Una modesta proposición sobre <em>El exiliado de aquí y allá</em> de Juan Goytisolo

Abstract

Juan Goytisolo’s readers had every reason to assume that Telón de boca (2003) would be his last novel. Goytisolo himself pointedly declared after its publication that he was retiring as a novelist. But then in 2008, he surprised his readers by publishing El exiliado de aquí y allá, a continuation of his 1982 novel, Paisajes después de la batalla, and a biting satire that presented a scathing portrait of contemporary society.  In 2014, on the occasion of being named the winner of the prestigious «Premio Cervantes» (Cervantes Prize), Goytisolo surprised his public yet again by commenting that El exiliado de aquí y allá was «perhaps unnecessary.» This article argues against Goytisolo’s assertion and demonstrates that El exiliado is indeed «necessary.»  It is a brilliant contribution to a rich satirical tradition; it completes the vision of the world that Goytisolo has elaborated throughout the years, and it marks the author’s farewell to fiction.