Our worldly work supplies us : "Vulgarizing" Heidegger through Argentinean literature
Part of : Γράμμα : περιοδικό θεωρίας και κριτικής ; Vol.13, No.1, 2005, pages 149-164
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149-164
Section Title:
"Centers", "peripheries", and literary politics
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Against the background of Gayatri Spivaks concept of "worlding," this article stages four encounters between a major representative of Argentinean literature (Echeverria, Sarmiento, Borges, Cortdzar) and a specific figuration of the Other" (Nomad, Oriental, Hyperborean, Monster). It is argued that the target texts, all belonging to the "mainstream" of the Argentinean tradition, achieve their literary effect in a surprisingly invariable manner. Whereas the foundational fictions of Echeverria and Sarmiento seem to solicit a Spivakian reading, the works of Borges and Cortdzar are commonly situated well beyond worldly concerns, in a context of postmodern, fantastic, subversive textual practices. However,when they are considered against the background of a national literature grounded on the politics of "worlding,” traditional ideological schemes shine through the more sophisticated textual surfaces of these modern masters. Finally, the question is raised whether Cortdzar's liminal unmasking of his own life-long fascination with monstrous otherness could be seen as a successful displacement of the traditional paradigm, or whether it amounts to yet another example of ideological aestheticizations of the "Other."
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