From authorial denial to fictional prologue: the construction of the narrative pact in Spanish romances of chivalry

Abstract

The appearance of the topics of the discovered manuscript and the fake translation in the prologue of the romances of chivalry support a confused configuration of the narrative pact, through which the borders between the paratext and the text become diluted. This is provoked by the identification of the real author with the translator’s voice who tells the story at the immanent level of narration. Nevertheless, as the genre moves forward, some authors transgress the initial formulation of the fictional pact in their prologues through the exhibition of the fictionality of the historian’s and the translator’s voices, claiming to be distinguished from the real author. This process leads us from the denial of authorship to the fictional prologue.