Cultura marginal y raíces populares en la obra narrativa de Haroldo Conti

Abstract

Haroldo Conti's complete narrative works show a profound concern with the marginal people and the popular culture of his country and Latin America. In this thesis, I propose an integral journey through the totality of his novels and short stories, analyzing the texts within the political and cultural context in which they were produced. Throughout his narrative works Conti embraced the fate of his marginal compatriots and their relationship with their social and natural environment. He rescued the popular classes' wisdom, knowledge and traits of life, challenging the value of the dichotomy between civilization and barbarism, maintained in Argertina by the official canon since the mid-nineteenth century. In order to demonstrate this, I have divided my thesis into four chapters which are more related to the chronological order of the publications than to any discernible variation in the works, themes, motifs and characters. In the first chapter I locate Conti's and his contemporary fellow writers' works within the Argentinean literary tradition in particular, and the Latin American perspective in general. In the second chapter I cover the first stage of Conti's work, which was produced between 1960 and 1964. It consists of the long short story entitled "La causa" (1960), the collection ' Todos los veranos' (1964), and the first novel, ' Sudeste' (1962). In the third chapter, I undertake the study of the second stage of Conti's production. This period extends from 1966 to 1972, during which time the author published the novels 'Alredeclor de la jaula' (1966) and 'En vida' (1971), and the short story collection 'Con otra gente' (1967). During this time, the individual compositions "Con gringo" and "La espera" (both from 1972) are also brought to light. In the fourth chapter, I deal with his final stage which corresponds to the single year of 1975; I analyze the last novel, ' Mascaró, el cazador americano' and his closing short story collection, 'La balada del álamo carolina'. Finally, in the conclusion, I summarize Conti's contribution to the Argentinean and Latin American literary world, and I discuss the meanings and projections of his work.