Fernanda y los mundos secretos: ¿literatura experimental en la narrativa mexicana del siglo XXI?

Abstract

This article aims to establish that there has been a Mexican experimental literature going on for the last two decades. Since said concept is usually associated with the narrative of the 1970s, we take on the authors of the so-called “Crack Generation” and their Manifesto to recall their intentions to write demanding novels following those experimental models from the past. Therefore our first intention is to draw back from that term and then offer a brief overview of what it is actually happening in contemporary Mexican narrative in relation with that kind of literature and the authors who want to bring it back. Then we will analyze Ricardo Chávez Casatñeda’s Fernanda y los mundos secretos, mostly focusing on both its structure and the use of language. Our aim is to highlight those elements to be helpful on establishing if there is a possibility to either think if the category “experimental” is appropriate or not. On studying one work in detail, our main objective is to prove the existence of texts that show formal risks that allow us to think of a category such as “experimental” to define them.