141
Booth, pp. 153-54. (N. del A.)
142
The oral tone of this passage lends a special quality to the entire novella, suggesting, as it does, a romance de ciego. Pierre Ullman points out in his note, «The Exordium of Torquemada en la hoguera», that «this introductory paragraph is clearly akin to the proem of a romance de ciego... The author seems to be warning the sophisticated reader against mature emotional involvement in the work. We can watch the puppeteer's show, but we must sit among the ingenuous» (MLN, 80 [1965], 258-60). (N. del A.)
143
Walter J. Ong, in «The Writer's Audience Is Always a Fiction», PMLA, 90 (1975), 9-21, discusses the problem every writer has in constructing an imaginary audience, and he asserts the audience's obligation to fictionalize itself. Lowrie Nelson, Jr., describes the reader's responsibility similarly: «the role of the reader is an intrinsic part of the fiction of literature and... the fictive reader must provisionally obey the contractual norms before rendering his incumbent verdict in sede critica» («The Fictive Reader and Literary Self-Reflexiveness», in The Disciplines of Criticism, ed. Peter Demetz et al. [New Haven: Yale University Press, 1968], p. 190). (N. del A.)
144
Urey, p. 100. (N. del A.)
145
The Poetics of Prose (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1971), p. 84. (N. del A.)
146
Nancy Newton's article, «El amigo Manso and the Relativity of Reality», Revista de Estudios Hispánicos, 7 (1973), 113-25, discusses this problem in some detail. She says that «El amigo Manso is structured on and gives evidence of the Galdosian disbelief in an absolute truth». (N. del A.)
147
«Commentary in Literary Texts», Critical Inquiry, 5, No. 2 (1978), 328. (N. del A.)
148
Iser, p. 110. (N. del A.)
149
Iser, p. 120. (N. del A.)
150
The research for this study was conducted at Cornell University where the author participated in a National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Seminar en «The Self-Conscious Novel in the Hispanic World». A special note of appreciation is due to the seminar director, John Kronik, for his invaluable guidance. A considerably abbreviated form of this article was read at the Louisiana Conference on Hispanic Languages and Literatures, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, March 1-3, 1984. (N. del A.)