Topoiesis: Procesos de espacialización en la literatura (crítica y metodología)

ABSTRACT

Space in literary texts has been widely studied but poorly systematized. There is no valid method of analysis that gives space a critical meaning. For instance, critics have eluded the fact that time and space cannot be considered separately. On the other hand, they have used concepts or methods from disciplines aside literature such as anthropology, biology, psychology, or geography that do not help clarify the meaning or signification of a literary text. We begin this article by giving a review of the main theoretical and critical positions regarding space in literature from the second half of the twentieth century. We do this in order to evaluate the main results those studies have attained. Later on, we propose a methodology that may clarify the significance of space in a literary text. The concept topoiesis (as far as we know, it has not been used in the humanities) represents for us a key word. It helps us to distinguish one main process where space can turn from a signification practice to the production of meaning in a literary text.     

La prudencia de Cortés: teoría política y práctica retórica en la Historia de la conquista de México de Antonio de Solís

The Historia de la conquista de México, published by Antonio de Solís in 1684, and later extensively reissued and translated, has been praised for the ‘elegance’ and ‘sweetness’ of its style. From very early on these qualities made the Historia to be read as a prose model worthy of imitation. Different scholars have studied Solís's sources and the way he manipulated them on the one hand, and, on the other, the extent of the reliability of his account. However, very little has been said about the actual writing practices of the Historia in the context of contemporary historiographical theories, or the author's own ideas about history or politics. This paper analyzes how some of these rhetorical techniques (I particularly focus on the use of oratio figurata, sententia, and epiphoneme) gave shape to Solís's political ideas, in particular the concept of prudence.     

Pornoprecariedad: crisis biopolítica,trabajo y régimen visual en Hermosa juventud (Jaime Rosales, 2014)

ABSTRACT

Entendiendo por “pornoprecariedad” el entramado visual que explota y consume como forma de entretenimiento la exhibición de las nuevas formas de miseria en las que se sostiene y que reproduce el neoliberalismo, en este artículo se analiza cómo el largometraje de ficción Hermosa juventud (2014), de Jaime Rosales, cuestiona constructos sobre los que se asienta dicho acercamiento mediático dominante a la precariedad. Relacionar críticamente precariedad con pornografía hace emerger problemáticas relacionadas con la representación visual, la recepción de esta y la dimensión ética de ambas, planteando interrogantes acerca de la responsabilidad, el mirar o las relaciones de género y poder. El film de Rosales dialoga con tradiciones artísticas y reflexivas que trabajan con desarrollos socioeconómicos de largo alcance que la crisis biopolítica patente especialmente desde 2008 en la Europa meridional ha sacado a la luz.     

Reflexiones en torno al teatro en la producción crítica de Alberdi y Sarmiento

This article examines the important role played by Juan B. Alberdi's and Domingo F. Sarmiento's literary articles in advancing the modern nationalist discourse in Argentina. I argue that in their performance reviews, these two men of letters advocated for the formation of a national theater in an effort to promote a national cultural expression.     

María Rosa Lida,Borges y una cita inexistente de Lucrecio: filología y auctoritas

In 1952, María Rosa Lida de Malkiel published a work in Sur magazine about the literary sources of Jorge Luis Borges. In the second paragraph of that work she relates a passage from one of the Argentine's stories with a verse from the Aeneid and, later on, two verses of the poem “Las calles” with some others from Lucretius' work De rerum natura. In both cases, she cites the number of the book and verse of the Latin poets. The one referring to Virgil is correct; however, Lucretius' verses are apocryphal. In this work, I analyze the reasons the eminent philologist could have had to carry out tremendous artifice and, at the same time, the objective and personal qualms that, during the revision, produced the auctoritas of her figure.