Resumen

VILLANUEVA BENAVIDES, Idalia. Deconstruction of the Cartesian subject, its time and space in Todas las familias felices [All the happy families] by Carlos Fuentes. La Palabra [online]. 2015, n.26, pp.97-114. ISSN 0121-8530.

This paper will describe what Lyotard calls the postmodern condition, which Carlos Fuentes accurately depicts in Todas las familias felices [All the happy families]. One of the characteristics of the postmodern subject is that it lacks a center, which leaves it empty, destroyed, torn to pieces. That emptiness needs to be filled and the pieces put back together again. Nevertheless this is impossible, considering that all that remains is language, which by nature is arbitrary. Arbitrary means that the relation between the signifier and the signified is "arbitrary"; that there is no direct connection between the shape and the concept. This impossible situation creates a crisis in the subject that can only be solved through the use of irony, which means double discourse, saying the contrary to what is meant, and critique of the great narratives of the Western world. Thus, irony and critique lead to transgression, the only alternative left.

Palabras clave : subject; postmodernity; identity; crisis; transgression.

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