El Estilo Es Una De Las Formas De La Edad (Una Biografia De Martin Adan)
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This study deals with the life and major works of the contemporary Peruvian writer Martin Adan, the literary name of Rafael de la Fuente Benavides (Lima, 1908-1985). The methodological approach used in this dissertation combines socio-criticism, stylistic analysis, textual explications and biographical narrations in an attempt to constantly relate life and writing, under the assumption that life, in both its personal and social dimension, can be illuminated by a study of the writings. In order to provide a satisfactory explanation for Martin Adan's statement that entitles this dissertation (EI estilo es una de las formas de la edad), our text includes an Introduction and eight chapters. In the Introduction we discuss how this study was born and our understanding of Adan's statement as an invitation to consider writing and life an indissoluble unity. This understanding therefore justifies the different methodological approaches that the reader will find employed in the study. In the first chapter we confront the problem of the double identity of Rafael de la Fuente Benavides and Martin Adan. In this first chapter we narrate the origin of both identities, trying to relate the two and discovering that the artistic existence of Martin Adan relies precisely on the continuous searching for such a relation. From the second chapter on, the study begins dealing with Adan's works in a chronological way. Thus, chapter two deals with his first publications, while the final chapter deals with those books that appeared in the final moments of the artist's life. This chronological development has allowed us to observe how Adan's works relate to the different events of his life. At the same time, our extensive research concerning Adan's life, the different versions of his published works, as well as his original manuscripts exemplifies the analytic approach that best fits our main goal: to observe the development of a writing practice and a life. While the different chapters may be considered as offering eight different ways to read Martin Adan, it must not be forgotten that throughout the whole dissertation, what lends unity to this investigation is the relationship between writing and life. Style, in Martin Adan's case, reflects the different approaches he takes to confront his most recurrent obsessions. And this exactly is what Adan is constantly saying: style is one of the forms of age.