A BURST OF ONLY CHILDREN: ANDRES NEUMAN'S UNA VEZ ARGENTINA (2003), ALEJANDRO ZAMBRA'S FORMAS DE VOLVER A CASA (2011) AND ALEJANDRA COSTAMAGNA'S EL SISTEMA DEL TACTO (2018)

The personal and family past seems to be a dominant feature of the Chilean and Argentinean narrative of the 21st century. This article aims to explore what possibilities for opening up the future we can find in these works, usually linked to categories such as literature of the children. For this purpose, two Chilean novels and one Spanish-Argentine novel are examined: Andres Neuman's Una vez Argentina (2003); Alejandra Costamagna's El sistema del tacto (2018) and Alejandro Zambra's Forms de volver a casa (2011). As I will propose, Neuman mobilizes progressive and postmodern values in his book and yet constructs a monological and traditional narrative. Costamagna, meanwhile, resorts to the gothic imaginary to narrate a partial liberation from the past, while combining two types of memory: learned memory and involuntary memory. Finally, Zambra escapes the vicious circle of history and family relationships by constructing a recursive text, but in which some variants are introduced.

Automated summary

This article explores the significance of personal and family past in the 21st century narratives of Chilean and Argentinean literature, and examines the possibilities of opening up the future. By analyzing three novels, the author finds diverse narrative styles and themes that reflect different values and types of memory.