The Tragedy of a Man Who Cursed: On Leonardo Padura's The Novel of My Life (2002)

This article explores how in The Novel of My Life Heredia’s tragedy -that is forced exile- stems from a dynamics between colonialism and culture Cuba. At the same time, this reveals transatlantic concatenations imperial politics Spain colonial character nineteenth-century tragedy, I argue, depicted Padura’s novel as consequence socio-historical reality which enlightened, or liberal, ideas about independence where rather “misplaced ideas” Cuba 1820s. In other words, some these European liberal became when they were displaced first to Spanish context, subsequently context incongruences political structures dynastic state enlightened reflected themselves on