La promesa a medio cumplir: un análisis pragmático sobre el Museo de la Novela de la Eterna

Abstract

This paper aims to introduce a pragmatic view of the posthumous work of Macedonio Fernández, Museo de la Novela de la Eterna. The analysis focuses largely on the theory of John L. Austin about speech acts. In considering the text as a promise, one can appreciate the movements and mechanisms that Macedonio introduced before and during his production, which became a crucial and inseparable part of it. As a promise, the form that the novel adopts is largely the prologue. Those prologues are ruled over by two movements: digression and adjournment. Thus, Macedonio’s promise to take his novel up never happens, suspending not only the story, but also the unfinished act of promising.