University of Conneticutt

 In recent years Luis Goytisolo has set about exploring the nature of fiction within fiction itself: that is to say, he has emerged as a consummate practitioner of the self-conscious novel, or metafiction. In the four novels of Antagonía (Recuento, 1973; Los verdes de mayo hasta el mar, 1976; La cólera de Aquiles, 1979; Teoría del conocimiento, 1981), the coincidence of theory and practice is structured in such a way that one flows neatIy into the other and then back again, natural folds of the same novelistic material. Goytisolo's work is largely synthetic in this regard, for it seeks a reconciliation between word and world that is uncommon in postwar fiction. His theoretical pronouncements insist upon the exístential virtues of creativity in both writer and reader, and extol language as the instrument which at once vivifies the literary work and represents the world outside of it. His tetralogy stands as one of the most ambitious works of fiction of postwar Spain, and Goytisolo articulates a view of literature within it that eschews traditional realism while affirming the creative act as a measure of being in the world.

     Estela del fuego que se aleja is in many ways a complementary text to the four previous novels, for again fiction and fictional commentary converge in a way that compels us to examine how and why the novel is what it is. Goytisolo creates a pro­tagonist in the novel known only as A, who is replaced by and coumerpoised to pro­tagonist B midway through the work. B appears to be the creation of A, though it re­mains ambiguous why B becomes the principal character and narrative voice for the last half of the novel. Initially, however, we are aware only of the existense of A, a successful, middle-aged businessman who has reached a point in life where money grows increasingly impotent and nostalgia drives him toward his youth, former friends, and lovers. A's dilemma develops in fragmented fashion, often without psychological motivation, and the result is a stratified portrait of aman seeking identity outside the traditional structural patterns of the quest.

     For his part, B co-opts the narrative (in the middle of a semence he becomes the first-person narrator) and substitutes both his vision and his problematic self for the now abandoned A. B has spent nearly twenty years of his life studying the problem of ignominy, but has set out to rid himself of the past and begin a «Nuevo Proyecto.» It is significant that this «N.P.,» as it is caIled, functions on two distinct but imerrelated levels: on the one hand, it is an effort by B to change personal be­havioral patterns that accompanied his years of study of ignominy; on the other, N.P. is a literary work in which B creates a character that is simultaneously,similar and antithetical to both himself and to A. His project, therefore, is ambiguously drawn as both a failure and a success. It reveals the inner workings of B's desire for change and the power of literature to forge identity. but also underscores the way in which B cannot escape his past. Hence the two characters are conjoined at the level of theme (frustration and failure), and Goytisolo affirms that likeness through the use of a parallel narrative technique: B's story, like that of his counterpart, emerges through ellipsis, and traditional stategies of plotting yield to the snapshot effect of frozen moments outside the structures of cause and effect.

     Near the end of the novel, Goytisolo's adeptness at play moves to the fore, and wc encounter B reading a text written by V, who, it turns out, is really B. Estela thus becomes metafiction, and B explores the intricate relationship between author and text, the role of the reader as giver of meaning, and the broader question of language and being. Goytisolo's literary games are always elever, and Estela is no exception. The text recedes into a labyrinth of mirrors that at first reflect, then confound, the multiple levels of meaning. The committed reader will no doubt accept the challenge to untangle the confusions, though confusion itself is clearly part of Goytisolo's message.

      Beyond this, however, the reader familiar with Antagonía will find much of Es­tela to be recycled and worn. Goytisolo reiterates the notion (enunciated with in­tricacy and depth in Antagonía) that the author comes into being through and within his fiction, and that language is both spirit and flesh of this (re)generated self: «Tu vida es una historia escrita por otro y, cuando las palabras se acaban, es el final» (p. 206). What remains uncertain, both in a literary and existential sense, is the nature of one's identity and the way in which the creative process delimits the quest for be­ing or amplifies one's need for the Other. Logocemrism still rules Goytisolo's theory of writing, despite the destruction and deconstruction of post-strucruralist thought. The Word in Estela is shared by multiple creators, and though its authority is diluted, it is also affirmed. That is to say, self-definition through language grows paradoxical and uncertain, but its possibility is aH that we possess. Goytisolo is supremely aware of this, and he has scrutinized the problem throughout the previous four novels. Hence even though Estela is an intelligent and intricately structured novel, it is in many ways a gloss of what he has said before. It neither provokes nor disquiets us, and is therefore a less inviting piece of fiction. 
Luis Goytisolo, Estela del fuego que se aleja. Barcelona: Anagrama, 1984, 206 pp. 

ALEC, Book Review,  Oct. 1985