Off-campus UMass Amherst users: To download campus access dissertations, please use the following link to log into our proxy server with your UMass Amherst user name and password.

Non-UMass Amherst users: Please talk to your librarian about requesting this dissertation through interlibrary loan.

Dissertations that have an embargo placed on them will not be available to anyone until the embargo expires.

Author ORCID Identifier

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8402-3127

AccessType

Open Access Dissertation

Document Type

dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Degree Program

Hispanic Literatures & Linguistics

Year Degree Awarded

2022

Month Degree Awarded

September

First Advisor

Luis A. Marentes

Second Advisor

María Soledad Barbón

Third Advisor

José N. Ornelas

Subject Categories

Latin American Literature | Spanish Literature

Abstract

This dissertation focuses on the epistolary communication between Alfredo González Prada, Luis Alberto Sánchez and Adriana de Verneuil between the years 1925-1943. The correspondence reveals unfamiliar aspects in the life of the controversial Peruvian writer, Manuel González Prada (1844-1918). I argue that in order to better understand his work and personal life it is necessary to study the voices that were close to him, and in charge of the publication of his posthumous work. The correspondence also opens the discussion of the literary work of Luis Alberto Sánchez in Don Manuel (1930). Sánchez’s book constructs Prada’s heroic character within a Peruvian context marked by the war. Its publication led to immense efforts of Alfredo González Prada in the desire to vindicate his father’s life and message, that for him was not entirely understood. The analysis explores Alfredo’s labor as an editor and writer who by committing himself to his father’s work, left aside his own creative writing. Alongside with Alfredo, was Adriana de Verneuil who not only was González Prada’s wife, but also a presence that exerted great influence on the writer’s literary work. She was an editor, literary agent, collaborator and participant on Prada’s ideas. She constructed a less antagonistic version of the writer showing the Manuel Gonzalez Prada she knew through Mi Manuel (1947), an autobiography in which she traced her life alongside the writer opening the doors to the intimacy of her husband and intellectual partner. Consequently, through the 166 letters, Don Manuel and Mi Manuel the reader can enter the writer’s domestic spaces through those who shared and/or dedicated considerable part of their life to Manuel Gonzalez Prada’s literary legacy.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.7275/31023966

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Download

Share

COinS