CAVEAT EMPTOR: CONSUMER CULTURE AND THE POST-DICTATORSHIP NUEVAS NARRATIVAS OF ARGENTLNA, CHILE AND SPAIN Juliana Starkman A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fùlfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Comparative Literary Studies Car let on University Ottawa, Ontario 26 June 2000 Q Copyright 2000, Juliana Starkmm National Library Bibliothèque nationale du Canada Acquisitions and Acquisitions et Bibliographie Services services bibliographiques 395 Wellington Street 395. rue Wellington OttawaON KlAON4 Ottawa ON KIA ON4 Canada Canada The author has granted a non- L'auteur a accordé une licence non exclusive licence dowing the exclusive pemettant à la National Library of Canada to Bibliotheque nationale du Canada de reproduce, loan, distn-bute or sell reproduire, prêter, distribuer ou copies of this thesis in microfom, vendre des copies de cette thèse sous paper or electronic formats. la forme de microfiche/^ de reproduction sur papier ou sur format électronique. The author retains ownership of the L'auteur conserve la propriété du copyright in this thesis. Neither the droit d'auteur qui protège cette thèse. thesis nor substantial extracts f?om it Ni la thèse ni des extraits substântiek may be priuted or otherwise de celle-ci ne doivent être impnimés reproduced without the author' s ou autrement reproduits sans son permission. autorisation. Abstract CAVEAT EMPTOR: CONSUMER CULTURE A.THE POST- DICTATORSHIP NUEVAS NARRATNAS OF ARGENTNA.. CHILE AND SPAIN Author: Juliana Starkman Degree:PhD Year: 2000 Institution: Carleton University Supervisor: J.L Urbina This dissertation is a study of the Nueva narrativa literature of Argentins, Chile and Spain, and its links to the discourses of late 20th century globaiized consumer culture. The novels and short stories of young writers including Rodrigo Fresh, Alberto Fuguet and José hgelMafias represent a genre which emerged dong with, or following, the political and social transition fiom dictatorships to democracies in the above countries. The narratives choose and develop some of the more powefil discourses of the period, creating fictional worlds that emphasize the role of consumption in shaping Society, beginning with the role of the individual. The question is raised; what is one's identity beyond the labels s/he wears? National identity is also renegotiated, and even denied, in keeping with a strong desire to be globalized. This literature is emphaticdly urban and middle class, inhabiting a privileged cultural space shared with the American literature of writers like Brett Easton Ellis and Jay Mchemey. It is a literature of surplus where malaise is a symptorn which is considered a fair exchange for the pleasures expenenced. The protagonists of these narratives lack for nothing except perhaps something or someone to believe in. Acknowledgements I would fmt like t~ acknowledge the role played by the elegant waiters of downtown Buenos Aires, Their well-timed infusions of coEee and sandwiches de niiga (tostados) were invaluable. Also, the fellows at Libreria Gandhi who let me take notes from al1 the books 1 could not afTord. Cristina Civale and Prof. Mario Margulis provided generous critical input. Rodrigo Fres5.n allowed me to bombard him with frantic e-mails and reminded me that the texts beiong to the reader. For Gaston, Isis, Cristian, Consuelo, Ion and Lilia and everybody who filled me with food, music and critical, but always unconditional, encouragement. For Vildana who never lets me get away with anything and Dimitrije who lets me get away with everything. For Gregorio and Lucy, whose discerning computer ate the third chapter. For Abba and Mom who fond me on the doorstep again with more books than when 1 Ieft, and opened the door anyway. A great part of this work was born of loud discussions in the kitchens, cIassrooms and offices of Prof. José Leandro Urbina. Mil gracias to my teacher, mentor and friend who reminded me of the value of dissonance- For my colleagues and professors who went through the wars with me. And for my Joaquin; proud instigator of much of my madness and a devil's advocate incarnate who reads out loud. SOSun sentimiento. TabIe of Contents Introduction: Context ........................................................................ 1 The Planeta Boys .................. - ................................................. 10 Selection and Reception of the Texîs............................................. 21 Speaking Worlds ................................................................. .. .. 26 Chapter One: Consuming the Intertext ..................................................... 36 Reviving the Body................................................................... 61 Chapter Two: A Time and Place In.Between .............................................. 84 Nostalgia: Mediating the Banal .. - .................................................. 92 Crossing Thresholds .................................................................. 100 Inhabiting the Parenthesis............................................................ 113 Chapter Three: The Identity Process; A Skeptical View ................................. 129 The City as Seen From Above ... ,.................................................. 135 Conceiving the Consumer ........................................................... 144 An Aesthetic of Survival ............................................................ 149 Music as a Conductor of Identity- .............. .. ............... ... ................ 161 Chapter Four: Apathy and Activism Identeing the Enemy: An Exercise in Frustration............................ 174 A Hktory of Non-Action- ......................................................... 186 The Road Less Traveled-......................................................... 199 Places of Resistance............................................................... 208 Conclusion .................................................................................. 212 Works Cited ................................................................................ 226 Introduction Context Muy despacito/sobre un abismo/ volare -Los Piojos Dicen la juventud no tienel para gobernar experiencia suficiente/ menos mal que nunca la tenga.1 experiencia de mentir "Los SaIieris de Charly" Leon Gieco Traditionally, one of the more problematic aspects of textual analysis Iies in determining the relation of the text to society. Attempts to alternately claim total discursive independence for the text, or to suggest that the text may be read as a faithful mirror of "reality", lose force in that they lack the perspective derived from contextualization'. To situate a text after al1 also implies a reading through the poetics of the genre and its relation with other literary works. Although the reader rnay gain valuable critical insight into the generic or historic standing of a given text in relation to other, similar works, the location of the same text with respect to non-Iiterary discourses presents more intricate chalIenges. Part of this difficulty Iies in the inability of fictional texts to present an authoritatively exclusive portrait of a particular time and place, mediating as they do between the pstand the present. Tzvetan Todorov, in the article 1 Some schools of literary criticism including Formalism have traditionally excluded context as a legitirnate source of discussion- The text, according to this belief, was to be studied and analysed as an independant entity. The possible value of social or histon'cat sources and influences were deemed irretevant, or extraneou to the critique. "La lectura como construcci6n2", pointed out the dificulties which inevitably anse when the reader attempts to seek a representation of reality in a fictional text. "S6lo sometiendo al texto a un tipo particular de lectura construimos, desde nuestra lectu~un mundo imaginario. Las novelas no imitan la realidad; la crean" (Jofie 57). Texts do however appropriate, adapt and often subvert many of society's dominant discourses with varyi-ng degrees of subtlety, thus giving a view of selected corners of the world that the readers activate from their cultural experience. The cultural contribution of the text lies in its ability to emplot, disseminate and stimulate social discourses. Since fiction is not limited to superficial portrayals of society's discourses, texts may also suggest imaginary alternatives for the problems which they foreground. The text possesses the capacity to simuitaneousIy reproduce and critique; through this imbalance worlds are configured- It is, therefore, important for the reader to be aware of the extra-textual world whose discounes are adapted and addressed, in order to bring the greatest quantity of thematic and lexical farniliarity possible to hisher reading experience. The corpus of fictional work which will be studied in this dissertation emerges from within societies where globalkation has developed into the dominant political and cultural process of the past twenty years. As such, its rise is inseparable from the discursive experiences of the writers and readers of the Nueva nawativa, and is re- created within the stories and novels as the system within which the characters circulate. Globalization itself is supposedly anchored in the dismantling of traditional national barriers and the free circuiation of goods and ideas. In a more general sense, it involves 2 Originally published in French in Poétique 24 (1 975): 41 7-425.