Estudios de Teoría Literaria (Mar 2020)
Elías Castelnuovo in Los Pensadores: hypothesis for a re-reading
Abstract
The narrative by Elías Castelnuovo is considered by mainstream literary critique (Portantiero 1961; Giordano 1980 [1968]; Romano 1981; Sarlo 1988; Saítta 2008) as the one that better exhibits the characteristics of the cultural and political project of the Boedo group, by manifesting strong populist and naturalistic traits that seek to offer a “compassionate view of the working class” and generate “horror”. Notwithstanding this, a re-reading of his fictional texts and his essays published in the magazine Los Pensadores, one of the most important publications of the group, enables a reconsideration of these conclusions and to admit that, in many ways, the peculiarities and the objectives of Castelnuovo’s literature oppose the main conclusions majorly arrived to by literary critique.
