IMAGINARY OF SPACE AND SUBJECT IN RECENT ARGENTINE NARRATIVE: WARS, TRAUMA, NEOLIBERALISM AND GUILT IN LAS ISLAS BY CARLOS GAMERRO

Abstract

In this paper I analyze the imaginary of space and subject associated with the Falklands war and neoliberalism in the novel Las Islas (1998) by Argentine writer Carlos Gamerro, including the tower of mirrors of postmodern power, the experience of subaltern subjectivity in late capitalism and the victim’s being tied by guilt that does not belong to him. I also study the routes of cooptation and entrapment that are represented in the story and attempts of escape and emancipation, culminating in an ambiguous fairytale that evidences how intractable the problem proposed in the narrative is.