The Limerick-Stories of Silvina Ocampo

Abstract

This work presents an interpretation of three paradigmatic stories of the ocampian nonsense in its Lear inflection, “El automóvil”, “Sábanas de tierra” y “La pista de hielo y de fuego”, of the collection entitled Y así sucesivamente (1987). It is known that Silvina Ocampo had read Edward Lear’s literature, although it is not possible to state that she would have wanted to imitate him, to perform a tribute to him nor to write stories like limericks. It is possible, however, to read this stories from the way in which they are intersected by certain characteristics of Lear’s nonsense. The working hypothesis asserts that the ephemeral narrative structure of limerick appears in these stories, detached of the rhyme, and it disrupts the story’s form and permeates it with fugacity and foolishness. So, the reader encounters anomalous stories, with short and rare forms, that seem unfinished. They have minimal plots, in which there isn’t much narration, because one insignificant anecdote takes up the whole story space, like it happens in Lear’s limericks.