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View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Cork Open Research Archive Title Aesthetic campaigns and counter-campaigns. Jorge Luis Borges and a century of the Argentine detective story (1877-1977) Author(s) Barrett, Eoin George Publication date 2013 Original citation Barrett, E. G. 2013. Aesthetic campaigns and counter-campaigns. Jorge Luis Borges and a century of the Argentine detective story (1877-1977). PhD Thesis, University College Cork. Type of publication Doctoral thesis Rights © 2013, Eoin G. Barrett. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ Embargo information No embargo required Item downloaded http://hdl.handle.net/10468/1959 from Downloaded on 2017-02-12T10:30:38Z Aesthetic Campaigns and Counter-Campaigns. Jorge Luis Borges and a Century of the Argentine Detective Story (1877-1977) Eoin George Barrett BA, MA Doctor of Philosophy Supervisor: Professor Nuala Finnegan Head of Department: Dr. Helena Buffery Department of Hispanic Studies University College Cork October, 2013 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page number TITLE PAGE……………………………………………………………….. 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS ………………………………………………….. 2 DECLARATION …………………………………………………………… 5 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ……………………………………………….. 6 DEDICATION ……………………………………………………………… 7 INTRODUCTION: …………………………………………………………. 9 Introduction ………………………………………………………………….. 9 Objectives and Scope ………………………………………………………... 9 Location of Project …………………………………………………………... 13 Creating the Reader of the Argentine Detective Story ………………………. 25 Conclusion and Overview of Dissertation …………………………………... 35 CHAPTER ONE: The Origins and Early Development of Crime Fiction 38 Introduction ………………………………………………………………….. 38 Foundational Texts …………………………………………………………... 38 The Emergence of The Detective ……………………………………………. 46 The ‘Golden Age’ of Detective Fiction ……………………………………… 57 The American Hard-Boiled School ………………………………………….. 62 Conclusion …………………………………………………………………… 73 2 CHAPTER TWO: The Development of an Argentine Crime Fiction 75 Tradition (1877-1949) ……………………………………………………… Introduction ………………………………………………………………….. 75 La huella del crimen …………………………………………………………. 79 ‘El botón del calzoncillo’ ……………………………………………………. 86 The ‘aesthetic campaign’ of Borges …………………………………………. 93 El séptimo círculo ……………………………………………………………. 103 No Country for Hard Men? ………………………………………………….. 108 CHAPTER THREE: The Vea y Lea Years (1949-1964) …………………. 114 Introduction ………………………………………………………………….. 114 The 1949 Vea y Lea/ Emecé Concurso de Cuentos Policiales …………..…. 114 The ‘aesthetic counter-campaign’ of Rodolfo Walsh ……………………….. 123 Operación masacre: A New Kind of Criminal Investigation ………………. 145 Interpreting the Signs in Adolfo Pérez Zelaschi’s ‘Las señales’..................... 161 The comisario argentino …………………………………………………….. 179 Has Borges gone Soft on the Hard-Boiled style? ……………………………. 188 Conclusion …………………………………………………………………… 192 CHAPTER FOUR: Renovation and Rupture from ‘La bala cansada’ to La mala guita ……………………………………………………………….. 193 Introduction ………………………………………………………………….. 193 Enrique Anderson Imbert: ‘La bala cansada’ (1961) ………………………... 193 Ricardo Piglia and ‘la revancha de los duros’ ……………………………..... 205 Primer Certamen Latinoamericano de Cuentos Policiales (1975) ………… 219 Eduardo Goligorsky: ‘Orden jerárquico’ ……………………………………. 230 3 Pablo Leonardo: La mala guita (1976) ……………………………………… 241 The Femme Fatale …………………………………………………………... 250 Theoretical Justifications ……………………………………………………. 258 The Game is Afoot …………………………………………………………... 262 The Hard-Boiled Problem …………………………………………………… 270 Conclusion …………………………………………………………………… 272 CONCLUSIONS, SUMMARY, AND RECOMMENDATIONS ………... 274 Introduction ………………………………………………………………….. 274 Summary of Study Approach ……………………………………………….. 275 The Central Concluding Argument: The Return of the Classics ……………. 276 Recent Generic Tendencies ………………………………………………….. 278 Summary Contribution of this Study and Recommendations for Future 280 Research ……………………………………………………………………... Final Observation ………………………………………………………….. 283 BIBLIOGRAPHY ………………………………………………………….. 284 4 DECLARATION This dissertation is submitted to the Department of Hispanic Studies, University College Cork, in fulfilment of the requirements for the award of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. It is my own work and has not been submitted for another degree, either at University College Cork, or elsewhere. Signed: ______________________________ Eoin Barrett 5 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to sincerely thank my parents, Eve and Jimmy, for the love and support they have given so generously throughout what has been an arduous, lengthy and complicated journey. The belief they showed in me was far greater than that which I had in myself. I am very much relieved that their faith has been justified. I would like to thank my brothers, Michael and Rory, and Michael’s wife Susie, who have been a fantastic source of support and friendship, my aunts Ursula and Deirdre, my uncle John and aunt Kate and my cousins Bek, Katherine and Jo and their families, who have also been steadfast in their interest and encouragement. Ralph Waldo Emerson once said that a friend may well be reckoned the masterpiece of nature. In this regard I am surrounded by so many works of art that I am considering opening my own gallery. The catalogue for this exhibition would include Colin, Donal, Edmund, Edwin, Eoin, Eric, Fergus, Gonz, Kieran, Killian, Luke, Mick, Owen, Peter, Paddy, Rubén, Shane, Xan and Zalo. Thanks to Tony McCarthy, Paul Collins, Joyce and John Kerins, and Kieran and Mairead O’Shea. Special thanks also to Gail, Gawain, Peter, Grace and Auntie Kitty. And to Helen Keane for the coffee-maker! The support I have received from the staff of the Department of Hispanic Studies at UCC has been overwhelming. I am unequal to the task of expressing my gratitude for their help, guidance, friendship and good humour, and their limitless reserves of tolerance and understanding over the years. This spirit is exemplified and embodied by my inspirational supervisor, Professor Nuala Finnegan, who has taught me so much, not only through the supervision of my dissertation, but also by her example as a scholar and as a person. Nuala, you have my eternal gratitude and admiration. I could not have done this without you. Thank you so much. Thanks to Professor David Mackenzie for encouraging me to pursue doctoral studies in the department, and also Professor Terry O’Reilly and Dr Anne Walsh, who were always ready with a kind word. I am extremely grateful for the help I received from Dr Martín Veiga and Mr Stephen Boyd, who provided invaluable and timely assistance in orienting my project at a time when I had the gravest doubts as to its viability and direction. I would like to express my gratitude to Dr Helena Buffery for her understanding and encouragement since her arrival to UCC, and also to Kay Doyle and Sinead Watkins, who have always been so kind and helpful. I have enjoyed the friendship of many of my fellow scholars in Hispanic Studies at some extremely auspicious moments. I had the good fortune to make the acquaintance of Sarah Roger during my stay in Buenos Aires. At the Borges Postgraduate Colloquium in Oxford in 2009, I had the opportunity to share the company and the ideas of fellow Borgesians Mariana Casale O’Ryan, Eamon McCarthy, Ricki O’Rawe and Sarah Puello Alfonso, an experience that provided a vital stimulus to my research. I am extremely grateful for the friendship of Lorraine Kelly over so many years. Thank you especially for your constant encouragement, and for introducing me to a certain raven-haired Galwegian beauty. Elaine, I love and admire you completely. Thank you for believing in me and for all your help since we met. You are the measure of my dreams. 6 This thesis is dedicated to the memory of Seamus Coughlan, a great Corkman, a soldier, a gentleman and a gentle man, who gave regular tutorials on the themes of friendship, love and humour for the duration of our acquaintance. Seamus, boy, I give you ‘The Book of Kells’. 7 El género policial, como todos los géneros, vive de la continua y delicada infracción de sus leyes. Jorge Luis Borges1 1Jorge Luis Borges, Obras completas Vol. IV (Buenos Aires: Emecé, 2007. 5th edn.), p. 440. 8 Introduction Introduction There are three sections in this, my introductory chapter. Firstly, the objectives of my project are set out, and its scope is examined. The second section locates the project. Section three describes the reading method employed in this study, which effectively involves the creation of a conceptual reader of the Argentine detective story. Finally, in the concluding section, an overview of the dissertation is provided. Objectives and Scope of Project The crime genre has enjoyed a long and notable history in Argentina, dating from the publication of Luis V. Varela’s novel La huella del crimen in 1877 and continuing to the present day. In the words of Amelia Simpson, ‘The River Plate is the source of the earliest as well as the most detective fiction in Latin America. Nowhere else does the genre receive so much attention, nor do native works achieve such distinction’.2 The crime genre occupies a central place in the country’s literary tradition, and numbers among its enthusiasts and adherents some of the most illustrious and accomplished figures in Argentine letters. The pervasive, perhaps even oppressive, presence of the detective genre in this national context has been such that, according to Jorge Lafforgue, ‘Ningún otro género, como el policial, ha estructurado