SOURCE: "The Narrator as Creator and Critic in The Invention of Morel " in Latin American Literary Review, Vol. VII, No. 14, Spring-Summer, 1979, pp. 45-51.

Snook is an American educator, author, and critic. In the following essay, she discusses aesthetic theory in The Invention of Morel.

Many of the first person narrators of Bioy Casares' fantastic fiction are writers, men whose literary interests vary from poetry to journalism. This literary background, often important in the characterization of the narrators, usually plays another vital role in the thematic development of the work. It provides the perfect opportunity, [according to Ofelia Kovacci in her biography, Adolfo Bioy Casares (1963)], for presenting theories related to creativity and writing, both recurrent themes in Bioy Casares' prose.

This use of the narrator-writer is especially significant in The Invention of Morel, which deals with substantially more than a scientist's attempts to gain immortality through a photographic device...