Abstract

The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship, from an intertextual  perspective, between Las travesuras de la niña mala by Mario Vargas Llosa (2006), and the picaresque genre developed in Spain during the 16th and 17th century. In order to achieve this aim, I will take into account the filiation discourse and the appearance of the picaresque canon, as well as the female picaresque works ignored by the critics. Vargas Llosa draws the character of the «niña mala» gathering charateristics which belong both to male and female picaro.

Abstract

It is possible to recognize the influence of Cervantes in Spanish America from the moment its works arrived to our continent in the XVII century. The Chilean literature is not out of that process: in the literary field one of the highlights is the writer Juan Rafael Allende, from mid XIX Century, who’s novel Memorias de un perro escritas por su propia pata (1893) shows a clear inspiration on one of the Exemplary novels titled Coloquio de los perros. Rafael Allende’s work, narrated according to the XVII century picaresque novel principles, tells about the life’s ups and downs of a dog named Rompecadenas, who constantly changes owners and get a good number of experiences that allow it to make its performance as a pícaro even better and, by the way, to display a series of pictures of Chilean social reality.