Dos variantes de lo final en la obra de Onetti: El astillero y Cuando ya no importe

Abstract

This paper inquires into the links between writing and death in El astillero and Cuando ya no importe, two novels that respectively correspond to the maturity and late period of Onetti’s production. To this end, it reviews in both novels the role of the final, considered as a constructive principle that organises a use of writing as a reflection on death and operates on different levels: on the statement (through various images of decadence and death), on the enunciation (the end of the text and a series of references to it) and, from a diachronic point of view, on Onetti’s works as a whole (through a text placed at the end of his production).