Avant-Garde Aesthetics in Felisberto Hernández’s Menos Julia

Felisberto Hernández has often been described as a unique writer who developed an intensely personal style of writing unlike that of any of his Latin American or European counterparts. This article seeks to counter this view by setting Hernández within the context of the historical avant-garde. Menos Julia is read in the context of previous studies of El caballo perdido and Las dos historias which see them as metafictional commentaries on the act of writing. The central motif of the tunnel in Menos Julia is interpreted as a metaphor for the creative act and the story as a whole is read as an exploration of the transformation of lived experience and memories into art and, as such, a metafictional commentary on the relationship between art and reality.