¿Modas o modelos? El dandi en El extraño y La raza de Caín de Carlos Reyles

Abstract

In “Cartas americanas,” the Spanish writer and literary critic Juan Valera complained about what he considered the “desaforado entusiasmo por la última moda de París” in Spanish-American writers. In particular, he disapproved Carlos Reyles’s central character in his work El extraño, which he considered a copy of French heroes. In “¿Modas o modelos?, el dandi en El extraño y La raza de Caín de Carlos Reyles,” I study Reyles’ fiction and establish that, contrary to Valera’s perception, the dandy in Reyle’s works is not a copy, but rather a genuine representation of a Spanish-American type whose formulation allows Reyles to portray an accurate representation of fin de siècle Uruguayan society.