THE NINETEENTH CENTURY FANTASTIC SHORT STORY IN ARGENTINA AND URUGUAY.

Abstract

Although the contemporary fantastic short story in Argentina and Uruguay is widely recognized and studied, its origins during the nineteenth century are generally unknown. This study proposes to (1) identify examples of the nineteenth century fantastic, (2) place the works in the context of literary history, and (3) study their narrative conventions and topics. A reading of the nineteenth century fantastic reveals that there is a conventional narrative cluster consisting of three elements: personalized, first-person narrator; frame discourse; and suspended narration. Although there are some variations on this pattern, these conventions generally hold true throughout the nineteenth century. The narrative elements are examined from two perspectives: their contrast with the dominant conventions of realism, and their function within the fantastic. The stories are divided into four categories based on their topic. The first category is the dream fantastic, in which a dream provides self-knowledge or salvation. The second grouping is the fantastic of madness; in these stories, madness can be a divine gift or a destructive force. The third section is the scientific fantastic, in which the scientism of the 1800's is questioned. The final division is the folkloric fantastic, which deals with the supernatural. This study concludes by pointing out that the conventions of the nineteenth century do not continue into the twentieth. The generation of the 20's and 30's formed new concepts of the realistic and the fantastic. Therefore, they altered the previous narrative pattern and abandoned scientism as a literary topic. This study includes stories by these authors: Carlos O. Bunge, Miguel Cané, Macedonio Fernández, Martín García Mérou, Juana Manuela Gorriti, Carlos Guido y Spano, Julio Herrera y Reissig, Eduardo L. Holmberg, William Henry Hudson, Leopoldo Lugones, Carlos Monsalve, Carlos Olivera, Horacio Quiroga, and Eduardo Wilde.