Amanda Salvioni

Figurazioni del Demone del racconto in César Aira e dintorni

Cesar Aira has become a significant presence in contemporary Argentine literature, and not only in terms of influence on the younger generation of Latin American novelists. The figure of himself as Author has taken on the form of a character in his novels, which are by no means necessarily autobiographical. The Aira character may exist independently of him (Aira the Author), by appearing in the works of other writers and thereby transforming him into a true storybook hero. One of Aira’s latest books, Entre los indios (2012), focuses on the character of the Devil as the Narrator, a sort of mythological figure at the origins of narration itself. Is this an ironic inversion of Benjamins thesis, according to which the Storyteller is the figure in which the righteous man encounters himself? Anyhow, in Entre los indios the Devil seems to have lost his power and he’s just looking for a bit of reality…

El silencio de las imágenes. Las ilustraciones a Una excursión a los indios ranqueles

A Travel to the Ranquel Indians , by L.V. Mansilla, has been defined as the only text of Nineteenth Century Argentinian literature where the voices of natives clearly emerged. Nevertheless, in the history of its reception these voices were silenced by white society and the book was reduced to its anecdotal dimension. Paradoxically, the more the natives became mute, the more they were visible, converted into images, icons and mere representations. At the same time, more and more illustrations were included in the editions of the book. This essay aims to demonstrate how the illustrations were decisive in the repositioning and resemantization of the text.

Lo Peor ya ocurrió. Categorías del Postapocalipsis hispanoamericano: Alejandro Morales y Marcelo Cohen

The Apocalyptic Latin American Literature and its success at the turn of the millenium could be analysed by two principal points of view: as the consequence of postmodern thought, that criticizes the traditional isense of an endingi in terms of the collapse of all the others Grand Narratives; or as a sort of dissident discourse about globalization, in order to criticize the industrial development, the urbanization and the environmental damage in Latin America. This article focuses on both critical perspectives to examine the novel of the chicano writer Alejandro Morales, The Ragg Doll Plagues, and the nouvelle of the argentinian Marcelo Cohen, Impureza, like different examples of dystopian and postapocalyptic contemporary narrative.