are no
digressi on s o r supe rfluo us details, an d th is approach is quite in
keeping with the stylistics of the fai rytale, th e way in w h ich
characters are presented :
T heir p s y chol og ica l p ro ce s s es a re n ot
illuminated; on ly th eir line of progres s is in
focus, only that which is relevant to th e actionevery thing else is fade d out. They are b ound
neither to th eir surroundings nor to their past,
and no d epht of charac te r or p sych olo gic al
peculiarity is indicat ed . They are cut off from all
that - isolated".
Sleeping Beauty Meets.:
27
Sleepi ng Beauty could not be more isola ted, asleep in her castle
in the wood for a hund red yea rs. Alicia shares her physical
space with Jordan and a maid; but spends much of her time
asleep and could therefore be seen as liv ing in a self-im posed
isolation. If we look at other versions of the Sleeping Beauty,
Straparola's an d Basile's for instance, we find that the p rincess
is impregnated and conceives her children while she sleeps; this
violation s urely recall s th e mons tr ous insect penetrating
Alicia's body while she s leeps on her feat he r pill ow. In both
Sleeping Beauty and El almohad6n de plumas the re are forces at
work outside the lives of the female protagonists, either
supernatura l forces such as the fairies, or the monster that
drains Alicia's blood. The human beings w ho intervene in these
stories lack the p ower to act effectively on thei r ow n; w hen the
he ro ine is saved it is w he n the rescuer is backed up by
s uperna tura l forces . Fa iry- ta le h eroin es are not u sually
permitted any real contro l ove r their own destinies (at leas t, not
in Perrault). Perhaps this is why the voice of the heroine is so
rarely heard , why their speech is reported rather tha n di rect.
Alicia's voice is never hea rd in Elalmohad6n de plumas. Sleeping
Beauty's and Alicia 's lives are controlled an d circumscribed by
other people or forces : fairies, Jordan, the pa rasi te in the pill ow.
Both are dependent on others to rescue them from the
(fore-ordained) consequences of thei r actions and it see ms as if
the decisions that they make for themselves inevit abl y lead
them into the worst possible dan gers. In the case of Sleeping
Beauty, her problems arise when she tries to spin. Alicia's
problems, so it is implied, begi n with her marriage; she does
not have a good fairy to protect her, and Jord an hardl y qualifies
as a rescuing Pri nce". Wh en Alicia falls ill Jord an is unable to
save he r because he d oes not know what is causing her illness.
In fact, one of the 'minor ' shocks in this story is produced by
Jordan's response to the d octor on being informed that his wife
cannot be tr eated:
- [Solo eso me faltab a! - resopl 6 Jordan. Y
tambo rile6 bruscamente sobre la mesa (p. 158).
There have been othe r interpretations of Sleeping Beauty , so me
of which hav e interes ting implications for the way we read EI
28
Patricia An ne Odber de Baube ta
almohad6n de plumas. The seaso na l and solar theories explained
by Saintyves might account for the references to autumn and
co ld in Quiro ga's s to ry". But if w e ex ten d Bettelheim ' s
psychoanalytic interpretati on of Sleeping Beauty to Alicia, we
may a rrive at a so me w ha t d ifferent understanding of El
almohad6n de plumas:
Howev er gre a t th e va ria tions in d et ail, the
central th em e of all versi on s of The Sleeping
Beau ty is that, despite all atte mp ts on the pa rt of
pa r ent s to prev en t their ch il d's sex ua l
awa ken ing, it will take pl ace nonetheless 29•
Alicia is described in much the same wa y as we would expect
to find the traditional princess of European folklore, "rubia,
angelical y tfmida ". The accumulation ofthese ad jectives could
be taken as sy no ny mous with 'virgina l' . Perhaps ..ye are to
su p p ose that her marria ge h as been the rudest kind of
awa kening. The fa ilu re of the honeym oon, a "l argo esca lofrio",
and Alicia 's subseque nt unhappiness are due to Jordan 's sexual
demands on a shy, inex perience d girl:
El caracter d ur o de su ma rido hel6 sus sofiadas
ninertas de novia (p. 157).
Far from rescu ing Alicia , Jord an is the so urce of he r suffering ,
especia lly since he is not able to ve rbalize his love for her:
La amaba profunda ment e, sin darl o a conocer
(p . 157).
His reply to the doctor may be seen as the expression of his
feelings of exasperation tow ard s a wife whose illn ess will ma ke
it impossible for him to satisfy his sexua l d esires. Alicia is
frig htened, beset by "terrores cre p usc ulares" (p, 158), perhaps
because of her yo uth, or because she is sex ually frigid. She
th ere fore becomes an inva lid , " nega ndose a l mund o y
refu giada en su enfer meda d'r'", but th is does not save her. The
'monster ' continues to pen et rate her body until she finall y d ies.
The fairy tal e intertex t ca n nud ge th e reade r in one
interp retative direction; the va m pire intertext ma y send him off
in the opposite one :
Sleeping Beauty Meets...
29
Ta l monstruo apenas si es una ob jetivaci6n
fantasmal del verdadero del cue nto: el pr opio
Jorda n".
As w e read El almohad6n de plumas, w e are aware of the
interte xtual d ynamic between the v am p ire legend and
Quiroga's story. If, on the one hand, the fair y tale intertext hints
at what mi ght have transpired between Alicia and Jordan, the
va mpire component undermines this vision : it foreshadows
Alicia's s uffering and intensifies the horror of her death. It
might eve n p oint to the true nature of the relati onship between
Alicia and Jordan. We sho uld not underestimate the importance
of the go thic horror and the vampire motifs in El almohad6n de
plumas. Quiroga 's interes t in writers su ch as Hawthorne, Poe,
Maupassant, Merimee (au thor of Le Guzla, 1825 or 1826, whose
hero is a vampire), has been well-documented by a series of
critics, among them Margo Glantz in her discussion of ' Poe en
Quiroga ':
El almohad6n de plumas es un caso lipico de
vamr,irismo con la presencia de monstruo y
todo ' .
Pe ter Beardsell proposes a different reading, which would
confirm the proposition that the intertext can change the
meaning of the text:
Q ui r oga was d eliberately e nc ou r a gi n g his
readers to spo t the va m pire-like qu aliti es of thi s
story in orde r to mislead them and in crease th e
shoc k at the end 33.
Whether or not we agree with this theory, it seems fairly evident
that the va mpi re elemen t plays an important role, both in the
text and the intertext.
Ther e is another way to read El almohad6n de plumas: Alicia
is in love with Jordan, marries h im, but find s her relationship
sex ua lly unsati sfying . H ow do we arrive at thi s reading? By
comparing passag es from Stok er's Dracula with EI almohad6n de
plumas in orde r to establish possible corresponde ncesj", then
explori ng the implicat ions of this relationship .
30
Patricia Anne Odber de Baubeta
Extracts from Bram Stoker's
Dracula .
£1almohadon de plumas
Luc y Westenra 's Diary :
Hill ingham, 24 Augusto ...but
I am full of v ague fear, and I
feel so weak and worn out.
When Arthur came to lunch
he looked quite gri eved when
he saw me, and I hadn't the
s p iri t to b e cheerful. 25
August.
Another
bad
night.. .More bad dreams . I
wish I could reme mber them.
This morning I am horribly
weak. My face is ghastly pale,
and my throat pains me . It
must be s o m e th in g wrong
with my lungs, for I don't
seem ever to get air enough.
Letterfrom Dr.Seward to arthur
Holmwood: She com plains of
d iffi cu lty in breathing
satisfactorily at times, and of
heavy, lethargic sleep, w ith
dreams that frighten her, but
regarding which she ca n
remember nothing. (...) She
was ghastly, chalkily pale; th e
red seemed to have gone even
from her lips and gums, and
the bones of her face stood out
prominently; h er breathing
was painful to see or hear. (...)
There on th e bed, seemingly
in a swoon, lay poor Lu cy,
more horribl y white and
wan-looking than ever.
Al dia s ig u ien te amanecio
desvanecida. EI medico de
Jordan la examin6 con suma
atenci6n, ordenandola cam a y
descanso absoluto . (...) Alicia
no tuvo mas desmayos, pero
se iba visiblemente a la
muerte . (.. .) Pronto Alicia
comenz6
a
tener
al ucinaciones, confusas y
flotantes al principio. (...) Al
rato abri6 la bo ca para gritar,
y sus narices y labios se
perla ron de sudor. ( ... )
Durante el d ia no avanzaba su
enfermedad, p ero ca d a
manana amanecia livida, en
sincop e casi. Parecia qu e
iinicamente de noche se le
fuera la vida en nuevas
oleadas de sangre . Tenia
s ie m p r e al despertar la
sensaci6n
de
estar
desplomada en la cama con
un mill6n de kilos encim a.
Desde el tercer dia este
hundimiento no la abandon6
mas . (... ) Sus terrores
crepusculares avanzaban
ahora en forma de monstruos
que se arrastraban hasta la
cama,
y
trepaban
dificultosamente por la
colcha. (...)
Sleeping Beauly Meels...
31
Although it would be an exa ggeration to spe ak about
textual citations , there ar e surely correlati ons be tween Dracula
and certai n passages in El almohad6n de plumas. Lucy and
Alicia's sy mp toms are v irtually id entical , ev en if th eir
sufferings are caused by d ifferent creatures. It may be, as
Bea rd sell has argued, that Quiroga wishes to mislead his
reader s in order to shock them all the more when they reach the
en d of the sto ry. In any case, it is qu ite obviou s that Quiroga is
inco rporating gothic features in his story in order to achieve his
d esired 'effect':
In Gothic writi ng the reader is held in sus pe nse
with th e charac ters and increas ing ly th ere is an
effort to shock, alarm, and otherwise rouse him.
Ind ucing a powerful emotional response in the
read er (rathe r than a moral or intellectual one)
was the prime object of these novelists" .
The presence of gothic elements in El almohad6n de plumas is
undeniable:
'Gothic' fiction is the fictio n of the h aunted
cas tle, of heroines pr eyed on by unspeakable
terrors, of the bla ckly low er ing villain, of ghost s,
vampires, monst ers and werewolves" .
Alicia lives in a hou se which see ms to ha ve so me of the
cha racteristics of a castle '", she suffers all manner of fear 'estremecimientos', 'es pan to callado', 'te rrores crepusc ulares' .
Jordan answers in pa rt the description of 'blac kly lowering
villain', and the story contains a monster, if not a vampire. As
the nex t stage in this d iscussion, we sh ould perhaps cons ider
just what the va mpire represents in literary term s. David
Pu nter establishes a connec tion between the vampire with
d ream:
Both are night phen om ena whic h fade in the light
of day, both ar e considered in mytholog ical
sys te ms t o b e phys icall y w eakening, both
pro mise - a n d p erhaps d eli v er - an
unthin kable pleasure which cannot sustain the
32
Patricia Anne Odber de Baubeta
touch of reality. Also the vampire, like the
dream, can provide a representation of sexual
liberation in extremis, indulgence to the point of
death",
EI almohadon de plumas contains several references to dreams
and physical weakness, in addition to the allusions to monsters
and thedraining of blood. Perhaps the underlying suggestion is
that Alicia, far from being the frightened vic tim of a predatory
husband is herself the predator, unsatisfied and frustrated in
her marital relationship, and Margo GIants is right when she
suggests that:
Jordan se transfiere a un monstruoso insecto y la
delectacion erotica que su mujer no encuentra en
la vida cotidiana se transfiere igualmente al acto
de succion".
Emir Rodriguez Monegal supports this interpretation:
Una version completamente distinta a la
a necd o ti ca es tambi en posible : en la
impasibilidad y lejania del marido cabe ver el
motivo de los delirios eroticos de la mujer .
Quiroga introduce un monstruoso insecto para
no decir que el ser que ha vaciado a esta muj er es
el marido: con su monstruosa indiferencia ha
secado las fuentes de la vida . Serra este un caso
de vampirismo al reves",
Those readers familiar with Dracula will remember that when
Lucy Westenra is about to die (or be come one of the un-dead),
she undergoes a change of personality. No longer a 'model of
feminility and passivity", Lucy seems to undergone a loss of
purity and innocenc e, be coming instead sensual and
passionate:
Her breathing grew s te rto ro u s, the mouth
opened, and the pale gums, drawn back, made
the teeth look longer and sharper than ever. In a
sort of sleep-waking, vague, unconscious way
she opened her eyes, which were now dull and
Sleeping Beauty Meets...
33
hard at once, and said in a soft voluptuous voice,
such as I had neve r h ea rd from he r li p s :
- Arth ur! Oh, my love, I am so glad you have
come! Kiss me!"
Since Alicia never speaks, we m ust necessarily rely on the
di sclosures of th e narra tor to ex p lai n he r feeli n gs and
behaviour, but because his information is not always complete,
the reader is left wondering why Alicia sho uld willingly collude
in her ow n death :
No quiso que Ie tocaran la carna , ni aunque Ie
arrelaran el almoha d6 n (p. 158).
It is on ly when we resort to the va mpire inter tex t that w e find
a possible exp lana tion: that Alicia welcom es the depred ati ons
of the monster, obtaining some profoundly sensual pleasure
from the experience of having her blood drain ed.
Quiroga's £1 almohad6n de plumas ma y speak to us in
seve ral ways. It may strike us as a fairy tale tha t (contrary to
conventional rea de r expectations) goes ho rrib ly wrong and
ends in tragedy'3; we may rega rd it as a horror story in the
manner of Poe and others, and it may rem ind us of Bram
Stoker's Dracula and other gothic sto ries wit h haunted heroines
a n d v a m p ir e s. Bu t manifes tly beyond dis p u te is th e
'effec tiveness' of EI almohad6n de plumas. The deliberately
dispassionate linear na rrative, when combi ned w ith is multiple
intertexts, somehow succee ds in manipulatin g the rea de r's
response through a ga m ut of reaction s ra ng ing from curiosity
and puzzlement to shock an d revulsio n . The one emotion not
inspired by th is s tory is com passion, because Quiroga d id no t
wish to dilute the effects of his writing w ith surp lus emo tions
or sen time nts .
Notas
Ruben Cutelo. "Ho racia Quiroga: Vida y Obra", Capitulo Oriental 17.
l.A historic de la literatu re uruguaya, Montevideo , 1968, P: 263.
z
Jose E. Etcheverry, "Et ai nJolwd6n deplumas. La ret6rica del almohad6n",
in Aproximaciones a Horacia Quiroga, edited by Angel Flores, Caracas:
Mont e vila, 1976, p. 218.
34
Patricia Anne Odber de Baubeta
3
Alfred o Veirave, "EI almohad6n de plumas. Lo ficticio y 10 real ", in
Aproximaciones, p . 213: "La atm6sfera d e sombras parnasiana s en la qu e
esta envuelta la morte de Alicia ('rubia, angeli cal y timida'), coloca a la
protagon ista desde su apari ci6n en un marco de irrealidad y fantasia
firmemen te trazado".
4
Michael Riffaterre, "Toward s a Formal Approach to Literary History",
in Text Production, translated by Terese Lyons, New York: Columbia
University Press, 1983, p. 99.
5
One of the most recent commentaries on Elalmolrad6n de plumas appears
in Peter Beardsell's Critical Guide, Quiroga. Cuentos de amorde locura y
de muerte, London: Grant&Cutler, 1986. Maria E.Rodes de Clerico and
Ram6n Bordolo Dolci published a detailed textual analysis of El
almohad6n de plumas, in Horacio Quiroga. Antologfa y estudio critica,
Montevideo: Area, 1977, pp. 37-54.
6
Michael Riffaterre, "Syllepsis", Critical Inquiry, VI, n04 (1980), p. 626.
See Worton and Still's comment in their introduction to Intertextuality:
Theory and Practices, Manchester and New York: Manchester University
Press, 1990, P: 1: "The writer is a reader of texts (in the broadest sense)
before s/he is a creator of texts, and therefore the work of art is
inevitably shot through w ith references, quotations and influences of
every kind".
7
Michael Riffaterre, "Comp u lsory Reader Response: The Intertextual
Drive", in Worton and Still, p. 57.
8
Laurent Jenny, "La Strategie de la forme", Poetique, 27 (1976), p. 279.
9
Quiroga himself describes EI almohadon deplumas as a 'cu ento de efecto',
in his letter to Jose Maria Delgado of 8 June 1917: "Un buen d ia me he
convencido de que el efecto no deja de ser efecto (salvo cuan da la
historia 10 pide), y que es bastante mas dificil met er un final que ellector
ha ad ivinado ya" (Cartas ineditas. VolumeII, Montevideo: lnstituto
Nacional de Investigaciones y Arch ivos Literarios, 1959, p. 62). For
Rodes de Clerico and Bordoli Dolci, the CIlento de eJecto "combina los
di stintos elementos y acaeceres teniendo en cu enta el efecto final que,
como resultado de un desencadamiento minucioso y eficaz, es rapido
y directo", op . cit., p. 54.
10
Emir Rodriguez Monegal, Genio y figura de Horacia Quiroga, Buenos
Aires : Eudeba, 1967, pp. 58-59: "EI supuesto toque cientifico final no
hace sino subrayar ir6nicamen te hasta que pun to Qu iroga esta tratando
temas suprareales".
11
Margo Glantz, "Poe en QUiroga", in Aproximaciones, P: 107.
12
See Ell iott B.J. Gose, Imagination indulged: The Irrational in tire
Nineteenth-Century Novel, Montrea l and London: McGill-Queens
University Press, 1972, p. 42: "Like the gothic novel, the fairy tale often
deals in adventures that are literally impossible in the actual world,
Sleeping Beauty Meets...
35
and manages quite well with a setting remote from the experience of
its readers. Because they share so many of th e characteristics attributed
to romance by Chase, both the fairy tale and the gothic novel require
Colerid ge's romantic so spension of d isbelief". There is a general
agre ement that Sleeping Beallty is a literary work, taken not from
folklore but from ear lier literary sources. Perrault first published La
Belle au bois dormant in February 1696 in LeMercuregalant, and several
scholars (for instance, P.Saintyves, Les Contes de Perrault et les rtcits
parallele», Paris: Librai rie Critique, 1923), have revealed how it is based
on earlier tales. Jacques Barchilon maintains that Perrault's tales are
part of the literary canon, in Le con te meroeilleuxfrancai« de 1690a1790,
Paris: Honore Champion, 1975, p . 27: "Le conte de fees es un art
d ' imagination, un art dont le secret est sa profonde resonance
psychologique: les personnages de Perrault ne cesseront jamais de faire
rever. II suffit d'enumerer la liste prestigieuse des personnages de
Perrault pour cons tater que sa Belle au bois dormant, sa Cendrillon (...)
appartiennent acette vivante galerie des personnages de tous les temps
et tous les pays, au x cotes de Don Qu ichotte, Don Juan, Hamlet ou
Faust". The Grimm ve rs ion of the same fairy tale, Domoroschen, is
equally 'literary', owing little to peasant lore .
13
We should not discount the impact of two other elements that feed into
our intertext, firstly the ballet Sleeping Beauty, and secondly Disney's
cinematographic production of 1959. Ballet and film may be as much a
part of the intertext as a novel, poem or play. See, for example, Keith
A.Reader's art icle on filmic intertextuality, Literature /cinema /
television: intertextuality in Jean Renoir's Le Testament du Docieur
Cordelier, in Worton and Still, pp. 176-189.
14
See Jacques Barch ilon 's remarks, op. cit., P: 27: " Des millions de
lecteurs ou d 'auditeurs de tous ages et de tout acabit ont fait une place
aux personnages de Perrault dans leur mythologie personelle". Ruth
B.Bottigheimer makes an extremely valid point in her book Grimm's
Bad Girls and Bold Boys. The Moral and Social Vision of the Tales, New
Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1987, P: 35, when she points
out: "Differen t social or geographical environments harbor vastly
different social views and tend to amend popular tales in accordance
with familiar so cial codes. Basile's Pentamerone and Perrault's Contes
both retain the same or very similar constituents to tell a Cinderella
story, but motivations and outcomes differ profoundly from the
Grimm's version, illustrating quite neatly how contemporary mores,
audience expectations, narrative voice, and authorial intentions color
tale elements". This kind of difference is arrestingly exemplified when
we compare Basile's Sun, Moon and Talia with La Belle au bois dormant
and read that in the former, the King does not wait for Talia to awaken
before making love to her, fathers two children, then forgets all about
her for the next nine months. As far as the importance of the happy
36
Patricia Anne Odber d e Baubeta
en ding is concerned, see Brun o Bettelheim's discussion of the ha pp y
en ding as a feature o f the fairy tale, in The Uses of Enchantment,
Harmondsw orth: Penguin, 1978, p230: "The happy end ing requires
that the evil principle be appropriately punished and done awa y with;
only then can the good, and with it happiness, prevail. In Perrault, as
in Basile, the evil principle is done away with, and thus fairy-story
justice is done". This is linked to the in vulnerability of characters, wh o
escape from danger at the last minute. Heroines (with the exception of
Little Red Riding Hood), are always rescued (Barchilon, op. cit., p . 29).
Citing J. R.R.Tolkien, Bettelheim writes: "Tolkien describes the facets
wh ich are necessary in a good fairy tale as fantasy, recovery, escape,
and consolation - recovery from deep de spair, escape from some great
danger, but, most of all, conso lation. Speaking of the happy ending,
Tolkien stresses that all complete fairy stories must have it" (T ree and
Leaf. London: George Allen and Unwin, 1964, pp . 50-61, cited on
p. 143). Bettelheim then con tinues: "Maybe it would be appropriate to
add on e more element to the four Tolk ien enumerates . I believe that an
elem ent of threat is crucial to the fairy tale - a threat to the hero's
physical existence o r to his moral esi stence" (p. 144).
15
See John frow, "lntertextuality and Ontology" in Worton -and Still,
p. 46: "Intertextual analysis is distinguished from source criticism both
by this stress on interpretation rather than on the establishment of
particular facts , and by its rejection o f a unilinear casuality (the concept
of 'influence') in favour of an account of the w ork performed o n
interte xtual material and its functional integrati on in the later text ".
16
See Jose Luis Martfnez Morales, Horacia Quiroga: Teoria y practica del
cuento, Xalapa : Uni versida d Veracruzana, 1982, p. 76: "No hay que
olvida r que el exito de la producci6n y difu si6n del cuento liter ario
finca sus ba ses en el stglo diecinueve par la difusi6n y recopilaci6n de
los cuentos popularee". Compare QUirog a's comments on the short
story with those of Jacques Barchilon, op. cit., p. XV: "Le conteur de
fiction s merveill euses, qui di spose d'un espace plus bref que le
romancier pour cap tive r so n lecteur, doit Interesser vite et bien . 5'H
n'krit pas av ec esprit et concis ion, Hie perd ", Qu iroga writes, in "La
crisis del cu en to naci onal ", in Sabre literatura . TomoVII. Obras ineditas y
desconocidas, Montevideo : Area, 1970, pp . 92-96 : "EIcuentista nace y se
ha ce. Sin innat as en ~ I la energta y la brevedad de la exp resi6n; y
ad quiere con el tran scu rso del tiem po la habilidad para sa car el ma yor
partido posible de ella en la composid6n de sus cuentos (...) EIcuenti sta
tiene la cap acidad d e sugerir ma s que 10 que dice. EI nov eli sta, para un
efeeto igual, requiere mucho mas es pecio" . In "La ret6rica del cuen to",
loc.cit., Qui roga reit erates his view s: " El cuento literano (...) cons ta de
los mism os elemen tos sucintos que el cuento oral, y es com o este el
re lato de una historia bastante interesa nte y suficienteme nte breve para
que absorba toda nu estra atencion", Quiroga's story is designe d to
Sleeping Beauty Meets ...
37
insp ire fear in the reader, ando so, in many cases, is the fairy tale. See
also Tzvetan Todorov , The Fantastic. A Structu ralApproach to a Literary
Genre, tranlated by Richard Howard, Cleveland and London: The Press
of Case Western Reserve Un iversity, 1973, p. 35: " Fea r often linked to
the fantasti c" ,
17
18
See Quiroga's comme nt in La ret6rica del cuento, pp. 115-116: " Los
cuen tos ch inos y persas, los grecolati nos, los arabes de las Mil y una
naches, los del Renaci mie nto italiano, los de Perrault, de Hoffm ann, de
Poe, de Merimee, de Bret Harte, de Verga, de Chekov, de Maupassan t,
de Kipling, tod os ellos son una so la y misma cosa en su rea lizaci6n.
Pueden di feren ciarse un os d e otros como el sol y la luna . Pero el
conce p to, el coraje para con tar, la in tensidad, la breved ad, son los
mismos en todas los cuentistas d e todas las edades". Qui roga
published a short story en titled La Bella y 10 Bestia in the collec tion EI
rna alla. Th e sto ry has nothing to do with th e original fairy tale and the
title is used as an ironic comment on the fem ale p rot agon ist (heroine).
There are also the stori es that Quiroga wrote specifically for chi ldre n,
Cuentos de 10 selva. Ad d it ionally, we migh t also take note of Alfred
Melon 's obse rva tio ns in his article " Reflexion s sur les a rnbigui tes
constituti ves d u con te latino-arner ica in mod erne", in Techniques
narratives et representatives du monde dans le conte Iatino-americain.
America. Cahiers du Criccal. nOZ, 2eme semestre, 1986. Universite d e la
Sorbonne Nou velle Pari s III, p. 56: "De la m eme maniere, s'il est evide nt
qu e les co ntes de Quiroga (...) sont etrangers aux struc tures cod ifiees
de la litterature d e trad ition or ale, strictu sensu; s'Il est certain qu 'aucun
de leu rs recits ne pourrait etre raconte, transmis oralement, a lte re d ans
les aleas de sa transmi ssion (com me Ie romance, par exemp le, ou Ie
con te creole), iI n'empeche que Ie lecteu r reconn ait des croyances, d es
legendes, les aphorismes, les s im ula tio ns rituelles, les rnod eles
arche typi ques de la tradi tion populaire (...) qui cree nt I'illusion de
re constitutions p on ctuelles d es tra ces d 'une Iitter atur e o ra le " .
Fernando Ainsa see ms to share this feeling th at a wh ole series of
elements feed into Qui rog a' s work in his study "La estr uctu ra abierta
del cue n to lat in oam er ica no ", pp . 69-70 of the sam e journal: "La
recuper aci6n a traves d e nuevas formulaciones esteticas, de las rakes
an teriores d el cue ntc, tales como la oralidad, el imagina rio pop ular y
colectivo pr esente en mi tos y tradiciones y las formes arcaicas de
sub-ge ne ros que estaba n en el orfgen del ge nera (pa rabolas, Cr6n icas,
Baladas leyendas, 'ca ractc res'. etc.), la mayorta de las cua les no hab ian
ten ido e n su mom enta h ist6rico una exp resi6n a mericana . En es ta
d eliberada recupera ci6n se recrean formas y se reactu aliza 10 mejor de
generos ya olvida dos",
Accordi ng to Todorov , op. cit., p. 83: " It is no accident that tales of the
marvelous rerely employ the first per son (...). They have no need of it;
their superna tu ra l un iverse is not intended to awaken doub ts".
38
Patricia Anne Odber de Baubeta
19
All quotation are taken from Cllentos Completos. Volumen 2, second
edition, Montevid eo: Ediciones de la Pla za, 1987, pp. 157-159.
20
See Michael Riffat erre's expl anation of in ter textuality, in "Co mp ulsory
Reader Response ", p. 76: " In tertextuality enables the text to represent,
at one and the same tim e, the following pair s of opposites (within each
of which the first item corresp onds to the int ertext): convention an d
departures from it, tradition and no ve lty, sociolec t and idiolec t, the
already said and its negation or tr ansform ation".
21
Marc Eidgelinger, Mythologie et intertextualite, Geneva: Slatkine, 1987,
pp. 12-13.
22
TheFairy Tales of Charles Perrault, transla ted by Angela Carter, London:
Victor Gollane z, 1977, pp. 55-71. The Brothers Grimm. Papillar Folk Tales,
transla ted by Brian Ald erson, London : Victor Gollancz, 1978, pp. 39-42.
See also Max Luthi's stylisti c comparison of the tw o ver sions, in The
Fairytale as Art Form and Portrait of Man, translated by Jon Erickso n,
Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1984, pp. 60-61.
23
Max Luthi, op . cit., p. 170.
24
Max Luthi, op. cit., P: 40: " Both the representat ional and narr a tive
techniques of the European fairy tal e, in particular, tend to be lin ear.
Objects and figures a re seen as linear shapes, and the development o f
the plot and the ordering of episodes, sentences, and words can also be
called linear".
25
Max Luthi, op. cit., p. 42.
26
Max Luthi, op. ci t., P: 42-43.
27
See Ruth B. Rottigh eimer's comment in her chap ter "Tow ers, For est s,
and Trees" , op. cit ., p. 101: "The s ing le most pervasive ima ge evoked
in the popular mind by the word fairy tale is probabl y that of a maiden
in di stress leaning from a tower w indow an d sea rch ing the horizon for
a rescu er ".
28
P. Saintyves, pp. 71-101.
29
Bruno Bettelheim, op . cit., p . 230.
30
Alfredo Veirav e, op. ci t., p. 213.
31
Jose E.Etcheverry, op. cit., p . 217.
32
Margo Glantz, op. cit., p. 104. Gla ntz goes on to point out a furth er
di me nsion to th e story: "antes gu e nada es el pl anteamiento d e esa
sinr az6n, de ese caos que d ebe legit imarse en Crases explicativas y
sere nas, en el q ue dos seres hu ma nos se ama n, pero se dest ru yen ".
33
Beardsell, op. cit., p. 39.
34
For Mar go Glan tz, th ere is no quest ion about QUirog a's use of th e
vampi re the me, op . cit., pp. 104·105: " La heren cia es cla ra en Q ui roga.
Sleeping Beauty Meets...
39
Lo im po rtante no es detec tarla porq ue a fue rza de ex istir es ob v ia, sin o
definir su sentido" .
35 Robert D. H urne, "Go thic versus Romantic", Publications of the Modern
Langll.ge Associ, 'ion , 84 (1969), pp. 282-290.
36 Davi d Pun ter, Tilt Literature of Gothic Fictions fro m 1765 to th e Present
Day, London : Lon gm ann, 1980, p. I.
37
Rodes de Clerico a nd Bordoli Dolci, op. cit., p. 42: " La casa tiene algo
de ad us ta mansi6n que la aprox ima - aunque lejanamente - a la
atm6sfera g6tica ex istente en los cue ntos de E.A.Poe" .
38
Davi d Punt er, op. cit., pp. 118·119 .
39
Mar go Glan tz, o p. cit., P: 106.
Mon egal, El deste rmdo . Vida y obrade Horacia Quiroga,
Bueno s Aires: Losada, 1968, p. 116.
40 Emi r Rodriguez
41
David Pu nter, o p. cit., p . 262.
42 Dracula,
P: 147 .
43 See Max Luthi's views o n the us ual endings o f fairy tales , o p. ci t.,
pp.56-57.