Metafictional Predestination in Muriel Spark's The Driver's Seat

  1. Carlos Villar Flor 1
  2. Ana Altemir Giral 2
  1. 1 Universidad de La Rioja
    info

    Universidad de La Rioja

    Logroño, España

    ROR https://ror.org/0553yr311

  2. 2 CULM – Universidad de Zaragoza
Revista:
Miscelánea: A journal of english and american studies

ISSN: 1137-6368

Año de publicación: 2022

Número: 65

Páginas: 191-208

Tipo: Artículo

DOI: 10.26754/OJS_MISC/MJ.20226852 DIALNET GOOGLE SCHOLAR lock_openDialnet editor

Otras publicaciones en: Miscelánea: A journal of english and american studies

Repositorio institucional: lock_openAcceso abierto Editor lock_openAcceso abierto Editor

Resumen

The Driver’s Seat, de Muriel Spark, es un experimento radical de metaficción que plantea las inexorables conexiones entre lo contingente y una trama predeterminada, tan comunes en muchas novelas de Spark. Siguiendo la percepción de Marina MacKay de que la narrativa experimental de Spark opera en un espacio conceptual donde las preocupaciones abstractas de la teología católica se solapan con los desarrollos metaficticios y fabulistas del posmodernismo, este ensayo plantea cómo la noción de predestinación resuena en The Driver’s Seat, no sólo como retazo de la educación presbiteriana de Spark, sino también como una revisión posmoderna de la tragedia clásica en clave de metaficción. La preferencia de Spark por tramas predeterminadas se hace eco del amplio debate filosófico y teológico multisecular acerca del libre albedrío y la predestinación, particularmente intenso en los tiempos de la Reforma Protestante, si bien el concepto de predestinación también es un ingrediente necesario de la tragedia clásica. En The Driver’s Seat, Spark recurre deliberadamente a ciertas convenciones de la tragedia aristotélica, aunque las aborda mediante la subversión experimental que en último término recurre a la comedia y al ridículo, sin duda las armas de Spark para la única forma posible de arte. Mantenemos que las implicaciones metaficticias de las prolepsis de The Driver’s Seat socavan la certeza calvinista respecto a la salvación o condenación predestinadas. Al utilizar un narrador parcial que solo puede generar relatos limitados, Spark podría estar jugando con cierta apertura interpretativa, experimental y esencialmente posmoderna, en consonancia con la incertidumbre acerca de la salvación eterna de cada individuo comúnmente aceptada por el pensamiento católico.

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Fuente de los datos: Dialnet