The (im)possibilities of the fantastic and "the uncanny" in the vanguardist narrative of Juan Emar and Felisberto Hernández

Abstract

In this article I will question the idea that the works by Felisberto Hernández and Juan Emar fall within the context of the fantastic, as the critic has held. For this reason, I will examine the use of the concept of “the ominous” or “the uncanny”, developed by Sigmund Freud in Das Unheimliche (1919). After an attentive reading of that essay, I will show, first of all, that the reasons for questioning this use can be understood from the text itself and, secondly, that they are also the reasons that would disprove the use of the Freudian concept in Juan Emar’s works. Finally, I will put forward that both works should be read within the framework of the poetics of the historical vanguardism.