SOURCE: "Aesthetic Impetus Versus Reality in Three Stories of José Donoso," Studies in Short Fiction, Vol. 17, No. 2, Spring, 1980, pp. 133-39.

In the following essay, Castillo-Feliú argues that Donoso 's artistic motivation in the stories "China, " "Santelices," and "La puerta cerrada" is not purely social, but that his greater concern in the stories is with the stifling effects of reality on the creative self

With the publication of his first story in Spanish titled "China" in 1954, José Donoso began a writing career which up to now includes a total of fourteen short stories, five novels and three novelle. Although all fourteen short stories appeared between 1954 and 1962, they provide a firm thematic foundation for the longer narratives which have been published between 1957 and 1978. The critic who is familiar with Donoso's prose fiction as a whole is aware that certain themes and character types are consistently treated by the author and...