Miller, Paul B.

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Inti: Revista de literatura hispánica Volume 1 Number 48 Article 20 1998 Privitera, Rodolfo. Desde otro lugar. Buenos Aires: Florida Blanca, 1997. Paul B. Miller Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.providence.edu/inti Citas recomendadas Miller, Paul B. (Otoño 1998) "Privitera, Rodolfo. Desde otro lugar. Buenos Aires: Florida Blanca, 1997.," Inti: Revista de literatura hispánica: No. 48, Article 20. Available at: https://digitalcommons.providence.edu/inti/vol1/iss48/20 This Reseña is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@Providence. It has been accepted for inclusion in Inti: Revista de literatura hispánica by an authorized editor of DigitalCommons@Providence. For more information, please contact elizabeth.tietjen@providence.edu. Privitera, Rodolfo. Desde otro lugar. Buenos Aires: Florida Blanca, 1997. In the crypt ic open ing story or v igne t t e of R o d o l f o P r i v i t e r a ' s Desde otro lugar, there is the ra ther unse t t l ing i m a g e of a decap i t a t ed head , w r a p p e d in a sackc lo th and impa led on a p i t ch fo rk . T h e h e a d is d i s lodged and the c lo th is r e m o v e d to reveal a b loody face . A n d this i m a g e is a fitting one to inaugura te this co l lec t ion of short na r ra t ives , s ince ampu ta t i on , d i smembermen t , and mut i la t ion are the operat ions that mos t aptly character ize no t on ly the e l emen t s of the s tor ies , bu t the s tyle of na r r a t ion and author ia l p s y c h o l o g y as wel l . As one charac te r dec lares , "h i c i e ron que o l v i d á r a m o s el cue rpo , lo m u t i l á r a m o s (91) . " A n d yet this mut i l a t ed " b o d y " cou ld jus t as easi ly re fe r to the corpus of wr i t ing w h i c h c o m p r i s e s the co l lec t ion and , in the a u t h o r ' s v iew, the act of wr i t ing i tself . T h e t i t le p rov ides the co l lec t ion wi th a f i t t ing apor ia , s ince Pr iv i t e ra is wel l a w a r e that it is imposs ib l e to nar ra te " f r o m e l s e w h e r e . " A n d yet the des i re o r nos ta lg ia fo r an e l s ewhere revea ls a pecu l i a r m e n t a l par t i t ion ( b e t w e e n he re and there) w h i c h be longs exc lus ive ly to t h e rea lm of p s y c h o l o g y or l inguis t ics , a sch ism u p o n w h i c h Pr iv i te ra s e e m s to be s tow the p r iv i l eged m o m e n t of l i te ra ture i tself . T h e r e are e c h o e s of B l an ch o t he r e (I am th ink ing of The Space of Literature) and it is pe rhaps n o co inc idence that P r iv i t e ra is h imse l f an impor tan t t rans la tor of twen t i e th -cen tu ry F r e n c h l i te ra ture . T h e s e " s to r i e s " e m p h a s i z e mul t ip l i c i ty of p lace and author ia l po in t of v i ew, and h igh l igh t the d i f f u s e and h e t e r o g e n e o u s ra ther than m o n o l i t h i c and conso l ida ted aspects and in te rsec t ions of l i te ra ture , m e m o r y , t ime , m a d n e s s , l anguage . T h e au thor ra ther me thod ica l ly c h o o s e s to f r a g m e n t his na r ra t ion wi th the in ten t ion to d isor ien t , and the m o s t o b v i o u s ou tward m a n i f e s t a t i o n of this t e chn ique is the por t raya l of the h u m a n sub jec t as cubis t ica l ly d iv ided into d i spara te body par ts ra ther than as some th ing un i f i ed and h o m o g e n e o u s . In "E l señor de la serv i l le ta , " f o r e x a m p l e , the " i n n e r l i ves" of the charac te r s are no t scru t in ized in f a v o r of a por t raya l of the ou te r i m a g e of a coup le seated at a tab le in a res taurant w h o is pe rce ived by those a round 166 INTI N° 48 them. Hands are emphas ized , as well as voices, backs , legs, eyes , and f ingers . T h e wi fe is descr ibed as having a "neut ra l face ." . In this par t icular story there is enough to discern an out l ine of a social commenta ry , s ince there is a dynamic or dialectic be tween the gourmand i sm of the couple , who cut their cheese " c o m o si estuviera ante un ceremonia l re l igioso (26) , " and what they perceive to be the envy of the observers around them. And yet one gets the impress ion that social commenta ry is not entirely or exclus ively what Privi tera is af ter , unless the two seemingly opposed not ions of social realism and the na r ra to r ' s fondness of surreal is t ic or ha l luc inogenic c losures can be reconci led. In this case, the pro tagonis t uses a body-s ized napkin whi le dining, and comment s to his wi fe , "Vos sabés Sara, que mi v ida es mi obra y mi obra es sacarle lustre al m u n d o con detergente (25) ." T h e worlds con jured in these narra t ions are of such concis ion that the speci f ics of a socio-historic context have been del iberately omit ted, result ing in phan tasmagor ic shade of a society whose under ly ing cohes ion is both a real and a l inguist ic v io lence . (Thus the compar i son , in both form and content , wi th K a f k a is an inevi table one.) And v io lence is also the c o m m o n thread a m o n g these seemingly he te rogeneous narrat ions. Drowned babies , murdered judges , assassinated Franc iscan monks , beat ings in broad dayl ight (to the dis interest of the on looking crowd) , inst i tut ional izat ion and sedat ion are e lements that leave the reader with an unmis takable mala ise . And the only repeated p lace -name in these stories is "Buenos Azo tes , " so-bapt ized by a n ine teenth-century general , who, in pursui t of Indians, declared, " Y si vue lven , no buenos azotes les da remos . " The al legorical re ference of the p l ace -name needs little expl icat ion. And yet, it is worth repeat ing, that is the only p lace n a m e ment ioned , and usual ly the v iolence of Pr iv i t e ra ' s a l legories is of too rar if ied a nature to lend itself to an explici t g rounding , a here and now or a there and then. If v io lence is the c o m m o n denominator , it seems to take p lace in a realm that does not entirely pertain to the k ingdom of this world . Pr iv i te ra ' s mos t notable achievement is in fact this t r emendous force with which he insti l ls the l anguage of narrat ion, a prose which progress ively condenses out the prosa ic f rom seemingly quot id ian si tuat ions, or which t ransports them to a space which approaches the poet ic . Thus v io lence is not mere ly a recurrent " t heme" but an operat ion which the author has pe r fo rmed on narra t ion itself . The narrator of "Obses iones , " in recal l ing his exper ience in a menta l asylum, explici t ly jux taposes this s imul taneous bodi ly and l inguis t ic muti la t ion: Experimenté otras memorias, tal vez únicas en el mismo instante de su manifestación. Se desprendían de ojos languidecientes, labios en murmullos, brazos, manos, pecho de mujer, de hombre, sangre, humo, palabras, algunas de ellas incomprensibles (67). PAUL B. MILLER 167 Unfor tuna te ly , such a tenuous p rocedure can show the strain of the fo rmula i c , spec i f i ca l ly in the f o r m of the at t imes pred ic tab le " su rp r i se e n d i n g . " T h u s the reader is half expec t ing the ant, w h i c h is the po in t of depar tu re f o r a P la ton ic d ia logue b e t w e e n two ph i losopher s in " E l gran b o n e t e " wi l l b e c rushed u n d e r f o o t by one of the two d ia lec t ic ians at the s t o r y ' s conc lus ion . Tha t is perhaps a cavil ing object ion, though, and one that is m o r e appropria te ly geared to the ent i re genre of short fiction. P r i v i t e r a ' s con t r ibu t ion to that pe rs i s t ing genre is a p rovoca t ive one that in m a n y aspec ts ha rves t s the in te l lec tua l and his tor ical t ens ions , m o v e m e n t s and v ic i ss i tudes of this w a n i n g cen tury . Paul B. Mi l l e r E m o r y Univers i ty 

Privitera, Rodolfo. \u3cem\u3eDesde otro lugar\u3c/em\u3e. Buenos Aires: Florida Blanca, 1997.

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Privitera, Rodolfo. \u3cem\u3eDesde otro lugar\u3c/em\u3e. Buenos Aires: Florida Blanca, 1997.

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