UNA MUCHACHA MUY BELLA BY JULIÁN LÓPEZ, OR THE REDEMPTIVE GESTURE OF WRITING

Abstract

This article focusses on th aspects that make Julián López’s novel Una muchacha muy bella (2013) so peculiar. First, we will examine how this text compares to the stories written by the post-dictatorial Argentine “second generation”. Then we will look into the strategies used by the narrator to cope with the trauma of his mother’s disappearance, where ellipsis, which in turn leads to compensating techniques, seems particularly noticeable. Finally, we will focus on a number of interventions of the text –such as the poeticization of experience and the importance attached to reading– that make it go against the flow and destabilize certain predominant practices in the contemporary literary field.