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OBU – C HILE
REVISTA INCLUSIONES ISSN 0719-4706 VOLUMEN 7 – NÚMERO ESPECIAL – OCTUBRE/DICIEMBRE 2020
Indización, Repositorios y Bases de Datos Académicas
Revista Inclusiones, se encuentra indizada en:
CATÁLOGO
PH. D. VALERIA HRABROVA / PH. D. LARISA ADONINA / PH. D. OLGA MEDVEDEVA / PH. D. OLGA SHUTOVA
BIBLIOTECA UNIVERSIDAD DE CONCEPCIÓN
ISSN 0719-4706 - Volumen 7 / Número Especial / Octubre – Diciembre 2020 pp. 344-352
PHILOLOGICAL CONCEPT OF THE NOVEL “THE SHADOW OF THE WIND”

BY CARLOS RUIZ ZAFON
Ph. D. Valeria Hrabrova

Sevastopol State University, Russian Federation
ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4215-8749
khrabrova.val@mail.ru
Ph. D. Larisa Аdonina
larsad@bk.ru
Ph. D. Olga Medvedeva
medvedeva_o1@mail.ru
Ph. D. Olga Shutova
o_dshinal@mail.ru
Fecha de Recepción: 17 de agosto de 2020 – Fecha Revisión: 23 de agosto de 2020

Fecha de Aceptación: 25 de septiembre 2020 – Fecha de Publicación: 01 de octubre de 2020
Abstract
The article exposes the philological concept of the modern postmodern novel “The Shadow of the
Wind” by Spanish writer C.R. Zafon, the most important aspects of which are shown through the
key topic and problematic field of the work, speculation about the fate of books in the modern world;
the image of the protagonist and his/her occupation, as well as through a key conceptual metaphor,
story line, plot structure, composition, and ideological content of the novel.
Keywords
Postmodern novel – Philological novel – Philological concept – Key conceptual metaphor
Para Citar este Artículo:

Hrabrova, Valeria; Adonina, Larisa; Medvedeva, Olga y Shutova, Olga. Philological concept of the
novel “The shadow of the wind” by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. Revista Inclusiones Vol: 7 num Especial
(2020): 344-352.
Licencia Creative Commons Atributtion Nom-Comercial 3.0 Unported

(CC BY-NC 3.0)
Licencia Internacional
Philological concept of the novel “The shadow of the wind” by Carlos Ruiz Zafon pág. 345
Introduction
Modernity is characterized by the upsurge in scholarly interest in the genre

transformations of the novel of the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries, which, according to
modern scholars, involves “an immanent genre paradox that does not lend itself to stable
systematization and structuring”1. Literary criticism cannot “predict all the plastic
possibilities of the novel,” as is stated by M.M. Bakhtin2, which highlights the task of timely
scientific comprehension of the genres and genre modifications of the novel that are
affirmed in literary practice – according to statistics, the most popular works of literary work
among readers.
Special genre modifications of the modern novel provoke a lively discussion among
scholars. Literary scholars of Russia and Western Europe, first of all, rate the so-called
philological novel among them – a genre the very “name” of which for many years has
been a synonym for dry bookishness, secondariness, labored style in the public literary
consciousness3. In this connection, until the end of the 20th century, the genre itself
existed and developed latently, according to V.I Novikov, “appearing in a quiet style of
dress of biographical investigation or memoirs, of either harlequin novel or adventure
novel, of either utilitarian book or educating book”4. Only by discovering “life-giving
philology” in the literary text5, the scholars realized that they were faced with a work of a
special – unnamed – genre that has now (over the past two decades) been recognized as
philological one. All in all, the actualization of scientific interest in philological novel dictates
the need for further research on its genre specificity based on the latest works of world
literature, primarily those to which particular attention is drawn by critics and the general
readership.
Discussion
This article aims to determine the philological concept of a contemporary post-

modern novel of the Spanish writer, C.R. Zafon, The Shadow of the Wind.
As evidenced by modern literary studies, postmodern novel is not susceptible of a

clear and unambiguous definition of the topic. However, in relation to the novel The
Shadow of the Wind the author decides on the topic of the work for the reader, “This is a
story about books”6. And he clarifies further, “About the evil books, about a person who
wrote them, about a character who leapt from the pages of the novel to commit these
books to the flames, about betrayal and about lost friendship. This is a story about love,
about hatred and about dreams living in the shadow of the wind.”7. However, immediately,
with his characteristic postmodern irony, C.R. Zafon makes allowance for deliberate
“lowering” of the claimed pathos in the theme of the novel, “This is what they write on the
covers of cheap novels”8.
1 V. A. Pesterev, “A Novel Prose of the West of the Turn of 20th and 21st Centuries”, Bulletin of
Perm University. Russian and Foreign Philology, Issue 3(15) (2011): 155.
2 N. M. Bakhtin, Epos and Novel (SPb.: Azbuka, 2000), 194.
3 V. I. Novikov, “Philological Novel. Old New Genre at the Turn of the Century”, Novy Mir, Issue 10
(1999): 193.
4 V. I. Novikov, Philological Novel. Old New Genre at the Turn… 194.
5 V. I. Novikov, Philological Novel. Old New Genre at the Turn… 194.
6 C. F. Zafon, The Shadow of the Wind (Moscow: ROSMAN-PRESS, 2006), 93.
7 C. F. Zafon, The Shadow of the Wind… 94.
And again, justifying his own formulation of the theme of the work, in the words of
his character Zafon argues, “In fact, this story is as real as the bread that was brought to
us at least three-days-old. And like all true stories, it begins and ends in the cemetery ...”9.
Thus, the theme of the work can be defined as a realistic (which is especially important for
the author) narrative about the fate of books in the modern world. It is logical to conclude
that the subject of the work is philological.
Within the framework of the declared subject, in the pages of the novel C.R. Zafon
gradually forms the problematic field of the work, successively poses to the reader the
most problematic issues of his concern: 1) What is the role of the book in human life?
2) What is the role of the book in the formation of the individual? 3) What is the fortune
(fate) of books in the modern (post-war) world? 4) What are the prospects for book
publishing in the 20th century? 5) How does a society that sends books to the “cemetery”
feel and develop? 6) How to save books from undeserved oblivion? 7) How to imbibe into
the minds of people a taste for reading? 8) What is the deep connection between the
author and the reader and how is it realized? 9) How to support a young talented writer,
torn by intrapersonal conflicts and reversals of fortune, in the modern world? All these
questions prove that the problematic field of the novel The Shadow of the Wind is
philological.
Zafon himself is convinced and seeks to convince the reader that the books have
souls, “Every spine, every book of those that you can see has a soul. In its soul there live
the souls of those who wrote the book, those who read it and let their mind wander about
it. Every time when a book comes into new hands, every time when someone glances over
its pages, its spirit grows and becomes stronger”10. Books are like people with their
individual spiritual world, experience, destiny. That is why book has every right to be a true
friend of man. The question of the role of the book in the formation of an individual
personality is consistently considered throughout the whole narrative – through the
example of the fortune of the protagonist, Daniel Sempere. At the same time, he arrives at
a more comprehensive decision in relation to the personality formation of another
character – Clara Barcelo, who asserts, “Before, reading was a duty for me, a kind of
tribute, which, for some unknown reason, must be paid to teachers and mentors. I did not
know how to derive enjoyment from the text, the discoveries taking place in the soul, a free
flight of the imagination, the beauty and mystery of fiction and language. The book of
Carax has revealed all this to me”11. At the same time, the books in the perception of
Carlos Zafon are such perfect and unique creations that, again quoting Clara Barcelo,
“Trying to retell the plot would be like describing the cathedral as a pile of stones topped
with a spire”12. The problem of undeserved oblivion as a sad destiny of books in the
modern (post-war) world is the most important in the novel The Shadow of the Wind. This
is confirmed from the very first lines by the introduction into the text of a key conceptual
metaphor of the novel the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, “From time immemorial, there
has been a cemetery of forgotten books in Barcelona – a mysterious labyrinth from the
bookshelves that is known to only a select few”13. For every booklover, “this is an intimate
place, a sanctuary”14.

10 C. F. Zafon, The Shadow of the Wind…13.
Even the view of the book cemetery, as befits a cemetery, is depressing, “Before
us a structure that resembled the ruins of an abandoned palace, where a museum of
echoes and shadows could be located, towered”15. And yet, despite this, that the books
are abandoned, forgotten by readers, the Cemetery of books is “a palace”, “a temple”,
“honeycombs filled with honey”16. Currently, in modern society, books are in serious
danger - “the danger of being destroyed, the danger of being forgotten”, because the
cemetery of forgotten books is “the last refuge” for them17. “Being securely sheltered in the
Labyrinth, they are waiting for their only reader – because by tradition, a person who first
gets to this unique library has the right to choose one book for themselves, having
previously promised to keep it and in no case to prevent from its disappearing”18.
The plot of the work is based on this tradition created by the philological thinking of
the author, and all story lines begin to unfold from its implementation by Sempere-father
and son.
According to the plot, the action of the literary work The Shadow of the Wind takes
place in Barcelona in 1945. The protagonist, Daniel Sempere, finds an interesting book in
the so-called “book cemetery”, which is shrouded in a curtain of mystery and intrigue.
Having vowed to keep his discovery – Julian Carax’s novel The Shadow of the Wind,
Daniel takes on some commitment that will have forever changed his life.
The boy’s impression gained from the novel has not faded over the years: getting
older, Daniel rekindles dreams of investigating the fortune of the author of The Shadow of
the Wind. The main character is amazed by the fact that what is on the paper in this book
is mystically translated into reality. It turns out that Daniel is not the only one who is
interested in information about Julian Carax. Daniel is tagged behind by police inspector
Fumero, known throughout Barcelona as a murderous police inspector and ruthless
executioner, as well as a mysterious stranger with a disfigured face, who has taken on the
name of one of the most sinister characters of The Shadow of the Wind (the devil), whose
life purpose is to destroy any memory about Carax and his books.
The plot of Zafon’s novel is non-linear but network, or, in the terminology of
postmodernism, rhizome. The events from the past are intertwined with the events from
the present, and those, in turn, are intertwined with the fictional events from a fictional
literary work. As a result, in structural terms, Zafon’s work is, as shown in Fig. 1, a
labyrinthine novel.

Figure 1
The Structure of the Labyrinthine Novel the Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Zafon
It is important to note that the very conceptual construct of the Cemetery of

Forgotten Books is also a labyrinth that refers the reader to the myth of the Minotaur.
Saving a book (hiding it in the cemetery of forgotten books from burning), Daniel acts
strictly according to the plot of the named myth (he makes nicks in the labyrinth).
In addition to an integral – philological – dimension, the work by Zafon has quite a

genre facets of a detective story and a gothic (or rather, neo-Gothic) novel, characteristic
of this genre, as was shown at the stage of theoretical research.
The detective storyline is based on a riddle formulated by the very character

(Daniel), “I want to know who Julian Carax is and where to find his other books, unless he
has written something else”19. Later, in the course of the literary investigation undertaken
by him, another mystery becomes actual: why does someone want to destroy all copies of
all the works by Carax, having made a bonfire of them?
For a long time, Daniel has been trying to solve up mysteries of The Shadow of the
Wind, now and then encountering weird strangers, beautiful ladies, exploring abandoned
estates and trying to understand inconceivable incidents related to the lives of people who
are overwhelmed by burning love and no less burning hatred. Mysterious villains from the
events of the Civil War in Spain real for the characters of the novel, as well as from the
very fictional novel that has radically changed the fortune of the young man, stand in the
road of Daniel. So, the main character becomes involved in a real confrontation, the gain
in which should be the answers to the questions nagging at him, related to the secret
book, which he has chosen at the Cemetery of Forgotten Books. An intricate detective
story is very diverse.
Thus, the main and good part of the novel is a rather gloomy detective story, and
the little things of life of Francoist Spain delineated scrupulously (as if photographed by the
author) attach gloominess to it. But the tempo of the narrative is manifestly slowing down,
and the detective gives way to a gothic love story in which the haunted mansion enters
into the picture, the smell of decay prevails and a tomb with the bones and remnants of a
young girl embracing a dead baby is discovered.
The analysis of the text allows for the assertion that the very detective story line
and the Gothic (neo-Gothic) motifs are charged with a thoroughly developed philological
problems of the novel. Its composition is also conductive to it: although the period of the
literary work is very long, only a small part of the novel is designated for modernity.
Everything else is the past, which is recalled through memories, letters, dreams, which the
narrator learns from other characters. By doing it deliberately, the author aims to eliminate
excessive pathos and melodramatics, which makes it possible to relate objectively the
terrible and vile phenomena without embellishing or understating them. This technique
affects the reader much more convincingly than vivid colorful descriptions.
People to be indifferent to books (such as the parents of Julian Carax – the Fortun
family) live by “having imposed silence upon their own hearts and souls, until, finally,
because of prolonged silence, they have forgotten all the words that express true feelings
and have turned into strangers living under the same roof – they share the same destiny
as many families living in this great city”20.
Society without a love of reading resembles, according to Zafon, “a menagerie”21.

The author speaks about the “potential” of such society through the lips of professor of
philology don Anacleto, “My God! There are not students but real monkeys in the
classrooms. Darwin was a naive dreamer, I assure you. Evolution nothing, for goodness
sake! I’ve got nine orangutans, none are sane”22.
In a modern society, where nobody reads, there is barbarism, people are getting
stupid. As Fermin (a friend of Daniel, a character who also translates the author’s
convictions) says, “Evil implies moral determinism, intention, and a certain amount of
mental activity. Fools and barbarians don’t ever engross in thought or contemplation. They
act in obedience to their instincts, like animals in the barnyard, convinced that they do
good, that they are always right about everything, being proud that they are always ready
– I apologize – to own anyone who is at least somewhat different from them, whether in
color skin, religion, language, nationality, or a kind of leisure. What our world really needs
for is more true villains and less savage half-animals in it”23.
In such – barbarously decaying – society, second-hand booksellers and reading

bibliophiles are “a community of the outcast”24 and even – according to Zafon’s figurative
definition – “a secret fraternity – of alchemists, participants in a covert plot being weaved
behind the scenes of an unsuspecting world”25.

It is precisely these “outcasts” who are to conceive the whole depth of the tragedy
of “assumption” of books that still did not find their readers, which Zafon poetically writes
about, presenting his own views via Daniel’s reflections, “Walking in the shadows past the
endless rows of books, I could not get rid of sadness and annoyance. The thought that if I
discovered the whole Universe in an unknown book among the infinity of this necropolis,
tens of thousands of others would remain unread by anyone, forgotten forever haunted
me”26.
According to the scholars, an eventful content of the postmodern novel always

exerts to give a certain moral lesson for the reader. In this regard, the “lesson” of Carlos
Zafon is simple: everyone should read, thereby delivering books from “captivity of
oblivion”, reviving them, taking responsibility for their fortunes (symbolically accepting this
mission from the author).
Subtlely describing the emotional and spiritual state of reading, Zafon invites the
reader to immerse in the world reflected by works of art as often as possible. Reading is
the path of spiritual growth for a person, their salvation from the captivity of barbaric
society. “Books are like mirrors: they only reflect what is in your soul,” thinks Zafon27. The
deeper the reader plunges into the book, the more they develop themselves, “A written
word can make my existence full, as if to recover my lost sight”28.
At the same time, Zafon sees a special potential for the “start” of spiritual growth
precisely in the first deeply perceived book, arguing, “There is hardly anything that can
exert such an influence on the reader as the first book that paved the way towards his/her
heart. Those first images, the echo of words, that seem to us, remained far in the past,
have been accompanying us all our lives. In our memory, they are erecting a palace in
which – no matter how many books we have read later, no matter how many worlds we
have discovered, no matter how much we have learnt and forgotten, we will inevitably
have to return”29. Such author’s decision attaches a special value to the tradition of
“introducing the lad” into the “temple” (The Cemetery of Forgotten Books), that is, into the
old rich library, as a modern reader interprets the metaphor. This tradition can and should
be fixed in the modern families of Spain (and all other countries where readers of the novel
come from). It is precisely this desire of the author that the ring tracking of the whole work
indicates in the same situation – the first coming of the father and his growing (ten-year-
old) son to the Cemetery of forgotten books.
The ideological content of the novel The Shadow of the Wind is not limited to
solving the problem of “salvation” of the literary “treasures” of civilization forgotten by
mankind. Zafon forms not only the reader but the very writer. First of all, he claims that in
the presence of a talent for writing one should create in any circumstances.
The mission of Daniel in the fate of writer Carax is to give him the symbolic “Hugo’s
pen”, with which he dreamed of writing works by himself, but did not find enough talent,
experience, or other resources for himself. The pen is for very Julian. There is an
“exchange of values” at the end of the novel: the writer receives the pen of his great
predecessor intended for him, and the reader gains the award – “a new book with a

magical aroma”30. So, according to Zafon, it is precisely a thoughtful, competent, grateful

reader who is able to support the writer’s fate, which is torn by intrapersonal conflicts and
varieties of the author’s fortune in the modern world, to preserve or even reanimate their
craving for literary creativity, the ability to create talented works.
Of particular importance in the system of ideas of Carlos Zafon, represented by him

throughout the pages of the novel The Shadow of the Wind, is the conviction that not
everyone is destined to become an outstanding writer, but everyone can become a worthy
(attentive, thoughtful, grateful, responsible) reader. In the final of the work, Zafon, in words
of his character, declares, “The art of reading is gradually dying, this is a purely personal
act and book is a mirror in which we see what we have in the soul, putting our mind and
soul into reading, and these virtues are becoming less common.
Every month we get a lot of offers to sell our [book] shop, they want to open a store
of TVs, clothes or shoes in its place. But we can leave the house heels foremost”31. Such
is the life credo of the bibliophile.
The main character does not become a writer, although all the plot conflicts
encourage him to this. According to Zafon, the world is not equal to the text – it is more
complicated and interesting. And in light of this, the choice made by the characters –
Julian Carax (the writer) and Daniel Sempere (the reader and second-hand book player) –
at the end of the book, is quite logical.
Conclusion
On the whole, the analysis makes it possible to characterize the concept of Carlos
Zafon’s novel The Shadow of the Wind as philological one based on the specifics of the
theme of the work, its problematic field, key conceptual metaphor, storyline, plot structure,
composition, and ideological content.
Zafon’s novel is a new genre modification of the philological novel – a labyrinthine

novel that encompasses the interweaving and interaction of events, meanings, ideas of the
fictional novel The Shadow of the Wind, the fortunes of its author Julian Carax and the
reader (book lover and hereditary second-hand book player), Daniel Sempere, as well as
the events of the literary life of Spain in relation to the aspect of birth and “assumption” of
works of the past and the present in the Cemetery of Forgotten Books (in the old library of
Barcelona).
References
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Novikov, V. I. “Philological Novel. Old New Genre at the Turn of the Century”. Novy Mir,
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Pesterev, V. A. “A Novel Prose of the West of the Turn of 20th and 21st Centuries”.
Bulletin of Perm University. Russian and Foreign Philology, Issue 3(15) (2011): 155-166

Zafon, C. R. The Shadow of the Wind. Moscow: ROSMAN-PRESS. 2006.
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CUERPO DIRECTIVO Mg.

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BIBLIOTECA UNIVERSIDAD DE CONCEPCIÓN

PHILOLOGICAL CONCEPT OF THE NOVEL “THE SHADOW OF THE WIND”

Ph. D. Valeria Hrabrova

Fecha de Recepción: 17 de agosto de 2020 – Fecha Revisión: 23 de agosto de 2020

Postmodern novel – Philological novel – Philological concept – Key conceptual metaphor

Para Citar este Artículo:

Licencia Creative Commons Atributtion Nom-Comercial 3.0 Unported

Modernity is characterized by the upsurge in scholarly interest in the genre

This article aims to determine the philological concept of a contemporary post-

As evidenced by modern literary studies, postmodern novel is not susceptible of a

9 C. F. Zafon, The Shadow of the Wind… 94.

15 C. F. Zafon, The Shadow of the Wind… 6.

It is important to note that the very conceptual construct of the Cemetery of

In addition to an integral – philological – dimension, the work by Zafon has quite a

The detective storyline is based on a riddle formulated by the very character

19 C. F. Zafon, The Shadow of the Wind… 9.

Society without a love of reading resembles, according to Zafon, “a menagerie”21.

In such – barbarously decaying – society, second-hand booksellers and reading

20 C. F. Zafon, The Shadow of the Wind… 223.

According to the scholars, an eventful content of the postmodern novel always

26 C. F. Zafon, The Shadow of the Wind… 19.

magical aroma”30. So, according to Zafon, it is precisely a thoughtful, competent, grateful

Of particular importance in the system of ideas of Carlos Zafon, represented by him

Zafon’s novel is a new genre modification of the philological novel – a labyrinthine

Bakhtin, М. М. Epos and Novel. SPb.: Azbuka. 2000.

30 C. F. Zafon, The Shadow of the Wind… 632.

Zafon, C. R. The Shadow of the Wind. Moscow: ROSMAN-PRESS. 2006.

Las opiniones, análisis y conclusiones del autor son de su responsabilidad

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