Synopsis
Miguel Riofrío (Loja, Ecuador, 1822-1879).
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Synopsis
With his novel "La Emancipada" (1863), Miguel Riofrio led the Ecuadorian literature into the modern world. Written in mid-nineteenth century, this work expresses a method of believable representation - non-biased and objective - of the real world, based upon a careful observation of reality; a censoring and critical attention of the Ecuadorian social life in his times. From that standpoint and through techniques he employed, Riofrio placed his novel within the leading movement in Europe - France - after 1840: Realism. He appears as a writer well versed in the latest knowledges, both cultural and scientific, and as a forefront scholar due to the use of realistic techniques and procedures; he represents, through narrative space and time, cultural, geographic, racial and gender issues that transform Rosaura, the main character, in zones of opposition, ambiguity and exile, demonstrating that she understands her society's structure and how it works. This leads his readers into sharing the interpretative process of the character, and to reach the same understanding. Following Balzac, Riofrio is a realist well aware of his limits. He also depicts what molds, controls and limits narrative: history, economy, pshycology and other precepts considered universal at writing time. The narration, therefore, shows the Ecuadorean historic and cultural moment, along scientific, literary and cultural knowledge of European origin. In this way Riofrio delves through his fiction into a zone unread both by his co-nationals and by many Latin Americans of his times. The new democratic ideas stimulate in him a wider scope from which he portraits the dominant strains of his society, including it's ill-understood morals and yesterday's ideas that constrain thought and stagnate the nation's development; by doing so he drives the reader into considering the relationships between classes and genders, and subsequent behaviours. To read "La Emancipada" is to perceive a close enough version of the real nineteenth century society, and a way of having a direct experience of it. In this edition, Professor Flor Maria Rodriguez-Arenas [Licenciada, Universidad Pedagogica Nacional, and Postgrado: Instituto Caro y Cuervo (Bogota, Colombia), M.A, The University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, USA), PhD, The University of Texas (Austin, USA). Professor: Colorado State University (USA)] establishes the relationships between discursive formation and societal structures. The concepts of class, gender and ethnicity are systematically associated with levels and types of discourse used in narrative and the relations among story, teller, and audience. Also, speech acts and other textual strategies are incorporated into their social, political and cultural contexts in order to demonstrate the powers of dispersion and transformation, the violent impact of ignorance, and the social abuse that different levels of society, especially women, and indigenous peoples, experienced in a historical moment in Ecuador during the 19th century.
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