EL VIAJE: MANSILLA Y AIRA FRENTE A LA CRISIS DE LA VERACIDAD

Abstract

Building from some affinities between Una excursión a los indios ranqueles, by Lucio V. Mansilla, and Un episodio en la vida del pintor viajero, by César Aira, this essay seeks to reflect on the overwhelming impression left by the Argentine pampas on 19th century travelers. We analyze how the border between the Indian lands and the whites’ lands confronts Argentines with a complex destiny, with a dialogue with time and with a political project: the idea of building a great nation. The confrontation of both texts is of particular relevance in what concerns the appropriation of some symbols of the Argentine letters and the credibility they possess: the politics of extermination, the border, the Indian, the white, and the role of fictional writing.