The short fiction of Patricia Esteban Erlés: a reading through the prism of color

Abstract

The short stories of Patricia Esteban Erlés are saturated with color and exemplify this author’s constant experimentation with language. The purpose of this essay is to analyze how Erlés uses color in her short stories (“Verde arsénico”, Manderley en venta and Azul ruso) and to propose an array of examples of this method. We will show how Erlés manages to make the connections between form and content stronger thanks to the use of color, for example. We will also see color used as a tool that helps the narrator achieve depth within the limits of the short story. We will also show how Erlés uses particular historical colors as intertexts or how she further communicates taboo elements in her uncanny stories through allusions to colors. Erlés uses techniques provenient from photography such as the bokeh and shows a deep knowledge of the physical workings of color waves, and she uses this to make her stories even scarier and more verisimilar. Through a very specific use of verbal tones, Erlés creates a pluridimensional Gothic postmodern space that adapts decadent elements to a contemporary taste.