En busca de lo nuevo: El testamento de O'Jaral (1995) de Marcelo Cohen

Abstract

In this study I present the poetics of the so-called "insecure realism" practiced by the Argentinian writer Marcelo Cohen, drawing on observations in his essay collection ¡Realmente fantástico! among other works. This original vision of literature is characterized by a constant attempt to find new forms of expression and by a criss-crossing of genres—an amalgam of realist and fantastic codes—that gives rise to a very particular mode of science fiction. Cohen takes up the scientific notion of chaos theory to formulate alternatives to the ideological and linguistic aporias of Latin American neoliberalism. The analysis will focus on the novel El testamento de O'Jaral (1995).