El rastro by Margo Glantz and Thomas Bernhard’s literature: consciousness as a musical fugue and the defense of humanism.

Authors

Keywords:

Comparative literature, Mexican literatura, Austrian literatura, Stream of consciousness, Musical fugue

Abstract

The present work is an interpretation of the novel El rastro (2002) by Margo Glantz based on a
comparison with the text in prose Der Untergeher (1983) by Thomas Bernhard. The Austrian writer is
explicitly mentioned in the Mexican novel, which indicates structural and / or conceptual intertextual
connections. An important motif in both novels is the reference to the musician Glenn Gould and his
interpretation of the Goldberg Variations by Johann Sebastian Bach. Derived from this motif, the
comparison of the two novels is particularly based on their musical fugue like structure. Thus, both
Glantz and Bernhard characterize the content of the human consciousness —the novel's focus is
fixed and internal (stream of consciousness in first person)— shaped as a musical fugue, as the
repetition of various concepts. The compared concepts are, for example, death as the center of life
and the aesthetic education of the human being.

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Published

2025-09-02

How to Cite

Weber, H. (2025). El rastro by Margo Glantz and Thomas Bernhard’s literature: consciousness as a musical fugue and the defense of humanism. Sincronía, 26(82), 501–521. Retrieved from https://revistasincronia.cucsh.udg.mx/index.php/sincronia/article/view/359

Issue

Vol. 26 No. 82 (2022): Sincronia Journal

Section

LETRAS

License

Copyright (c) 2022 Herwig Weber

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