Martín Fierro ante la ley: el problema del cuerpo, la voz y sus usos específicos

Abstract

This article analyzes the relationship between voice, body and law in José Hernandez's Martín Fierro by confronting the first part or La Ida (1872) vis-à-vis the second and last part or La Vuelta (1879). I will argue that the problems of the law are intrinsically connected to the acquisition of a "voice" by the gauchos, which encompasses their physical vanishing (or transformation) by the end of the nineteenth century in Argentina. The relationship between the textual representation of the gaucho as a legal entity, a new status acquired simultaneously through its real transformation as an absent body, has been overlooked by the specialized critic and aims to contribute to the endless debate on the topic of Martin Fierros's regeneration.