The “secret” as an analytic category of Ricardo Piglia and its applicability in the diegetic space within the nouvelle The turn of the screw

Abstract

Regarding the present study, the intellectual work of Ricardo Piglia is rescued in relation to the analytical category of secret and its applicability in the novel genre. On this occasion, we have chosen to analyze a classic of literature, The Turn of the Screw (2015) by Henry James, with the aim of verifying the possibilities of reconstructing a secret, understood in the light of Piglia's reflections as a fundamental element in the plot that is not narrated in the visible story, and yet can be narrated again from the investigative work of the reader. For this purpose it is pertinent to examine the diegetic space in the narrative; analyze the problem of the narrator; and address the possible reconstruction of the secret in Henry James's novel. This work of reflection evidences the literary complexity and the aesthetic value intensified in the works of this genre—and that of James’ classic in particular—, since the resources of ambiguity and the succession of multiple narrators enrich the value of the hidden element, from which a new reading is reconstructed according to Piglia’s critical precisions.