La Narrativa Indigenista en Argentina

Abstract

This dissertation begins from the premise that indigenista narrative has always been considered by critics as literature produced in the Andean region by mostly Peruvian authors, and to a lesser extent, by those from Latin American countries with a significant indigenous population. My dissertation proposes that an expanded definition of the indigenous novel to include Argentine authors offers an exciting possibility for rearticulating the nature of this important movement of Latin American narrative fiction. It analyzes five major works written during the expansion of the indigenista movement (1920-1940) by authors born in different regions of Argentina. Moreover, while it has been widely held that the first neoindigenista novels were written by the two Peruvian masters of indigenismo, Ciro Alegría and José María Arguedas in 1941, this dissertation demonstrates that El salar, published in 1936 by Argentinian author Fausto Burgo actually deserves that distinction. The analytical frame for my work draws on the groundbreaking contributions of Antonio Cornejo Polar, Tomás Escajadillo and others in recasting its vision of indigenista narrative.