“The Political Dimension of the Unification-Disintegration Paradox in Mantra (2001) by Rodrigo Fresán”

Abstract

Rodrigo Fresán’s writing had a significant impact on Southern Cone literature when his first book, Historia argentina, was published in 1991. Despite its high sales and favorable reviews, which earned Fresán the status of a celebrity writer, his works have often been criticized for possessing “an esthetics of insensitivity and/or an ethics of indifference” (Freidemberg). This essay refutes these accusations of postmodern shallowness in Fresán’s writing and instead proposes an examination of the “politics of literature” (Rancière) in his 2001 work Mantra. The purpose of this essay is to challenge the aporias of the theory of “littérature engagée” derived from Jean-Paul Sartre’s philosophy that were debated among Latin American intellectuals during the 1960s and 1970s. The main objective of this essay is to demonstrate that Fresán’s writing is not only literary but also political in nature. In Mantra, we can observe a system of heterogeneities that disrupts the realm of experience, creating a non-dialectical paradox between the forces of unification and disintegration that elicits an emotional response and challenges the illusion of a concrete, complete identity. This, in turn, allows us to reconsider central themes such as memory.

Keywords:

• Engagement
• Fresán
• Latin American Literature
• Mantra
• Memory
• Politics

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 This idea was illustrated in the famous dispute between Arguedas and Cortázar. This controversy involves a series of texts written and published by Peruvian writer and anthropologist José María Arguedas and Julio Cortázar between 1967 and 1971. These include: a letter from Cortázar to Cuban intellectual Roberto Fernández Retamar, which was published in the magazine “Casa de las Américas” in 1967; an article by Arguedas in the sixth edition of the Peruvian magazine Amaru that was later included in his book El zorro de arriba y el zorro de abajo (1971); several passages from an interview with Cortázar in April 1969, which appeared in the magazine Life en Español; Arguedas’ article “Inevitables comentarios a unas ideas de Julio Cortázar” (Amaru, 1969); and, finally, some parts of “Tercer diario” that were later included in El zorro de arriba y el zorro de abajo. The complete texts of the controversy can be found in the volume Polémicas intelectuales en América Latina, compiled by Marcela Croce and published by Simurg (Buenos Aires) in 2006.

2 In her analysis of Mantra, Liesbeth François highlights the opposing interpretations of the text, namely the desire for totality versus fragmentation, and concludes that there is an unresolved tension between the two: “Fresán’s novel constructs a tension between the quest for totality and the desire to deconstruct totalizing narratives that is equally present in some of the Boom authors—notably, through the Surrealist inspiration of Julio Cortázar’s work or the metaphysical experiments of Boom forefather Jorge Luis Borges. In my view, Mantra parodies and deconstructs the quest for totality, while also refusing to become a utopian celebration of heterogeneity and openness” (218).

3 The translation from French is my own.

4 In Blanchot’s philosophy, “the dark” refers to a realm beyond language, representation, and understanding—a zone of ambiguity, opacity, and non-being. Blanchot suggests that traditional language and communication operate within the realm of “the light,” where meanings are clear, concepts are defined, and understanding is possible. However, he argues that there exists another dimension, “the dark,” which lies beyond the reach of language and comprehension. It is a space of radical alterity, where meaning dissolves, and identities blur.

5 One of the best references to understand his obsession with the aleph appears in the epilogue that Fresán wrote for the volume Una profunda necesidad de la ficción contemporánea: la recepción de Borges en la república mundial de las letras (2015), titled “(re)Visiones de Borges, o ‘El Aleph’ como Greatest Hits.”

6 In more than one article, Rodrigo Fresán refers to Andy Warhol as an “eternal child.” The biographical source that Fresán always mentions when talking about Warhol is the book “Warhol” by art critic Blake Gopnik. In Gopnik’s book, we read that Warhol’s childhood was marked by a rare neurological disease, caused by an infection, which caused him involuntary convulsions and strange pink spots on the skin. That rare condition forced young Andy to spend long periods hospitalized or recovering at home, where he began to draw and collect photos of the stars of the most famous television short films of the time. Due to his multiple health problems, the extremely sensitive child had to face the incomprehension of his classmates, and to cope with this he created a fantasy world in which he invented pseudonyms, costumes, and even imaginary characters with whom he would live for the rest of his life. Despite his adult achievements, Warhol remained haunted by the specter of his childhood trauma. His recurring themes of mortality, vulnerability, and the ephemeral nature of fame suggest a lingering sense of existential unease rooted in his early experiences of illness and rejection.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Julio Ariza

Julio Ariza is associate professor of Spanish at the University of the Virgin Islands. He is a scholar of Latin American literature and film, with a particular focus on the 20th and 21st centuries. He received his Ph.D. and M.A. degrees from Washington University in St. Louis. Ariza has held academic positions at Brandeis University, Northwestern University, and Dartmouth College. In 2018, he published his first book, titled El abandono. Abismo amoroso y crisis social en la reciente literatura, which was featured in the prestigious Critical Essays collection by Beatriz Viterbo Editora. Ariza’s current research focus is on examining the political potentiality of visual and literary imaginaries of nature in contemporary Latin America.