“The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World”, by Gabriel García Márquez: A Becoming of Reading, Writing and Lived Experience as Transtextual Hermeneutics from Gérard Genette’s Perspective

Abstract

This article considers the reading of Gabriel García Márquez's ‘The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World’ as a transtextual hermeneutic from the perspective of Gerard Genett. This means that the writing of the work is not only a kind of imitation of a previous text to produce a new one, but it is the product of a creative process on the part of the author. Accordingly, this paper relies on three referents for the writing of the story, which together can also contribute to a more comprehensive reading of the symbolic, cultural and poetic universe narrated in the story. These are transtextualities, writing techniques and the author's lived experiences. These elements constitute the body of the text in which idiosyncratic, literary and mythical interpretations are introduced, contrary to the ideological positions referring to the Spanish conquest or the folkloric peculiarities of the local order. This gives an image of Gabriel García Márquez not only as an author, but also as a diachronic reader who writes what he has lived from the reinterpretation of the referents of literature, history and culture. Thus, some critics consider that the author's context, his formation as a human being and writer, bring him closer to his sensibility and provide resources to find possible meanings for his work.