El miedo a los estereotipos en Qué solos se quedan los muertos, de Mempo Giardinelli

Abstract

We analyze Qué solos se quedan los muertos, a novel about crimes in the Mexican city of Zacatecas published in 1985 by Mempo Giardinelli, an Argentine writer who was exiled in Mexico. This analysis about how the author represents his host country, Mexican literature and the genre of crime fiction shows that he tries to avoid the use of national (Mexico) and genre (the crime novel) stereotypes. In this way, he aspires to gain literary credentials for the novel. We postulate that the critical readings of the novel up to now have a similar aim. In order to win a place for this novel in the most restricted field of literary production, critics avoid associating it with the corpus of the narconovela, of which it is nonetheless an important antecedent.

Keywords

• mempo giardinelli
• mexico
• crime fiction
• stereotypes
• narconovela