The Doubles of Fiction: Intratextuality and Specular Narrative in Rubi Guerra’s Cálidas ruinas

Abstract

This article analyzes the narrative complexity of Rubi Guerra’s Cálidas ruinas from different theoretical perspectives, with the aim of offering a critical reading that highlights both its literary dimensions and its technical resources. The research focuses on
intratextuality as a space where the subject’s voice is configured, highlighting the figure of Medina, a recurring character in the author’s work and a fundamental axis in this novel. It also examines intertextuality through references to emblematic literary works, showing how Cálidas ruinas dialogues with various traditions. The concept of mise en abyme, understood as a mirror narrative, is introduced as a mechanism for reflection on art and its representation, through which the novel not only tells its story, but also questions and comments on itself. This resource is contextualized with examples from other literary works that reinforce its relevance within the framework of Guerra’s narrative. Finally, the intertextual and meta-literary play that articulates the work is studied, as well as the mirror and metafictional effects that project a timeless narrative universe, in which memory,
fiction, and life experience intersect.