Character Creation: Scientists, Authors, Gods and Lovers

This dissertation studies the function and presence of character creations in twentieth-century Latin American fiction. Character creations are fictional entities, most commonly characters, presented as being brought to existence by another fictional entity. The internally-created characters are depicted as crossing into the same frame of being as their creators or vice versa, transcending artificiality, and possessing self direction. Internal creators take various roles, but are primarily scientists, authors, gods, and lovers. Based roughly on these four categories, this dissertation argues that character creation establishes allegories through which crucial trends in literary production from the century may be observed. These areas are: A) the expression of a worried embrace between humankind and technology, B) a proliferation of questions regarding the limits and potential of fictional creation, C) an increasing uncertainty regarding known reality, human existence, and the nature of fiction and reality, and, D) an exploration of social constructs regarding gender, identity, and power. The allegorical, frame-based relationships established in character creation are examined in poems, plays, and narratives, representing the work of more than ten prominent and lesser-known authors of the century, including María Luisa Bombal, Ladislao Holmberg, Roberto Arlt, Clemente Palma, Juan José Arreola, Horacio Quiroga, Juan Carlos Onetti, Jorge Luis Borges, Julio Cortázar and Carlos Fuentes.

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