Estudios de Teoría Literaria (Mar 2018)
The Symbolism of Evil: The Uncanny in Diego Muzzio’s Works
Abstract
Diego Muzzio’s narrative work is part of what is currently considered, in the Argentine literary field, as a local horror genre revival. Nevertheless, it must not be forgotten that resources of Gothic novel and Uncanny effect – as Freudian psychoanalysis defines it- have been fundamental components in Argentine literary tradition, from its founding texts such as Facundo or Amalia. We study here how one of the obsessive nuclei of Muzzio’s poetics, the problem of evil and its symbols, is traversed by the strong relationship that in Argentine literature has been established between terror and certain outlines in our social and political history. In these pages we will focus on one of the author’s most disturbing tales: “El Cementerio Central” (“The Central Cemetery”).
