Cuban insistences

neo-picaresque in O Rei de Havana

Abstract

This article aims to analyze traces of picaresque literature in the novel O Rei de Havana (1999), by Cuban writer Pedro Juan Gutiérrez. However, it is intended to point out not only the similarities but also the differences and updates that the Spanish picaresque model suffers in relation to the contemporary material. Such differences would be what critics, such as Professor Mario González, began to consider “neo-picaresque”. The Spanish picaro had specific social conditions of its time and space, and these conditions find a certain similarity with the social and historical context of the character Reinaldo, from the aforementioned novel, but also distinctions. Among similarities and differences, the presence of the picaro in contemporary literature is neither a surprise nor an exclusivity of Pedro Juan Gutiérrez’s work. The studies by José Antonio Maravall also provide a theoretical framework so that the similarities and differences between picaros and neo-picaros are perceived and analyzed with due care.