The Ecological Derivation of the Myth of Orpheus in Irene Solà's "Canto yo y la montaña baila"

Abstract

This article proposes an interpretation of Irene Solà’s Canto yo y la montaña baila based on the myth of Orpheus. The text defends that instead of updating the myth's plot to the present context, the novel constructs its multiple narrative voices by using the figure of Orpheus as the model author. The chant as Orphic incantamentum is assimilated as an element of the fictional pact of the work to make credible and acceptable the multiple non-human narrators that compose the novel's diegetic universe. However, unlike the classical myth, the Orphic song does not subjugate the will and agency of the animals, placing them at the service of the poet, but allows them to assume a voice of their own and give an account of their experience of the world. It is in this sense that we argue that it is an ecological derivation of the myth of Orpheus, since the enchantment that the Orphic song brings about reveals the uniqueness of each of the beings that make up the earth, as well as the interdependencies that exist between them and that make up the higher organism called Gaia.