La grafía manzaniana: el lenguaje escrito mediante la metáfora y la prosopopeya

Abstract

This article is a narrative analysis of Juan Francisco Manzano (1797-1853)’s Autobiografía de un esclavo (1835). It aims to give visibility to Juan Francisco Manzano as a 19th century Cuban intellectual and situates his writings within the afrodiasporic and Afrolatino ancestral heritage. The article examines the literary strategies deployed by the author in writing his testimonies such as intertextual figures in the picaresque prose and his privileged position as a narrator that deliberately mixes different aspects of his narrative disturbing the readership. Finally, the article presents an analysis of the metaphoric language deployed by Manzano through the interpretation of recurring themes in his autobiography. James Olney and Paul de Man’s theoretical framework are deployed to build an argument on the multiplicity of “self ” and/or “voices” that emerge from the Manzanian metaphoric narrative.