An Analysis Of 'Una Estacion De Amor'

The short story’s origins can be traced back to mythology and draw from the oral tradition within which brief tales or fables were retold bearing themes of morality or philosophy shrouded in the guise of entertainment. March-Russell writes that ‘even though the term ‘short story’ implies a plotted narrative, written as opposed to recited, writers tended to regard themselves as producing the modern-day equivalent of the folktale’. The cuento, through adaptation into a literary form, became more established and respected as a style of writing, yet still was not bound by any sort of overarching structure. The short story is not, like a ballad, or other form of folklore, given set rules structurally or even content wise, any further than vague

His collection Cuentos de amor, de locura y de muerte he explores three complex themes which have ties to the primality of human nature, often showing how they can interlink with each other and in fact be causal or consequential. The scenery for the stories is often familiar, basic almost, so as not to take away from the events which occur. In ‘Una Estacion de Amor’, the love between Octavio and Lidia is entirely idealised and too good to be true, pure in a way that one cannot find in the real world. Quiroga uses this immaculacy to then contrast it in the second act with the harsh reality of life which crushes the previously surface level love story which the reader was originally given. He touches frequently on the topic of drug addiction and morphine abuse, and in this story it is particularly jarring, as having been given a timelapse one is able to see the effects it has on one’s psyche and entire life- an additional dash of pathos is that Lidia herself has taken on her mother’s addiction. Another trope which Piglia notes is that a short story always tells two stories. This is exemplified in ‘Los Ojos Oscuros’, in which Zapiola tells another man of the unfortunate story of how he met Maria. Though the two stories are told in different timeframes, one in the present and one in the past, what is interesting is how at the end the lines between the two merge as it seems that history may repeat itself. In this

While novels are not expected to tie at all into one another, a book of poetry must be carried by a mutual wave, whether temporal or with regards to the subject matter. Short stories on the other hand have no glove rule, yet tend to be compilated by the author themselves; sometimes upon inception, so that the author writes in order to fit the theme, or at other times in retrospect, grouping previous works by motifs which occurred otherwise sporadically. Quiroga’s Cuentos , though all entirely distinct, all relate back to the same three motifs of love, death and madness. The Ficciones are strung together self explanatorily, by the fact that Borges heavily applies fiction and surrealism to these short stories, and in a way that is what defines them. It seems that to collect a group of short stories by common theme might contradict their purpose, as it removes the ‘short’ part of the story. However, length is entirely subjective, therefore one cannot say that a short story is defined by that feature in and of itself. The ‘short’ aspect more likely refers to the genre as a whole and the shortcuts into action which an author might take which they would not for a novel. The short story cannot cover every minute detail at the loping pace with which a novel might progress. As a result while a novel will have a more steady plot progression and more defined character arcs, the narrative