Entre novela y teatro: el discurso de Mesonero Romanos sobre los artículos de costumbres en el marco de la transformación moderna del concepto de imitación

Abstract

Mesonero presented his articles relating them with bordering genres: the novel and the theatre. His discourse echoed the traditional Aristotelean opposition epic/tragedy —transformed in extension of novel and intensity of dramatic (re)presentation— and, at the same time, the innovating concept of imitation in the 18th century: thus, this paper takes into consideration the European proposals such as Diderot's —the novel as extensive drama— or the French panoramas of customs. Likewise, this article relates Mesonero to the wide ambition of contemporary novelists. A better comprehension is derived from this contextualization, not only of his aspirations, but also of the system of mimetic genres, of the process that unites the particular with the ambition of the whole, of the writer's intense outlook «realist» able to «read» the world.