The Poetics of Impossibility: Diamela Eltit's el Padre Mío

• Published in: Chasqui Vol. 35; no. 1; pp. 106 - 118
• Main Author: Lazzara, Michael J.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Tempe Chasqui: Revista de literatura latinoamericana 01.05.2006; Arizona State University - Languages and Literatures
• Subjects: Aesthetics; Dictators; Dictatorship; Discourse; Essays; Homelessness; Human rights; Literature; Narratives; Poetics; Poetry; Political discourse; Politics; Prologues; Schizophrenia; Society; Testimony; Trauma; Visual artists; Witnesses; Chile; New York
• ISSN: 0145-8973; 2327-4247
• DOI: 10.2307/29742069

[...]those who bear witness in the aftermath of Auschwitz speak "by proxy." The repetition of these masculine names, taken together, signals a state of generalized surveillance and discipline to which the vagabond is subjected. [...]the names of these powerful men are discursively juxtaposed with a series of institutional and political structures, equally undifferentiated, whose mere existence instills fear in the speaker: "la Administración"; "la Organización Gamal Abdel Nassar"; "los compromisos con el Perú, con Argentina y con Centroamérica"; "las Embajadas y los Consulados"; and "la concesión bancaria y hospitalaria." By publishing her book, Eltit not only presents her subject's discourse as a metaphor for Chile's fragmented psyche, but also remains faithful to her broader political concern-present from her very first publications-with incorporating marginalized voices into her literary project. [...]the "low class" urban speech of a vagabond (orality) is afforded the authoritative status of the written word (literacy). [...]the responsibility falls to her to rescue his voice from oblivion.