Ecos del naturalismo: la huella española en los personajes de "El polvo y el oro" de Julio Travieso (1993)

Abstract

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El polvo y el oro (1993), by Julio Travieso (La Havana, 1940), is one of the most important Cuban novels from the 90’s. This decade was named “periodo especial” (special period), when The Soviet Regime disappeared. For this reason, the economic aid from the old urss to the Caribbean island ended. El polvo y el oro was written as a “totalizing novel”, in a similar way to the novels of the Latin American Boom, from the sixties, and it is far beyond from other novels of its decade, dedicated to poverty, skepticism and the struggle for survival in a country with a political and economical dying system. Travieso’s work is an historical narration, like other new historical novels written by authors such as Eco, Yourcenar and Graves, with a remarkable impact of Cuban Naturalism from the beginning of 20th Century. This narrative is focused in the Cuban Identity, that is determined by the influence of the Spanish civilization in this island since the discovery of America until 20th Century.

Keywords

Cuban Narrative, Naturalism, Magical Realism, Julio Travieso, Special Period, New Historical Novel