Abstract

DI BENEDETTO, Matías. The body, cast(out) of utopia: A commentary on The Automaton, by Xavier Abril. Anclajes [online]. 2018, vol.22, n.1, pp.19-36. ISSN 1851-4669.  http://dx.doi.org/10.19137/anclajes-2018-2212.

Xavier Abril's avant-garde nouvelle, The Automaton (1931), exhibits a distancing from the Peruvian indigenous narrative. In this regard, based on analysis of its most groundbreaking techniques, such as montage and fragmentation, or even through a review of paratexts prior to publication, one notices a challenge to both the concept of novel as well as that of subject. The latter is redefined by means of its conceptualization as automaton, a fundamental piece of a capitalist socioeconomic structure, and consequently its corresponding narrative form, the novel, whose characterization becomes a vehicle of said criticism.

Keywords : Xavier Abril; Peruvian literature; Literary criticism; Twentieth century; Perú.

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