“To not narrate” the Subordinate: Notes on the Woks of José María Arguedas
Keywords:
subalternity, identity, power, acknowledgment, José María Arguedas, Peruvian narrativeAbstract
This essay holds that José María Arguedas’ narrative cannot be understood as an attempt to “depict” the Andean world for a native reader who does not know it, as if that process were direct and clear. A careful reading of Arguedas’ main novels reveals that, on the contrary, the indigenous characters are never the main characters, and that their portrayals are always signed by an impasse which acknowledges that there is something untranslatable and uncognoscible in the subordinate culture. The essay’s goal is to try to give an answer to that question (what is the policy in “not narrating” the subordinate; or the inability of doing so?), and it concludes emphasizing that more than the question about identity, what is observed in Arguedas’ characters is a claim for acknowledgement which is beyond any power or social control.
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References
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