L’oralitat com a origen de la narrativa de Jesús Moncada

Jesús Moncada’s narrative presents an oral substrate in the form of rumours, gossip, grudges or disputes that take place in the little village of Mequinensa, where everyone knows each other. Following the theories of Eric Havelock, Paul Zumthor, and Walter J. Ong, which identify in orality the source of any literary expression, we analyse the evolution of Maquinensan loud secrets and hidden truths into stories and how the skilful writer is able to turn simple anecdotes into great narrative plots. In this paper, several examples from short stories and novels are analysed, and the differences in the role of orality in each genre are described and examined. Furthermore, the role of casual conversation as an oral start-point of Moncada’s stories is highlighted.