La aventura de escribir: Parodia y metaficcion en 'La tia Julia y el escribidor' de Mario Vargas Llosa

This dissertation treats parody as an organic element of La tia Julia y el escribidor. The central parodical motif concerns the radiodrama chapters and deals with the obsessive projection of the personal experiences or demonios of Pedro Camacho--the writer of soaps--in his own literary creations. These demonios are a reflection of Vargas Llosa's own. Framed within the general parody of the radiodramas, there are parodies of other literary genres-- romance, detective and chivalry novels. This study focuses on the parody of such popular and canonical genres, and their central role in the structure and themes of La tia Julia.;Chapter I presents a detailed description of the structure of La tia Julia, and an exploration of the concept of parody in contemporary criticism. Chapter II reviews and discusses the essays dealing with La tia Julia in order to provide a context of previous critical readings of this novel. In chapters III, IV, V and VI the structures and conventions of the popular narrative forms mentioned above are examined, followed by an analysis of the way they are parodied by Vargas Llosa. Chapter VII studies the novel's autoparodical and metafictional character. It compares Vargas Llosa's two fictional alter egos, their writing techniques, the type of works they write and their ideologies, and relates them to the actual Vargas Llosa. Also, and to emphasize the concept of autoparody, the autobiographical section is read as a romance novel, and the role of the reader as co-creator of the text is examined.