The Polyphonic Machine: Capitalism, Political Violence, and Resistance in Contemporary Argentine Literature

by Niall H. D. Geraghty

Overview

Focusing on the work of the Argentine authors César Aira, Marcelo Cohen, and Ricardo Piglia, The Polyphonic Machine conducts a close analysis of the interrelations between capitalism and political violence in late twentieth-century Argentina. Taking a long historical view, the book considers the most recent Argentine dictatorship of 1976–1983 together with its antecedents and its after-effects, exploring the transformations in power relations and conceptions of resistance which accompanied the political developments experienced throughout this period. By tracing allusive fragments of Argentine political history and drawing on a range of literary and theoretical sources Geraghty proposes that Aira, Cohen and Piglia propound a common analysis of Argentine politics during the twentieth century and construct a synergetic philosophical critique of capitalism and political violence. The book thus constitutes a radical reappraisal of three of the most important authors in contemporary Argentine literature and contributes to the philosophical and historical understanding of the most recent Argentine military government and their systematic plan of state terrorism.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780822986379
Publisher:	University of Pittsburgh Press
Publication date:	01/22/2019
Series:	Pitt Illuminations
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	304
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Niall H.D. Geraghty is a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at the Institute of Latin American Studies, School of Advanced Study, University of London.

Table of Contents

Contents 
Acknowledgments
Contents
Introduction: Capitalism, Political Violence, and Resistance in Contemporary Argentine Literature
César Aira: 29 de Mayo de 1969, La fecha de los sucesos que cuenta.
Chapter 1: Ema is by Nature a Political Animal
Chapter 2: Accessing the Real
Marcelo Cohen: 27 de Marzo de 1991, La fecha de escritura.
Chapter 3: Is There Any Thing whereof it May be Said, See, This is New?
Chapter 4: The Transition to Control
Ricardo Piglia: 2100, La fecha de publicación.
Chapter 5: The Articulation of a Problem
Chapter 6: To Become Worthy of What Happens To Us
Conclusion: The Plane of Immanence
Notes
Bibliography
 

Editorial Reviews

Energetic and thought-provoking. . . . This elegantly presented volume bolsters Pittsburgh’s cutting-edge ‘Illuminations: Cultural Formations of the Americas’ series; it too will inspire healthy debate and further reading in the field and beyond.” —Bulletin of Spanish Studies

“The book stands as a superb effort at unpicking the relationship between intellectual, especially literary, developments, such as ‘writing as resistance’, and political transformations in Argentina’s complex past that continues to permeate in overt and obscured ways the present.” —Bulletin of Latin American Research

“The reader appreciates the interconnectedness of the chapters of Geraghty’s study and between the authors featured in it. With unquestionable mastery, Geraghty develops a multi-faceted argument that moves in various directions: forwards, sideways and performing various loops.” —Journal of Latin American Studies

“In this meticulously researched and lucidly argued work, Niall Geraghty explores the work of three of the most important novelists of the post-dictatorship period in Argentina. Balancing insightful textual analysis with detailed philosophical exposition, The Polyphonic Machine is essential reading for any student or scholar interested in the shifting landscapes of literature and power in Latin America.” —Edward King, University of Bristo

“‘How does literature function in society?’” is the ambitious challenge confronted by Niall Geraghty with ostensible focus on, but reaching well beyond, the writings of César Aira, Marcelo Cohen, and Ricardo Piglia. Evidencing alertness to the particular debates and discourses arising from the terror, overt or disguised, of dictatorship and post-dictatorship Argentina, The Polyphonic Machine reveals how viable critical theories are produced, instrumentally, though the very act of writing fiction. It analyzes persuasively as ‘co-implicated and complementary literary projects often deemed irreconcilable yet inviting a shared immanent critique of the beyond words’ criminality of Dirty War and neo-liberal totalitarianisms.” —Bernard McGuirk, Nottingham University

From the Publisher