El policial campero argentino. Historia de un genero.

Format:

Book

Thesis/Dissertation

Author/Creator:

Pignatiello, Gerardo.

Contributor:

University of Pennsylvania. Romance Languages.

Language:

Spanish

Subjects (All):

Latin American literature.

Literature, Latin American.

0312.

Local Subjects:

Literature, Latin American.

0312.

Physical Description:

248 pages

Contained In:

Dissertation Abstracts International 74-06A(E).

System Details:

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

text file

Summary:

Crime fiction historically has been seen as originating in the modern metropolis. Its true birthplace, however, is in more rural, less populated areas of the American continents. Throughout the countryside of the Americas, north and south, were trappers and pathfinders who later emigrated – in a literary sense – to the city to become detectives. This dissertation traces the genealogy of a subgenre of crime fiction in one country: Argentina. Argentine rural crime fiction, or "policial campero argentino," is both the predecessor of urban crime fiction and a subgenre evident today in Argentine literature and film. This subgenre shares similarities with urban crime fiction, but also differs in terms of location, characters, plot, and modes of detection. I will examine three major periods in the history of this form. Argentine rural crime fiction begins in the mid-nineteenth century, with Domingo Faustino Sarmiento's Facundo, where the first elements of a rural crime story appear in the context of the birth of the nation and the state. After this period, rural social elements and characters converge with a consciousness of detective literature in some of Jorge Luis Borges' short stories. Next, I examine the classic exemplars of this subgenre, produced between 1950 and 1970 by authors such as Rodolfo Walsh, Leonardo Castellani, and Velmiro Ayala Gauna, where the influence of British detective fiction (the "whodunit") is evident. A slightly different version of the classical subgenre is evident in two stories by Antonio Di Benedetto. Finally, from 1970 to the present, the "policial campero" has been influenced by hard-boiled detective fiction, the "neopolicial," and film noir, and significant social changes have modified the structure of this fictional form. The final chapter explores these changes, both in literature, with authors such as Héctor Tizón, Guillermo Martínez, Mempo Giardinelli, and Juan José Saer, and in film, with directors such as Fernando Spiner, Fabián Bielinsky, and Mariano Llinás.

Notes:

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 74-06(E), Section: A.

Adviser: Reinaldo Laddaga.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Pennsylvania, 2012.

Local Notes:

School code: 0175.

ISBN:

9781267898005

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license.