History and Cognition in Latin American Narrative: Jorge Volpi and the Trilogia del siglo XX

The interrelations among History, cognition and knowledge in the Trilogia del siglo XX, a set of novels written by the Mexican writer Jorge Volpi, constitute a discursive space where readers and critics can inquire and explore the meaning of nowadays Latin American narrative. In spite of the fact that evanescence and fragmentarism are elements that are clearly present in the analyzed works, the study sets to assess the novels as courses of a 'serial knowledge' and as attempts in the difficult balance between the real and the imaginary elements. Furthermore, the paper suggests that these works' meaning leads the reader to a 'foundationalist' acceptance of History as an element for the cognition of the present reality as well as for the timeless one.