Figurations of Islandness in Argentine Culture and Literature: Macedonio Fernández, Leopoldo Marechal, and César Aira

This article explores islandness in the River Plate imaginary. Two modern foundational “island texts” – Thomas More’s _Utopia_ and Daniel Defoe’s _Robinson Crusoe_ – have exerted a formative influence on the Spanish-American colonial imagination, an influence inflected by the particular historical e...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Norman Cheadle
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Island Studies Journal 2009-11-01
Series:Island Studies Journal
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.24043/isj.235
Description
Summary:This article explores islandness in the River Plate imaginary. Two modern foundational “island texts” – Thomas More’s _Utopia_ and Daniel Defoe’s _Robinson Crusoe_ – have exerted a formative influence on the Spanish-American colonial imagination, an influence inflected by the particular historical experience of the River Plate region and its dominant city, Buenos Aires. The figuration of islandness is examined in three twentieth-century Argentine novels by Macedonio Fernández, Leopoldo Marechal, and César Aira. The article finds both continuity and evolution in the images of islandness in these novels.
ISSN:1715-2593