36th Annual Student Research Conference
Aura: Parallel Memories, Parallel Lives
Emmanuelle Wilson* and Hannah M. Kimsey
Dr. Stacy Davis, Faculty Mentor
In author Carlos Fuentes’s novella Aura (1962), narrator-protagonist Felipe Montero employs a unique narration style to signal he is but one character involved in a cycle of lives. The parallelism between Felipe’s lived experiences and the memories of General Llorente, Consuelo’s husband, indicates that the two possess a shared memory. Felipe’s blind acceptance of the inconsistencies throughout further proves this idea, and supports the inference that Consuelo regularly entraps men to reanimate her long-dead husband and rejuvenate herself. This, paired with the novel’s second person narration and time changes, demonstrates that Felipe uses Aura to speak to himself and others similarly in his position. This project asserts that within Aura, Felipe's narration functions as a guide to the (re)iterations of the General’s soul, just as the General’s memories exist as a guide for his future self, Felipe, concluding that this new analysis claims time as simultaneously meaningful and meaningless.
Keywords: Aura, Carlos Fuentes, Narration, Parallelism, Second Person , Symbolism, Mixed Tenses, Novella
Topic(s):Spanish
Presentation Type: Oral Presentation
Session: 106-6
Location: SUB 3202
Time: 9:45