Locura, elipsis y tergiversación de la realidad: Pájaros en la boca de Samanta Schweblin

Abstract

The following essay analyzes the recurringmotifs of the short story collection Pájaros en la boca by the Argentine Samanta Schweblin, focusing on the narrative techniques that induce the transformation and the twisting of everyday reality. Due to the introduction of an unexpected event, the notion of reality undergoes a substantial change reflected not only in the linguistic style of the narrative (dry and purified, completely deprived of lyricism), but also in the “personal narration” of the protagonists, witnesses of the most unexpected and subversive incidents. After examining the aforementioned aspects of the short stories, the paper seeks to evaluate the influence of earlier literary tendencies and genres such as the neo-fantastic on Schweblin’s narrative, contesting Luciana Irene Sastre’s interpretation of the short story El cavador that confirms the determining influence of modern Argentine narrative tendencies, inscribing Schweblin’s work in the category of post-autonomous literatures, a concept introduced by Josefina Ludmer.