Abstract
The objective of this paper is to reflect on some features of David Toscana’s novel Los puentes de Königsberg. In this contribution by the Northern Mexican writer there are unusual parallelisms between different realities of the cities of Monterrey (Mexico) and Königsberg (East Prussia), which become the basis of the structure of the novel. In this framework the author situates certain eccentric characters, providing them with a “double life”, a real Mexican one and an imaginary East-Prussian one, in order to contrast the cities and validate the superiority of Königsberg, the actual protagonist of the novel. Toscana uses selected criteria, such as scientific and cultural contributions by the cities, their different historical fates, and the moral attitudes of their inhabitants towards discrimination, war crimes and gender violence, which implies a severe critique of Monterrey’s society. The set of parallelisms between the cities is totally convincing as a fictional structure and emphasizes the most prominent quality of Toscana’s analysed prose.Funding
El financiamiento del Séptimo Programa Marco de la Unión Europea (PM7/2007-2013) en virtud del acuerdo de subvención nº PIOF-GA-2011-301070
References
Augé, M. (2000). Los “no lugares”. Espacios del anonimato. Una antropología de la sobremodernidad (trad. del francés M. Mizraji). Barcelona: Gedisa.
Beltrán Félix, G. (2009): Los puentes de Königsberg de David Toscana, Letras Libres, 131, 79-80.
Camps, M. (2007). Cruces fronterizos: hacia una narrativa del desierto, In J.L. Chávez Vigueracol (Ed.). In Extenso, serie Crítica. Ciudad Juárez: Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juárez.
Chávez, R. & Santajuliana, C. (2000). La generación de los enterradores. Una expedición a la narrativa mexicana del tercer milenio. México: Nueva Imagen.
Chávez, R. & Santajuliana, C. (2003). La generación de los enterradores. Una expedición a la narrativa mexicana del tercer milenio II. México: Nueva Imagen.
Díaz, G.L. (2012) Más de 34 mil mujeres asesinadas en México entre 1985 y 2009. Proceso, 26 de noviembre de 2012. URL: <http://www.proceso.com.mx/?p=326235>. (Última consulta: 31.12.2012).
Eloy Martínez, T. (2011). Ficciones verdaderas. Buenos Aires: Alfaguara.
Garza, J. (2004): David Toscana: la vida como novela (entrevista). Flama, suplemento cultural de Vida Universitaria, 9, 1-4.
Guillén, C. (2010): Todas las vidas posibles. Revista de la Universidad de México, 72, 97-98.
Torres, B. (1988): México en la segunda guerra mundial (serie “Historia de la Revolución Mexicana 1940-1952), vol. 19, México: Colegio de México.
Moreno Rojas, E. (2004). La construcción de la ciudad en la novela norteña. Revista de Humanidades: Tecnológico de Monterrey, 17, 13-31, Monterrey: Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (ITESM).
Plasencia de la Parra, E. (2003). Las infanterías invisibles: mexicanos en la segunda guerra mundial, Historia Mexicana LII, 1021-1071.
Rodríguez Lozano, M. G. (2002). La otra experiencia del norte: aproximación a la narrativa de David Toscana In El norte: una experiencia contemporánea en la literatura mexicana (serie Ensayo) (pp. 63-80), Monterrey: Fondo Estatal para la Cultura y las Artes de Nuevo León.
Rodríguez Lozano, M. G. (2003). Escenarios del norte de México: Daniel Sada, Gerardo Cornejo, Jesús Gardea (serie Letras del Siglo XX). México: UNAM, Instituto de Investigaciones Filológicas.
Sánchez Peña A. A. (2011). El último lector de David Toscana o la lectura como revelación. La Colmena, 70, 26-30.
Toscana, D. (2009). Los puentes de Königsberg. Madrid: Alfaguara.
License
- The Author hereby warrants that he/she is the owner of all the copyright and other intellectual property rights in the Work and that, within the scope of the present Agreement, the paper does not infringe the legal rights of another person.The owner of the copyright work also warrants that he/she is the sole and original creator thereof and that is not bound by any legal constraints in regard to the use or sale of the work.
- The Author grants the Purchaser non-exclusive and free of charge license to unlimited use worldwide over an unspecified period of time in the following areas of exploitation:
2.1. production of multiple copies of the Work produced according to the specific application of a given technology, including printing, reproduction of graphics through mechanical or electrical means (reprography) and digital technology;
2.2. marketing authorisation, loan or lease of the original or copies thereof;
2.3. public performance, public performance in the broadcast, video screening, media enhancements as well as broadcasting and rebroadcasting, made available to the public in such a way that members of the public may access the Work from a place and at a time individually chosen by them;
2.4. inclusion of the Work into a collective work (i.e. with a number of contributions);
2.5. inclusion of the Work in the electronic version to be offered on an electronic platform, or any other conceivable introduction of the Work in its electronic version to the Internet;
2.6. dissemination of electronic versions of the Work in its electronic version online, in a collective work or independently;
2.7. making the Work in the electronic version available to the public in such a way that members of the public may access the Work from a place and at a time individually chosen by them, in particular by making it accessible via the Internet, Intranet, Extranet;
2.8. making the Work available according to appropriate license pattern Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) as well as another language version of this license or any later version published by Creative Commons. - The Author grants the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan permission to:
3.1. reproduce a single copy (print or download) and royalty-free use and disposal of rights to compilations of the Work and these compilations.
3.2. send metadata files related to the Work, including to commercial and non-commercial journal-indexing databases. - The Author declares that, on the basis of the license granted in the present Agreement, the Purchaser is entitled and obliged to allow third parties to obtain further licenses (sublicenses) to the Work and to other materials, including derivatives thereof or compilations made based on or including the Work, whereas the provisions of such sub-licenses will be the same as with the attributed license pattern Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)or another language version of this license, or any later version of this license published by Creative Commons. Thereby, the Author entitles all interested parties to use the work, for non-commercial purposes only, under the following conditions:
4.1. acknowledgment of authorship, i.e. observing the obligation to provide, along with the distributed work, information about the author, title, source (link to the original Work, DOI) and of the license itself.
4.2. the derivatives of the Work are subject to the same conditions, i.e. they may be published only based on a licence which would be identical to the one granting access to the original Work. - The University of Adam Mickiewicz in Poznań is obliged to
5.1. make the Work available to the public in such a way that members of the public may access the Work from a place and at a time individually chosen by them, without any technological constraints;
5.2. appropriately inform members of the public to whom the Work is to be made available about sublicenses in such a way as to ensure that all parties are properly informed (appropriate informing messages).
Other provisions
- The University of Adam Mickiewicz in Poznań hereby preserves the copyright to the journal as a whole (layout/stylesheet, graphics, cover design, logo etc.)