Spanish literary tradition in La portentosa vida de la Muerte (1792)

Abstract

La Portentosa vida de la Muerte by Fray Joaquín Bolaños first appeared in Mexico in 1792. The work never circulated in the Peninsula, in part owing to the scathing criticism published in the Gazeta de Literatura of the day. From a modern perspective, the text represents one of the first attempts to incorporate fiction into a sermon, although always within the limits prevailing during the colonial period. The work is made up of a unique web of literary and discursive influences which this paper analyses in an attempt to show how it established a bridge between Spanish Baroque and the earliest Spanish-American narrative prose.