Journal | Rassegna iberistica
Journal issue | 42 | 111 | 2019
Research Article | Missing Information in the Fictional Worlds of Benito Pérez Galdós

Missing Information in the Fictional Worlds of Benito Pérez Galdós

This paper will examine the use of missing information in some novels by Benito Pérez Galdós: the trilogy El doctor Centeno, Tormento, La de Bringas. Galdós’ plots are built on allusions and withheld information, and revealed by different narrative voices; they require an active participation on the part of the reader, who must put together different blocks of information as though they were tesseras in a mosaic. This missing information leads to subjective textual lacunas, that is, they are deliberately interlocutory and relational, in order to lead the reader to a continual collaboration and to make him/her create logical connections between the text’s different perspectives. The use of this reticence strategy creates an almost metafictional relationship between Galdós’ works and the reader, a bond that is surprisingly modern with respect to the latter’s horizons of expectation.


Open access | Peer reviewed

Submitted: Jan. 31, 2019 | Accepted: April 1, 2019 | Published: June 21, 2019 | Language: es

Keywords Reticence Técnicas retóricas Rhetorical techniques | Benito Pérez Galdós Textual lacunas Galdós’ novels Lagunas textuales Novelas Paralipsis Aposiopesis Reticencia


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