At the Limits of Testimonial: Fantasy and Science Fiction in Viaje a la aldea del crimen (1934) by Ramón J. Sender

Abstract

This article explores the correlation between Viaje a la aldea del crimen (1934), by Ramón J. Sender, and the testimonial genre. To this end, it examines the rhetorical functions of two passages close to fantasy and science fiction that seem to break with this work’s authenticity. Such a rupture could reveal the limits of this linkage. In its book form, this text developed from a series of journalistic reports that the author carried out in the aftermath of the so-called Casas Viejas incident (1933), which shook the republican-socialist coalition during the Second Spanish Republic. The first supernatural episode allows the narrator to travel to the past and, in doing so, he becomes an eyewitness to the events, not just a hearsay witness (as Sender himself was). The second one portrays a dialogue between the narrator and the statue known as María Mármol, who interprets the events as a symptom of a centuries-old class struggle. These two apparent disruptive elements serve to emphasize the predominant realistic style of the account, which validates the authority of the narrator’s testimonial voice and his factual referentiality. The analysis of this stylistic paradox could help clarify the foundations of what Manuel Aznar Soler calls hilo rojo [red thread]; the revolutionary realism of the 1930s in Spain that, akin to modern testimony, sought to transform reality, not merely portray it.