«Así empieza lo malo» de Javier Marías: rumor y fama, entre William Shakespeare y Geoffrey Chaucer

Abstract

Así empieza lo malo (2014) by Javier Marías mantains a constant intertexual dialogue with some of Shakespeare’s works (from Hamlet the author takes the title of his novel). In this article we will analyse other sources that will help us to study this novel from the «Rumour» and «Fame» concept’s point of view (both of Virgilian origin and re-elaborated by Geoffrey Chaucer). Besides, these concepts will allow us to evaluate this work as a fiction about the difficulty of «not knowing» and the impossibility to discern clearly what we know and what we have known in relation to (individual or collective) past time.

Keywords

• javier marías
• william shakespeare
• geoffrey chaucer
• rumor
• fama