Resumen

MONASTERIOS MACIAS, Freddy José. Manuela Sáenz in several texts. Letras [online]. 2012, vol.54, n.87, pp.110-125. ISSN 0459-1283.

This report is an attempt to analyze the narrative discourse order in the novel "La esposa del Dr. Thorne" (Dr. Thorne’s Wife) of the Venezuelan writer Denzil Romero, in the light of ¨Las cuatro estaciones de Manuela" ("The Four Seasons of Manuela") of the American author Víctor W. von Hagen, and of "Manuela. Sus diarios perdidos y otros papeles", (Manuela. Lost Diaries and Other Papers) of the Ecuadorian Carlos Álvarez Saá. This paper is a risky comparison between a book of fiction, presumably based on real facts, where Manuela’s eroticism is the central theme in Romero, the large literary chronicles issued by von Hagen and the compilation and discovery of alleged original and historic texts (letters and diaries) produced by Álvarez Saá. It is also a research exercise where, whimsically, what the official discourse says, as it may be viewed by the school of Venezuela or that of Quito, is mixed with the fictionalization of that discourse. It is, too, a possible vindication of Manuela Sáenz as a person and/or predominant character in the fights for the independence of America beyond her ¨circumstantial¨ relationship with Simón Bolívar. It is, to a certain extent, a look into how literary texts and the perceptions of history about a character (Manuela) tend to a "rearrangement" in present times and how there has been an attempt to consolidate the figure of Manuela Sáenz as a heroine, awarding a victory to what von Hagen calls "the school of Quito".

Palabras clave : Manuela Sáenz; history; discourse; venezuelan literature.