Proximization and literature: Marquez’s “a very old man with enormous wings”

Abstract

Abstract This paper applies the politics-based theory of Discourse Space to a literary text in order to investigate its flexibility and possible contribution to literary interpretation. As a case study, Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s short story, “A very old man with enormous wings” has been selected; this story most obviously evolves out of dichotomies on both inter- and intra-character levels. The theory’s proximization model is the main core of the analysis based on which the role of the deictic centre in positioning the story’s entities is accentuated. The analysis shows that despite its advantages, the proximization model needs to be expanded in order to accommodate the variety of deictic centres which any literary text, unlike political discourse, has. A comparison between Discourse Space Theory and narratology shows the inadequate attention the latter assigns to the axiological and evaluative role of the deictic centre in the story.