Dobles’s Una burbuja en el limbo: Colonialism and The Dissident Artist

One of the most outspoken critics of political and economic abuses by the metropolis is award winning Costa Rican novelist Fabián Dobles (1918–1997). Generally considered to be a literary realist, Dobles both reflected and problematized the situation of the rural “campesino.” His third novel, Una burbuja en el limbo (1946), however, is very different from his earlier work. Instead of the broad social indictment to which he had accustomed his public, Dobles narrows his focus to explore the psychology of human subjectivity and individual difference. What little critical study has been made of this novel sees the main character, Ignacio Ríos Galarza, as a symbol of the eternal adolescent, the “rebel without a cause,” the teenager who constantly challenges the authority of the adult world for the sake of challenge alone. While the psychological aspects of this novel are intriguing, my analysis explores the political and social contexts of the novel. I argue that the story of Ignacio Ríos, his family, and his pueblo [town] (significantly the colonial town of Heredia) may be understood as an allegory of the challenges and limitations imposed by colonial ideology and discourse on the native artist.