“Uninhabited paradise” by Ana María Matute: a singular late style from childhood as origin

Abstract

The last novel published by Ana María Matute, Paraíso inhabitado (2008), delves into the crucial elements of the world of childhood, such as the importance of imagination, the discovery of one's own identity and the progressive confrontation with the world, from a double perspective: that of the Adriana girl and that of the voice of the older narrator, who returns to the most intimate memories of her childhood. This double perspective, which accentuates an obsession with time in writing, shows how the authorial authority sheds light on its intimate relationship with literary creation, that is, also with its own genealogy as a writer, immersing itself in the power of revelation, tearing and invention inherent in the most perennial inner experiences of childhood, and this by confronting at the same time the unavoidable question of the end, both in life and in a literary work.