“It wouldn’t be me”: Implications of the Quoted Discourse in "La sombra del caudillo"

Abstract

The insertion of a foreign discourse, be it a story or a word, in one’s own discourse, by a literary character, has important meaning implications in both the quoting and the cited discourse; but this act of citation also influences the speaker or speaker and his interlocutor. These phenomena can be observed in La sombra del caudillo, when Aguirre tries, unsuccessfully, to convince the President –the Caudillo, his friend and protector– that he has no interest in the presidential succession. Both of them quote foreign or past speeches, which end up defining Aguirre’s tragic destiny. In this article, a narratological analysis is carried out to establish the implications of the incorporated discourse, both on the discursive plane and on the actantial plane.