AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND FICTION: CABRERA INFANTE'S 'LA HABANA PARA UN INFANTE DIFUNTO' AND VARGAS LLOSA'S 'LA TIA JULIA Y EL ESCRIBIDOR' (GUILLERMO CABRERA INFANTE, CUBA, MARIO VARGAS LLOSA, PERU)

Cabrera Infante's La Habana and Vargas Llosa's La t(')ia Julia are mock autobiographies that highlight the process of fictionalizing the self through writing. A preliminary theoretical analysis of the major problems of autobiographical enunciation supports the situation of both works within the modern tradition of self-conscious autobiography presented as fiction. The narrator of La Habana conspicuously avoids stating his name, but coded references to Cabrera's previous works clearly link the identities of narrator and author. Cabrera employs numerous rhetorical devices in unfolding the story of the narrator's past from the perspective of the fictive present, including self-censure, self-editing, and extensive meta-commentary directed to various narratees. As the narrator struggles to translate his recollections into literary language, he comes to realize the failure of words as a vehicle for intimate communication either with other characters or with readers. To tell his past, the narrator borrows heavily from popular forms, such as films, songs, soap operas, sentimental novels, and humorous pornographic fiction. The fantastic epilogue casts doubt over the authenticity of the shole narration and provides a cyclical ending that underscores the impossibility of closure in autobiography. In La t(')ia Julia, Vargas Llosa juxtaposes and eventually fuses autobiography and fiction. An overt autobiographical pact is executed since the nicknames Marito and Varguitas are assigned to the narrator, who endeavors to make a real name for himself. The serialized autobiographical chapters tie the narrator's literary and sentimental education to the supposed author of the soap opera parodies, the escribidor Pedro Camacho, and to Vargas Llosa's first wife, both of whom are objects of admiration and mockery. The soap opera episodes, controlled by the superseding narrator's voice, present an anatomy of story-telling and constitute a mock autobiography of the scribbler. The problem of how to transform life into literature is also encoded in the narrator's analysis of his early short story attempts and is treated explicity in Vargas Llosa's plays, La senorita de Tacna and Kathie y el hipopotamo, which together wit La tia Julia form a rich autobiographical trilogy.