Literary Futures: Crime Fiction, Global Capitalism and the History of the Present in Ricardo Piglia

Authors

  • Patrick Dove Indiana University

Keywords:

Latin American literature, Argentine novel, Ricardo Piglia, global capitalism, crime fiction

Abstract

This chapter narrates Ricardo Piglia’s intellectual and literary formation in the less than serene Argentine sixties and seventies. Arriving back in his home country from Paris where he had studied with Roland Barthes, Piglia seemed set to carry on the long tradition of transferring cosmopolitan knowledge to the Porteño capital. But then, the “Nixon Shock” happened, and the political and cultural ground on which Piglia and his peers stood underwent a seismic shift.  In an analysis of his recurring detective, Emilio Renzi, and the recent Nocturno blanco, this chapter examines how Piglia responded literarily by pulling from popular mediums, such as the noir novel, and pitting high political idealism against the lived reality of Argentine life.

Author Biography

Patrick Dove, Indiana University

Patrick Dove is Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at Indiana University. His research explores intersections between literature, philosophy and politics in Latin America; he has written on Peronism, political violence, and dictatorship and memory, among other topics. His first book, The Catastrophe of Modernity: Tragedy and the Nation in Latin American Literature (Bucknell UP, 2004), examines the use of the tragic as a tropos for literary considerations of modernity in Argentina (Borges and Piglia), Peru (César Vallejo) and Mexico (Rulfo). Currently he is completing a second book project, “Literature and Interregnum,” which looks at literary responses to neoliberalism, the demise of the national popular and the crisis of sovereignty in Argentina and Chile.

Published

2012-10-15

How to Cite

Dove, P. (2012). Literary Futures: Crime Fiction, Global Capitalism and the History of the Present in Ricardo Piglia. A Contracorriente: Una Revista De Estudios Latinoamericanos, 10(1), 18–36. Retrieved from https://acontracorriente.chass.ncsu.edu/index.php/acontracorriente/article/view/596

Issue

Section

Dossier: Poesía e imagen