The End of Magical Realism: Jos Mara Arguedas's Passionate Signifier ("El zorro de arriba y

el zorro de abajo")
Author(s): Alberto Moreiras
Source: The Journal of Narrative Technique, Vol. 27, No. 1, Theorizing Modern Hispanic
Fiction (Winter, 1997), pp. 84-112
Published by: Journal of Narrative Theory
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TheEndof MagicalRealism:Jos6Maria
Arguedas'sPassionateSignifier(Elzorrodearriba
y elzorrodeabajo)
AlbertoMoreiras

Whatwouldhappinessbe thatis notmeasuredby an immeasur-

ablegriefat whatis? (Adorno200)

I. Transculturation: The Implosion of Meaning

There is an old LatinAmericanistideology which insistentlyaffirmsthat
the continentis a yet-to-be-realizedhistoricalproject.IrlemarChiampi has
notedthatthisideologyis solidarywith(shecallsit "aresidueof")a certain
"foundationalUtopianism"whichthe earlySpanishandPortugueseconquer-
ors and otherEuropeansettlersbroughtwith them (133). Magical realism is
very significantlya partof thatideology. It developed in the first half of the
twentiethcenturythroughthe culturalfights within the LatinAmerican in-
tellectual public sphere-more specifically, within Angel Rama's "ciudad
letrada"-between the centripetalforces of regionalism/nationalismand the
centrifugalforces of the artisticavant-garde.'WhatJamesCliffordhas called
"ethnographicsurrealism,"a projectlargelyassociatedwith a certainFrench
avant-garde which came programmatically together in the College de
Sociologie (Michel Leiris, Georges Bataille, Roger Caillois, and Pierre
Klossowski were some of the people involved),joins a LatinAmericancul-
tural-politicalwill to differenceto producein the firstworksofAim6 Cesaire,
MiguelAngel Asturias,andAlejo Carpentierthe inceptionof the LatinAmeri-
can semiotic practiceknown as magical or marvelousrealism.2
Perhapsethnographicsurrealismand political will to culturaldifference
are not sufficient to define such transculturatingapparatus.Magical realism

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 TheEndofMagical
Realism 85

is a complicatedphenomenon. At its base,in the socialbodythatoriginates

magical-realobjects, disparitybetweentwo or moremodesof economic
a
production is alwayspresent.As MichaelTaussigputsit, referring to a felici-
tousexpressionby ErnstBloch,"thenonsynchronous contradiction comes
in a
to life wherequalitativechanges society's mode of production animate
imagesof thepastin thehopeof a betterfuture"(Shamanism 166).3Chiampi
that
argues magical realism is a writing non-disjunction, the sensethat
of in
in magicalrealismthenonsynchronous contradictionwantsto be mediated,
andthereforeit wantsto disappear as contradiction (134).As writingof non-
disjunction,followingupontheCubanJos6LezamaLima'svisionof Latin
Americaas "incorporativeprotoplasm,"magical realismendorsesthe
ideologemethatnamesLatinAmericaasa siteof transculturation, "mestizaje,"
not a
miscegenation, just meltingpot of racesand but
cultures, also a region
of radicalassimilationwheredifferencedoes not operateaccordingto con-
ventional,Aristotelian logic:froma culturalpointof view,in effect,theprin-
cipleof thecontradiction of opposites(be theyoppositerationalities), or its
corollarythe tertioexcluso,arenotoperativeforLatinAmericanmestizaje.
Magicalrealismallows,as it were,for the simultaneous textualization of
bothA andnon-Awithoutscandal.The conciliationof the disjointed,ac-
cordingto Chiampi,is thetextualeffectin whichmagicalrealismcomesto
constituteitselfas such.I will takea differentposition,perhapsopposite,to
claimthatmagicalrealismis radicallyorprimarily a writingof disjunction-
regardlessof whatit itselfpurports to be.
Magicalrealismis a technicaldevicewithina largerandmoreencom-
passingapparatus of transculturating representation. Therearetwomainuses
and the frequentconfusion between them is
of the word "transculturation,"
notwithoutits implications."Transculturation," in a looselyanthropological
sense,is a descriptivewordfor anykindof culturemixing(someacquisi-
tion, some loss, andsomecreationarealwaysingredientsin it). Andthen
"transculturation"alsorefersto a differentuseas a criticalconcept:thatis, to
anactive,self-conscioususeof it as a toolforaestheticorcriticalproduction
(or the analysis thereof). In the sense developed by Rama from Fernando
Ortiz'sfirst (anthropological)use of the term,literarytransculturationis a

revitalizedexamination of localtraditions,
whichhadbecome
sclerotic,in orderto findformulations thatwouldallowfor
the absorptionof externalinfluences.Externalinfluences

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86 1 N T

wouldthusbe dilutedinto largerartisticstructures thatcan

still translatethe problematics
andthe peculiarflavorsthey
hadcontinuedto preserve.("Procesos" 207)4

Transculturation is thusa formof "cultural plasticity," anactivereceptivity,

as it were,thatregulates"theincorporation of newelements... throughthe
totalrearticulation of the regionalculturalstructure" (208). In Rama'suse,
therefore,literarytransculturation is a formfor the promotionof cultural
survivalundertaken as a reactiveresponseto modernization. As he putsit, it
comes to strengthenandco-constitutethe contemporary "LatinAmerican
literarysystem,understood as a fieldof integration andmediation,andwith
enoughleewayforself-regulation" (217).
As a foundational notionfor contemporary LatinAmericanistcriticism,
transculturation is andis nota returnto LatinAmericanculturalorigins.Itis
not a returnbecause,as SilviaSpittaarguesin herrecentbook,post-Ortiz
transculturators-the kindof peopleaboutwhomRamawrotehis ownbook
on transculturation-"open the doorto a radicalrewritingof the tradition"
(10). Butit is a returnbecause,oncethatrewritingis done,it wouldfinally
be establishedthattransculturation is indeedat the traumaticsourceof ev-
erything which is and
literary not-so-literary inLatinAmerica:in otherwords,
its technical,criticalor literaryuse wouldrevertto its anthropological use.
If the critical insistenceon transculturation is meantto counterthe
colonialist"whitening" of LatinAmerican cultureagainstwhichOrtizwarned,
the taskat handfor transculturation analystsis to furtherOrtiz'senterprise
by "reinterpreting"and "reconstructing"the tradition so that the
transculturated LatinAmericansubjectcan survivewithina full, andfully-
known, representational genealogy. The political epistemics of
transculturation thusgo beyondthedescription ortheincorporation of a given
stateof affairsintoa willedcriticalinterference withits veryconditionsof
possibility:in otherwords,literarytransculturation (and,for that matter,
transculturation in the extendedanthropological sense)is not simplya re-
sponseto modernization, understood as an"external influence,"butit is nec-
essarilyalso a criticalrelationship to it.
Suchcriticalrelationship, however,has some limitations,whichRama
may not have fully seen.Transculturation analystsmustrealize,following
the very logic of theirpractice,thattransculturation is in itself alwaysal-
ready transculturated, thatis, that transculturation, in theirsense,does not
namea "natural" or primaryfact,butthatit is itselfan engaged representa-

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 TheEndofMagicalRealism 87

tion.5As a hermeneutic concept,transculturation is as historicallyproduced

as the phenomenait wouldseekto interpret. Tothatextentthereis no such
thingas a stable"reinterpretation" or"reconstruction" ora propergenealogy
of thetransculturated subject.Thepossibilitythata fullLatinAmericansub-
ject in its complexhistoricitycanemergeorbe constituted, evenatthelevel
of literaryrepresentation, through more or less exhaustive analysisis simply
notgiven-and it wouldn'tbe givenevenif we replace,as indeedwe should,
the notionof a LatinAmericanhistoricalsubjectby a sufficientpluralityof
them:subjects.Thereis no transparency in transculturation, whichmeans
thatliterarytransculturation is alwaysbeyondcontrol,alwaysoutsideits
functionas a technicaldeviceforthe integration of externalinfluencesinto
anenterprise of culturalpreservation andrenewal.Thisis howeverthesense
in whichRamaforthemostparttheorizesit.
Transculturation, as a genealogicalcriticalapparatus for a certaincul-
turalandhistoricalexpression,will haveextremedifficultyprotectingitself
fromthehistoryit attemptsto critiqueorvanquishforthesakeof thehistory
it attemptsto preservein mediatedform,becausethosehistoriesaresimulta-
neouslypartof its ownconstitution: transculturation cannotstepoutsideof
itselfso as to establishclear-cut"objective" ordisengageddistinctions. As a
radicalconcept,insofaras it is orientedtowardsa possiblerestitution, pres-
ervationor renewalof culturalorigins(evenif just,I insist,at the literary-
representational level), andnot towardsa merephenomenology of culture,
transculturation runsinto the theoreticalwall thatmarksits conditionsof
possibilityas heterogeneouswith respectto itself:the criticalconceptof
transculturation, paradoxically enough,doesnotseemto originatein thean-
thropological concept, but ratherin a different,non-transculturated realmof
(unexamined) truth.Thereis no criticaltransculturation withoutanendor a
limitof transculturation, throughwhichthecriticalconceptof transculturation
appearsas somethingotherthanor beyondwhat it is purportedto be-and it
is preciselythat"end"orexcessin theself-conscioususe of transculturation
thatinterestsme in thisessay.6
In his forewordto N6storGarciaCanclini'sHybridCultures,Renato
Rosaldoremarksaboutthecriticalconceptof culturalhybriditythatthereis
alwaysa conceptualpolarityinvolvedin it:

hybriditycanimplya spacebetwixtandbetweentwozones
ofpurityinamanner usagethatdistin-
thatfollowsbiological
guishes two discretespecies andthe hybridpseudospeciesthat

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88 J N T

resultsfromtheircombination .... [H]ybridity

can[also]be
understoodas the ongoingconditionof all humancultures,
whichcontainno zonesof puritybecausetheyundergocon-
tinuousprocessesof transculturation.
(xv)

The conceptof transculturation is naturallycaughtup in the same unresolved

and ultimatelyunresolvablepolarity.The militantor criticalversion of liter-
ary transculturationmust posit both a (utopian)zero-degreeand a full-de-
gree of transculturation,a point of origin and a goal, which are always un-
reachable,butwithoutwhichit wouldfinditselfdeprivedof a teleological
reasonforits ownpractice.Thephenomenological usageof transculturation,
on theotherhand,cansurvivesafelywithinthe secondpolarity,whichulti-
matelymakesit redundant or merelytautological,in thesensethatif every-
is
thing transculturation thentheconceptitselfhas no particular criticalva-
lidity.The conditionsof possibilityof criticaltransculturation, to the very
extentthattheyreferbacktotheanthropological notionastheirnatural ground,
arethereforeaporetic,as the criticalconceptis only madepossibleby the
invocationof a reasonfortransculturation, whichis itselfbeyondthe reach
of transculturation.Thewayoutof theaporeticconflictis of coursealways
pragmatic: theend,orthelimit,of everytransculturating practiceoranalysis
determinesin everycaseits specificrelevanceas a hermeneutic tool.
In Spitta'sdefinition,"[t]hetransculturatedsubjectis someonewho,like
[Jos6Maria]Arguedas,is consciouslyor unconsciouslysituatedbetweenat
leasttwoworlds,twocultures,twolanguages,andtwodefinitionsof subjec-
tivity,andwhoconstantlymediatesbetweenthemall"(24).Transculturation
wouldthenorganizethat"ambivalent andindeterminate space"(24) where
the transculturatingartistor criticwouldbe freeto give herselfoverto the
taskof, in Rama'swords,"recomposing from[previouscultural]materiala
superior discourse thatcould match or confrontthemosthierarchic products
of a universalliterature"("Procesos" 228).
Perhapsourhistoricaltimes,differentfromRama's,no longeradviseor
enableus to be so relentlesslyenthusiasticin the evaluationof the cultural
powerof theworld'ssemi-periphery. I wantto overturn thatcelebratory telos
of transculturationthrough a rathersimplequestion: what if thatindetermi-
nate space of in-between-nessshouldprove to be, not the purveyorof a new
historicalcoherence,butrathera mestizo space of incoherence,in the defini-
tion of ClaudioLomnitz-Adler?"Mestizajeis the process whereincommu-
nities are extractedfrom their culturesof origin without being assimilated

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 TheEndofMagical
Realism 89

intothedominantculture.Thisis a processthatentailsfracturing thecoher-

ence of a subordinate..,.culture.It alsoentailsundermining theconditions
forthecreationof a new,independent, coherentculture"(39).
Hasn'ttransculturation theoryassumedfor too long thatmeaningis al-
waysalreadyavailable,alwaysalreadyto beeitherfoundorproduced? What
if transculturation wereshownto be, nota pathto meaning,butrathera path
intotheimplosionof meaning? Inotherwords,whatif a giventransculturating
practiceturnedtowardthe site of its aporeticimpossibility, andnot toward
its possibility?It is merelya matterof emphasis,perhaps,but withrather
portentousimplications.Ramapreferredto dwell on an optimisticor
celebratorypossibility,understandingtheendof transculturation asthe"ample
overcoming of modernization" from a LatinAmerican or regionalperspec-
tive ("Procesos" 215), andperhapsthatis whathe hadto do. It maynowbe
hightimeto examineits oppositeor sinisterside.ThethesisI wantto pro-
pose is thatcriticaltransculturation, once it goes to the end of itself and
explores, as it is wont to do throughits own logic, its own excess with re-
spectof itself,canno longergo on,andsufferscollapse.Jos6MariaArguedas
hasgivenus perhapstheparadigmatic examplein theLatinAmericantradi-
tionof thisfinal"transculturation"of transculturation-its
overturning.
Therestof thisessaystudiesArguedas'sdramaticstagingof the implo-
sionof meaningintransculturation inhislast,posthumously publishednovel,
El zorrode arribay el zorrode abajo(1971).RolandForgueshassuccinctly
expressedthemajortheoreticalconflictwithwhichArguedaswasforcedto
dealin thewritingof El zorro:

Uponobservingthe deepmutationsufferedby Chimbote's

society,a mutationwhichradicallyquestionedthe ideashe
hadpreviouslyformedaboutmestizajeandthesocialandcul-
of the Indiansandothermarginalized
turalintegration sec-
the
tors, writer
had to confront
the of
destabilization whathad
untilthenconstituted of his work.("Por
theveryfoundations
qu6"314)

My purposeis to beginto drawsomeof thetheoreticalandpoliticalconclu-

sionsfor LatinAmericanliteraryandculturalhistoriography thatthe novel
not so secretlyoffersin the workingout of thatconflict,but whichhave
neverthelessremainedmostlyunread.7

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90 J N T

II. A Writing of Disappropriation

JeanFrancohas arguedthatseveralLatinAmericannovels writtenbefore
El zorro but also dealing with "the motif of the dying community or the
wake aroundthe body" (206) must be understoodas a textualizationof the
impossibilityof constructionof the modernLatinAmericanstate (205). The
writings of GabrielGarciaM~rquez,post-Zorrowork such as Augusto Roa
Bastos's Yoel Supremo,and two texts by EdgardoRodriguezJuliBiare also
presentedby Francoas a representationof the impossibilityof a nationalist
ideology. Franco'sreadingsare for her a sufficientdemonstrationof the fact
thatcontemporaryLatinAmericanliteratureis not necessarilynational-alle-
gorical.In Franco'sopinion,however,the fact thatthose texts do not seem to
fall for nationaliststate representationshould not automaticallymake them
fit the alternativemold of so-called LatinAmericanpostmodernism.Resis-
tantto bothnationalistnarrativization andto LatinAmericanpostmodernism,
Francoprefersto speak of contemporaryLatinAmericansymbolic produc-
tion as "an irrepressibleprocess of appropriationand defiance" where we
must detect "a Utopia glimpsed beyond the nightmareof an as yet unfin-
ished modernity"(212).
Francois engaging in a polemic with FredricJamesonon the necessarily
allegoricalimportof contemporaryThird-Worldliterature,andto thatextent
she chooses herexamplescarefully.8But El zorro,which falls entirelywithin
the purview of Jameson'smodel while at the same time, in a sense that will
be explainedlater,turningit againstitself,is not mentionedin Franco'ses-
say. Would she also thinkof it as partof the "irrepressibleprocess of appro-
priationanddefiance"of modernitythatshe findsin herexemplaryLatin
Americantexts?Therearesolidgroundsto do preciselythat-groundsof-
fered,forinstance,by MartinLienhard's
andAntonioCornejoPolar'ssplen-
did researchon the Arguedasnovel.9However, if it were true, as I will con-
tend,thatEl zorrois a narrativeof theendof narrative,
it wouldbe reductive
to call thatwritingof writing'scollapsean "appropriation
anddefiance"of
modernity.Whatelse can it then be?
Arguedas'swritingin El zorro,whichis a writingbetweenautobiogra-
phyandfiction,betweenthepersonalandthesocial,is theexpressionof an
eventwhichdoesnoteasilyyieldto availablecritical-ideological determina-
tions.If El zorro'sfiction,thatis, theattemptatrealisticrepresentation
of the
postsymbolicworldof Chimbote,canperhapsstill be understood as an ap-
propriation anda defiance,thatis, as the sortof successfultransculturation

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 TheEndofMagicalRealism 91

Ramarepeatedlydescribed,the autobiography thatsimultaneously

writes
Arguedas'swaytowardssuicideis also a radicaldisappropriation andalso a
radicaldefeat,whateverelse it may be. Of the two opposingtendencies,
appropriationanddisappropriation,whichoneleadsandwhatremains? Which
one constitutesthe ultimatehorizon,or theend,of thenovel?
FollowingFrancoMoretti'sargumentation in ModernEpic: TheWorld
Systemfrom Goetheto GarciaMdrquez,El zorro,like GarciaMfrquez's
Cienafiosde soledad,as a "novelof unevenandcombineddevelopment"
(243),is one specificresponseto the situationthatariseswhen

thepressureof theworld-system forcesyourcountry intoa

morecomplete Athousand
... integration. andonepossibili-
tiesthenreallydobecomea thousand andonedeadends;the
of possibledevelopments,
multiplicity a set route.It is the
hourof blackmagic:an"incredible" thatis nolongerbound
toa whirlpoolof bizarre
combinations, buttotheenormity of
thecrimescommitted. (245)

Moretti'sreadingof Cienaiiosde soledadhasit thatGarciaM~quez'snovel

arises in a complicitybetween "magicand empire,"wherebymodern
literature's"rhetoricof innocence"takesits strategyof denialanddisavowal
one stepfurther,intothe heartof the victim.If "therhetoricof innocence"
hadbeenGoethe'sdiscoveryin Faust,themeansby whichtheWest,while
being"mostlucidin recognizingthenecessityof violencefor [itsown]civi-
lized life,"simultaneously establishes"thenecessityof its disavowal[i. e.,
disavowalof violence]for the West'scivilizedconsciousness"(26), then
GarciaM~rquez'sbrandof magicalrealismsubserviently incorporatessuch
a rhetoricintotheliteraryresourcesof theworld-system's semi-periphery.In
Cienaiiosde soledad"forcedmodernization a
[becomes] story of extraordi-
narydelight"(249).A certainappropriation occurs,a certaintransculturation
hastakenplace.Butbothappropriation andtransculturation arepurchased at
the priceof serviceto historicalhegemony:not so muchan overcoming of
modernization as a submissionto it. In Moretti'swords:

place,Macondo.
A reallystrange A cityof madmen, where
nobodyhasanythingincommon withanybody else.Butwhere
Whileyouarereading
languageis thesamefor everybody.
to it--it is allso lovely.Butif youreopen
youpayno attention

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92 J N T

thenovelwitha littledetachment,youfindthatthenarrator's
impersonalvoice coversmoreor less ninety-five
per centof
thetextualspace..,. a realtriumphof monologism.(245-46)

Moretti'sunsettlingpoint is simply that magical realismhas historically

functionedas an apparatusfor the captureof non-synchronicity,of heteroge-
neous contemporaneity, throughthe incorporationof the periphery's"reserves
of magic" into a global enterpriseof world "re-enchantment" (249) which
serves as an ideologicaljustificationof the world-system.Its primarytechni-
cal innovationwould be the conflation of the rhetoricof innocence (which
uses the periphery's"magic"for an enterpriseof disavowal) and the ideol-
ogy of progressand modernization:

Forin magicalrealismtheheterogeneity of historicaltimeis

also,forthefirsttime,narratively it producesplot,
interesting:
suspense. It is not the
just sign of a complex,stratifiedhis-
tory: it is also the symptomof a history in progress. (243)

Thereis thereforea surfaceagreement betweenRamaandFranco,on the

one hand,andMoretti,on the other,whichis only the obverseof a deeper
disagreement: if forFrancoandRamatheLatinAmericantextis a symptom
of "anas yet unfinishedmodernity," Morettisees thepathto modernization
as a relentlessdissolutionof heterogeneity to anascendinggene-
"according
alogy-which will thenendby legitimizingthedominionof the 'advanced'
Westoverthe 'backward' periphery" (51). Everythingmaythenhaveto do
withourown criticalpositionconcerningmodernization.
Butis it possibleto turnmagicalrealismagainstitself,or to use it other-
wise? Whatif a LatinAmericantext, such as El zorro,had given us the
meansforunderstanding a diametrically oppositepossibilitywithinmagical
realismwherebythemagical-real apparatus couldrevealitselfto be notsim-
ply a machine of appropriation but its opposite?The criticalgame would
thenbe to expandournotionof magicalrealismandmakeit openitselfto a
deeperarticulation. If theconditionsof possibilityof magicalrealism,or of
literarytransculturation in Rama'ssense,aredetermined by "appropriation
anddefiance,"in Franco'sexpression,outof a certaintemporalheterogene-
ity or non-contemporaneity of the material,perhapswhatwe couldcall the
"defianceof disappropriation" withinmagicalrealismwouldrevealanalto-
getherdifferentgroundfor its theoreticaldefinition.In Arguedas'stext, as

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 TheEndofMagical
Realism 93

we will see, thedoublesoundof gunpowder andlead,thefatalscarshowing

up at the end of its as
writing sign and signatureof theidentitybetweenthe
writerandthe text,tragicallybringto effectandcompletionthe theoretical
momentof themagicalrealas textualevent.Buttheeventis herenon-con-
junctive:it is rathera fissurein sense, designatedby Arguedaswith the
Quechuawordhuayco,whichis an abyss,a precipice.Withit, we beginto
see "appropriation" as an inadequateconceptto understand whatis truly
decisiveaboutmagicalrealismas the dominantmanifestation of literary
transculturation in contemporary LatinAmericantimes.
Los zorros,as it is said thatArguedasalwaysreferredto whatis now
knownas El zorrode arribay el zorrode abajo,publishedin 1971andlong
considereda failed,insufficientnovel,certainlynotone of Arguedas'sbest,
certainlynota partof theso-calledBoomof theLatinAmericannovel,is an
epochaltext for LatinAmericanculturein whichthe possibilityof a new
commemoration, thatis, a newreadingof boththepastandthefuturetradi-
tionsof LatinAmericanwriting,is given.'aWhatI proposeis to read,from
Arguedas'sepochaltext, andin it, an eventof heterogeneity whichmight
alterourunderstanding of magicalrealismas a centralideologemeforLatin
Americanculturalself-understanding. I will contendthatLoszorros,written
between 1966 and 1969, closes Latin American magic realism, or, better
said,revealsthatits conditionsof possibilityarealso at the sametime its
MagicalrealismafterArguedas,therewhereit is
conditionsof impossibility.
not a neocolonialistcommercialmystification,can only begin to repeat
Arguedas'sgesture,butcannot,structurallyspeaking,takeit anyfurtherthan
Arguedasdid, precisely because whatArguedasultimatelydid is to undo
magicalrealism,andits systemof representation. If the very tendencyof
magicalrealismis to seekits ownundoing(byfamiliarizing theunfamiliar),
thedestruction of thepossibilityof magicalrealismwill be shownto be the
momentof its maximumeffectiveness.Could the same be said about
transculturation?

III. IncalculableLoss
CornejoPolar'stheoryof literary inLatinAmerica,inwhich
heterogeneity
I readdisjunctionas theinescapabledimensionof culturalencounterwithin
TheLatin
theLatinAmericanliteraryartifact,hasbeenlargelydisattended."
Americancriticalestablishment, in the wakeof the Boom yearsand still
totallypossessedby the mirageof culturalpresencein the globalmarket,

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94 J N T

preferred to followa simplifiedversionof Rama'sideason transculturation,

whichformmoreor less thehegemonicif oftenunstatedparadigmforcriti-
cal reflectionon LatinAmericanliterature.Transculturation-that is, the
macroprocess of translation
by means of which of
elements one culture are
naturalized in anotherculture,notwithoutundergoing somechangesduring
the process--of courseinsistson conciliation,conjunction,anddialectical
unification of theglobalcultural field.Itis a productive model,butit is also
a modelwhichmustworkandevenfeeduponthesystematic erasure
of that
whichdoesnotfitintoit.AndthisRamaknewwell.
In Rama'shistorical analysis, the groupof narratorshe calls
"transculturators" (fundamentally, JuanRulfo,JoaioGuimaraes Rosa,Jose
MariaArguedas, andGabrielGarciaM~rquez) constitute a particular
form
of responseto thecrisisof accelerated modernization andintegration into
theworld-system thatMoretti alsoreferred to.Inthisspecifichistorical sense,
transculturation retains,fromregionalist writing, theneedfor"theconserva-
tion of thoseelementsfromthe pastwhichhadcontributed to cultural
singularization" and tries to "transmitthem to the future asa wayofpreserv-
ingacquired formations" ("Procesos" 205).Butthiskindofconditioned pres-
ervation comesata price.
Transculturation is a warmachine, feedingoncultural whose
difference,
principal functionis thereduction of thepossibility of radicalculturalhet-
erogeneity.Transculturation is apartofthe ideology of culturalproductionism,
indeeda systemicpartof a Western metaphysics of production, whichstill
retainsa strongcolonizing griponthecultural field.Arguedas's destruction
of magicalrealismis a gestureagainst transculturation: byreturning hetero-
geneityto whereit belongs,Arguedasunmasksthe reconcilingtacticsof
transculturation anddefiance."In a briefbut im-
as cureor "appropriation
portantspeechdeliveredin October1968,at the IncaGarcilasode la Vega
Awardceremony,Arguedassaid:"I am not acculturated, I am a Peruvian
whoproudly,likea happydemon,speaksChristianandIndian,Spanishand
Quechua."'2 couldnotbe morethana reme-
ForArguedas,transculturation
has sadlyhappened.And he has strong
dial step takenafteracculturation
words for acculturation:"an overcome nation giving up her soul . . . and
takingup the soul of the victors"(257).Arguedas'sdemonis the uncanny
will to speakthe two languages,to live in two cultures,to feel with two
souls:a doubleddemon,a demonof doubling,perhapshappybutalso mis-
chievous, as we shall see. In his affirmationof doubledness,Arguedasmakes
manifest his forceful rejection of the ideology of culturalconciliation, in-

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 TheEndofMagicalRealism 95

deed statinghis finalconvictionthat,at the culturallevel, therecan be no

conciliationwithoutforcedsubordination.
Loszorrosis apparently onlythepresentation of life in a new industrial
centerof the PeruvianPacificCoast.In Chimbotea huge industrialcon-
glomeratedevelopedduringthe 1960s,whosemainpurposewasto process
the fishingwealthof the SouthAmericanPacificintofishmealfor agricul-
turalandotherpurposes.Beforethishappened,Chimbotewas only an iso-
lated Peruvianbeach. Duringthe fishmealboom years it grew,throughmas-
sive immigration, intoa city manytensof thousandsof peoplestrong:most
of themmoreor less recentlyproletarianized peasants.The sociocultural
conflictsthatimmediately originated fascinatedandhorrified
Arguedas, who
cameto see Chimboteas theapotheosisof theAndeanfuture.ForArguedas,
at this point,a drasticallyurgentif perhapsalreadydesperatetask lay at
hand:to reappropriate,to resymbolize,life in Chimboteintoa possibleuto-
the
pia, onlyhope forthe future.Thereal-marvelous machinewasthenem-
blematically in place-or apparentlyso. But in that limit-situation
transculturationcouldonlyhappenas a failureof transculturation-through
thefailureitself.
Arguedas'spresentation of theChimboteuniverseis thoroughlydemon-
izedin two specificandthoroughly diverseways:first,becauseof theforce-
ful interpolationwithinthetextof diaryfragmentswhereArguedasrepeat-
edly manifestshis intentionto kill himselfunlessthenovelsomehowsaves
him;second,in ways thatwe couldconsiderproperlywithinthe magical-
realconventionalrepertoire, becauseof the enigmaticanddefamiliarizing
presencewithinthetextof thetwofoxes,thefox fromdownbelowandthe
fox from up above, obviously two huacas, as it is said in Quechua,two de-
monsor minordeitieswho makea briefbut significantappearance in the
sixteenth-centuryAndeanHuarochiri chronicle,fromwhichArguedastakes
them.Descriptionsof actuallife-situationsas Arguedaswitnessedthemin
his researchtripsto Chimbotealternatein the novelwithmagical-real mo-
mentsin whichtheconflictof culturesis violentlythematized,andalsowith
self-reflectivemomentsin whichcharacters talkwithcalmor despairabout
theirpredicament.
Arguedas'stext, andeven the very locationof the text, Chimbote,the
beachwherePerufinallymeetstransnational capitalism,arepresentedas
holes of the real,darkpools or darkwoundsof the world,wherea world
catastrophe ThetextsaysthatthewealthycapitalistBraschi
is happening.13
and the otherfishmealentrepreneurs (who are not merely,the text says,

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96 J N T

mealmakers
butalsomadmakers, becausetheyproducemadness) havetaken
"hasta
things donde no haysol ni luna"
["towhere there
is neither
sunnor
moon"](116).Theyhave,thatis, impossibly
takenthingsevenbeyondthe
realmof theblacksun,therewhere,asFreudputsit, theshadowof theobject
hasfallenuponthesubject.14
InChimbote,inArguedas'stextualhell,where
eventhenotionof shadowhasvanished, melancholy is anoptimisticdelu-
sion,a welcomerelieffromtheoverwhelming, alwayspending,psychotic
collapse.Loszorrosis a textwritten
in thefoldof a deathwish whosemost
intimate sensemayhavebeentowardoffa psychotic collapsewhichwould
nothavehadmerelypersonal implications.It is herewherethetwodimen-
sionsof thenovel,thefictional-ethnographic andtheautobiographical or
autothanatographical,cometogetherseamlessly."5 Arguedas's narcissistic
psychosisfindsits world-catastrophic symbolin Chimbote. Thatis why
Chimbote, inArguedas's is apostsymbolic
representation, world,wherecon-
ciliationhasyieldedtorenunciation:
a limit-world whereArguedas wantsto
fightthelosingbattleof resignification.
Arguedas's lastwordonthepossibility of resignification,
aswewillsee,
doesnotcometousthrough magical-real but
demonization, through itsother
side:throughsuicideas transculturation's end.It is suicidethatreadsthe
magical-real.The fact thatit does not happenthe otherway aroundis of
coursecrucialnotjustforthehistoryof LatinAmerican butalso
literature,
forthetheoretical
understandingof thelimitsoftransculturation.
Arguedas's
suicidemustbereadnotastheendofthenovel,butnecessarily asthenovel's
own end.'"
In a letterthe definitiveredactionof whichtakesplaceon the fifth of
Novemberof 1969,afterArguedashas alreadymadea finaldecisioncon-
cerninghisdeath,hesays:

I willnotsurvive
thebook.SinceI amsurethatmyabilities
andweapons asa creator..,.
haveweakened tonear-nullity
andI onlyhaveleftthosewhowouldreducemetothecondi-
tionof animpotent of theformidable
andpassivespectator
that is
struggle Humanitycarrying oninPeruandeverywhere,
it wouldnotbepossibleformetotolerate
sucha fate.(250)

This"formidable whichis notjusta struggleof theQuechuapeople,

struggle,"
notonlya Peruvian ownstruggle,
butHumanity's
struggle, is thestruggle
forthenewbeginning
inwhichArguedas tobelieve,andwhich
hadattempted

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 TheEndofMagical
Realism 97

he hadattemptedto bringintoexistence,his wholelife. Anotherepistolary

text,whichis, liketheonejustcited,alsoincorporated
to thenovelas such,
is evenclearer:

Perhapswithmeacycleis beginning tocloseandanother one

is openingupinPeruandwhatPerurepresents: thecycleof
thecomforting ofthewhipping,
larkisclosing, themuleteering,
theimpotent hate,ofthefunerealuprisings,ofthefearof God
andthedominance of thatGodandhisproteg6s, hismakers;
thecycleof lightandof theinvincible liberating of the
force
Vietnam manis opening up,of thefire lark,of theliberating
God. (245-46)'7

Arguedas'snew beginning,in whichthe old Tawantinsuyo notionof the

pachacutiyor cosmiccycle is quiteactive,his beliefin the newbeginning,
whichforceshimto removehimselfonce he is no longerstrongenoughto
sharein the "bloodystruggleof thecenturies" (246),dominatesthetotality
of Loszorros.Atthebeginningof thenovel,when
of thetextualconstruction
thefoxesareconversing,theytelleachotherthatthisis onlythesecondtime
theymeetin 2500 years,anominousevent(49).
Arguedas'smadnessandsuicidearea resultof hislifelongstruggleto opt
outof a systemof reasonwhichconstituteditselfin andthroughtheexclu-
sionof Quechuapeasantsfromthe verypossibilityof sanity.If Lienhardis
rightwhenhe says that"incontemporary Quechuapoetry"thereis an "al-
mostobsessivepresence" ofAndeanmessianism,prophecy, andutopianism,
if thatmessianismis alwaysunderstood to be theannouncement of a histori-
calbreak,andif thatbreakis consistently
relatedto thepachacutiy(Lienhard,
Voz221),thena workwrittenon thehorizonof thebreakandleading,as Los
zorrosled, to vitalexhaustion,cannotjust be readas a personalsymptom.
Rather,Arguedas'spersonalis political,andhis libidinaleconomymustin-
deedbe readin thecontextof thedifficult,perhapsimpossible(re)formation
of a nationalallegorywhosenecessity,in today'sPeru,doesnot needto be
emphasized."8
Arguedas,whowasbornin 1911in a smallvillageof thePeruvianAndes
(Andahuaylas), sufferedthe deathof his motherwhenhe was threeyears
old. His father,a travellingjudge,was forcedto leave his child for long
periodsof timein thecompanyof Quechuaservants.Quechuawastherefore
his firstlanguage,butwithit he alsonecessarilylearnedhis socialdifference

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98 1 N T

from it, a painful split which would haunt him all the way through his
professionalization(first as a teacherof Spanish, then as an ethnologist of
Quechuaculture,and finally as a writerof literature),and his socialist poli-
tics, possibly to his death.RobertoGonzalez Echevarria,among others, has
not hesitatedto point out thatArguedas"felt within himself the contradic-
tions and the tragedyinherentin the relationshipbetween anthropologyand
literaturewith an intensitythat in 1969 led him to choose suicide"(15). For
Arguedas,of course, the conflict between anthropologyand literaturewas
always somethingmoreandsomethingless thana disciplinaryconflict, since
it was also the violentlyfelt conflictbetweentwo partsof his soul, andthe
producer of a seriousnarcissisticwoundwhichArguedasultimatelycameto
love too passionately, morethanlife itself.
CanArguedas'ssuicidebe readas an actof "unwriting" suchas the one
Gonzilez Echevarria claimsis impliedin everymodificationof the Latin
Americanarchive?If anthropology, or an anthropological desire,marked
indeedin 1969,as GonzilezEchevarria has argued,thehegemonicliterary
paradigmin LatinAmerica,is Loszorrosjustanotherinstanceof thatdomi-
nance,or,on the contrary, does it announcethe end of the anthropological
paradigmandin so doingprefigurea reconfiguration of theArchivewhose
breakwiththepreviousonegoes furtherthananythingyet seensince 1492?
Arguedas'sunwritingof himself,his self-erasure, whichis also,as we shall
see, a portentousformof self-inscription, is not too farfrommatching,all
too literally,GonzalezEchevarria's notionof archivalgaps.19
Magicalrealismfindsits finaltheoreticalmoment,or its abysmalmo-
ment,in November28, 1969.ThatdayJos6MariaArguedascommitssui-
cide in his own officeat theAgrarianUniversityof La Molina,in Lima.A
previous,failed attempt,whichhadtakenplace in April 1966 (therehad
beenanearlieronein 1944),is mentionedin theveryfirstlineof Loszorros:
"Iattempted to commitsuicide..,. in April1966"(7). Loszorrosendswith
thefollowingwords:

Nov.28, 1969.I choosethisdaybecauseit won'tinterfereso

muchwiththefunctioning of theUniversity.
I thinktheregis-
trationperiodwill be over.I mightmakemy friendsandthe
authorities
wasteSaturday andSunday,butit (sic)belongsto
themandnotto theU. (J.M.A). (255)

After writing those words,Arguedasput two bullets throughhis head, two

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 TheEndofMagicalRealism 99

final affirmations of his will to death.Perhapsunsettlingly,the end of the

novel figuresthemor allegorizesthemin thoserepetitionsof the last sen-
tence (a bulletfor my friendsanda bulletfor the authorities,a bulletfor
Saturday,and a bulletfor Sunday,a bulletfor them,and a bulletfor the
University:Arguedasis addressingthe voices thatwouldstill yell at him
fromthedepthsof his neurosis,buthe is alsoperhapsattracting attentionto
thefactthattwo bulletswerecoming,hadcome,andnotjustone:twopow-
erfuldiacriticalmarkssymbolizingthe final identityof the novel andthe
writer'sdeadbody).
Doesthisbook,whichArguedas's widow,SybilaArredondo, wouldpub-
lishtwo yearslater,endwiththeprefiguration of thosetwo shots,or doesit
endwiththe shotsthemselves?: they arenot a final periodthroughhis brain
buta colon,signing(off)anequivalencybetweenthetextthatArguedasleft
on his office deskandhis doublyperforated corpse.El zorrode arribay el
zorrode abajowill alwayshave to be read as fantasmatized by the writer's
cadaver,givenArguedas's signature effect,giventhefactthatArguedas signed
theendof thebookwithtwobullets.El zorrode arribay el zorrode abajois
reallya cryptwherethedeadbodyof thewriterstilllives, anundeadwriter,
anundeadauthor,as everyreaderwhohasreadin utterperplexityhowdeath
silentlyandinexorablycomesArguedas'sway knowsverywell. The death
of the authoris heretrulyinseparablefromthe novel'svery statusas an
artwork,thatis, it can'tbe readawayfromit.
Forgues has warned against the possible superficialityof thinking that
the apparentinconclusiveness of the narrative"can be a [willed] mode of
articulationof the text with History, and that [Arguedas's]suicide would
amountto a kind of justificationof the open-narrativetechniquetakento its
last consequences"(313). I agree thatit is not a matterof being reductiveor
of oversimplifying.At the same time, however,Los zorroscomes to be abso-
lutely cannibalizedby that whichconstitutesit as a posthumousobject:
Arguedas's suicide,afterall,cannotin anywaybe understoodoreventhought
independently of the problemsthatthe text exposes,for the very fact that
suicideis thematizedandpresentedby Arguedashimselfas thatwhichwill
happenunlessthetextsaveshim,whileall thewhilesayingthatit probably
won't.
We know, from a letter writtenthe thirty-firstof Octoberof 1969 to his
DepartmentChair at the University, that the writing of Los zorros is, as
Arguedasputs it, "a partof the therapeutictreatmentI was told to undergo"

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100 J N T

afterhis second attemptat suicide in April 1966 (295). The novel itself says it
to fightdeathby writing.I thinkthe
overandoveragain:"Itis notdisgraceful
doctorsmaybe right"(19).And:

I havefoughtagainstdeathorI believeto havefoughtagainst

deathbywritingthisfaltering,
whining I hadfewand
narrative.
herallieshavewon.Theyarestrongand
weakallies,hesitant;
theywerewellsheltered in myownflesh.Thisunequal narra-
tiveis animageof theunequal fight.(243)

Writinghis textwasa fightagainstdeathwhichendedupbeinga yieldingto,

andanembraceof, death,as if deathwereindeeda restfulpresence.
Understanding howtheauthor'sdeathcanalsoatthesametimebe herethe
figureof an is of coursean issueof extraordi-
utopianspaceof regeneration
narydifficulty,butin whichthe verypossibilityof a writingof mourningcomes
G6mezMango,in a brilliantandunfortunately
to be decided.Edmundo brief
has
paper, acknowledged thiswithgoodcritical
economy:

novelistic
Arguedas's language and
is nevermoreinebriating
powerfulthanwhenhe comesto theedgeof thehuaycoof his
owndestruction;it is as if hecouldonlyfindorinventthepleni-
tudeof hiswritingintheimminence of hisown,final,andsilent
disaster.(367)

For G6mez Mango Los zorros is a writingof the lost object, and it is all the
moresuccessfulas suchthemorethewritingis impliedin itsowncatastrophe.
"Mourning forthelostobjecthasnotbeenaccomplished. Themagicalriteof
in
writing order notto die fails in its own victory"(368)(since,I wouldadd,
dyingis postponedfor as long as writinglasts,butno longer).Becausethe
writingin Los zorrosis a commemoration of anincalculableloss, it canonly
satisfyitselfwithina horizonof loss.InthissenseArguedas's death,withinthe
textualcontextin whichwe learnof it, is essentiallya writingevent,anevent
of writing.ButArguedas's deathis alsoanoptingoutof writingaltogether. In
suicide,Arguedascomesto theendof writing.By comingto theendof writ-
ing,Arguedastakeswritingto its veryend,therewhereit revealsitselfas an
instrument preciselybecauseit loses the powerto signify.I
of signification,
wantto readthisfactin thelightof themagical-real machinethatArguedasis
all thewhiletryingto setintounfaltering motionin Chimbote.

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 TheEndofMagicalRealism 101

IV.A NegativeAccomplishment
Loszorrosopensupa newcycleof LatinAmericanwritingbecauseit closes
thepossibilityof ananthropological writingin GonzdlezEchevarria's sense,
or even in the sensein whichLienhard,one of the leadingArguedasschol-
ars,hastheorizedwhathe calls"ethnofiction." It is notthatafterLoszorros
ethnofictionoranthropological narrative
areno longerpossible,butthatLos
zorrosoffersitselfas a decisivetextin whichtheconditionsof impossibility
of anthropological fictionareshownas such--conditionsof impossibility,
thatis, insofaras we makethemdependon epistemological paralysis,noton
ethicalor even politicalgrounds.Los zorrosmarksthe theoreticalend of
anthropologicalethnofictionbecauseLos zorros takes anthropological
ethnofictionto a breakingpoint.In thatbreakingpoint,magicalrealism,as
the organizingprincipleof ethnofiction,is epistemologically shatteredbe-
causeit is revealedto be inexorablydependentuponthe subordination of
indigenous cultures to an always alreadyWestern-hegemonicmachine of
transculturation: to modernizationitself.
Referring to Lienhard'sextensive investigation on Quechua elements
within the text, Cornejorisksthe following statement:"InEl zorrode arriba
y el zorrode abajo the Andeancomponentsareof such a magnitudeandthey
exertsuchdecisivefunctions,thatit is legitimateto thinkthatin thatnovel,
forthefirsttime,indigenousrationality comesto accountformodernity[da
raz6nde la modernidad]" ("Ensayo" 303).Thatit mayindeedbe legitimate
to thinkso givesyouanideaof theveryhigh,epochalstakesthatLoszorros
hadsetforitself.Wedo notneedto accepttheliteraltruthof CornejoPolar's
statementin orderto acceptthatsuchan intentionality hadpartiallyorches-
tratedthewritingof thebook.Theothersideof thenovel'stherapeutic fail-
ureis thenthe gift of a culturalinstrument in which,for the firsttime, as
LienhardandCornejounderline,the oppressingrationalitycomes,at least
tendentially,to be containedby a formof understanding thatcannotbe ac-
countedforwithinits parameters.
WhatI wouldconsidertheepochaleventthatLoszorrosembodiesis the
factthatsuch(tendential) upturning of perspectivesis necessarilyandirre-
vocably framed in thecatastrophic of a suicidethatabsolutelysuspends
aura
all feelingsof victoryor of liberation:andthusanypossibilityof "accom-
plishment," unlesswe speakof anaccomplishment of "negation" inthesame
wayin whichwe couldspeakof a negativetheology(whichis by thewaythe
object of a rathersecretbut extensive treatmentin the book). Let me put it in

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102 J N T

a clearerway: if those two shots at the end of the book, the sinister colon,
signal the symbolic equivalency between Los zorros and Arguedas's dead
body,then it is undeniablethatArguedasis deadbecause he paidthe price, or
at any rate he thoughthe paid the price, writing imposed on him; and that
such a price is literallythe impossibilityof paying the price. The upturning
of the culturalperspectivewithin the book, the substitutionof what Forgues
calls tragic for dialecticalthinking,of Quechuafor Spanishrationality-all
of that drainedhim, and made him suspect that his own personal sacrifice,
redundantat that point as it may have been for anybodybut Arguedashim-
self, was essential for the novel to accomplishwhat it had to accomplish-
negatively.
I do not think thatArguedas'sepochal accomplishmentagainst any and
all transculturation,namely,a text where a non-hegemonicrationalitycould
be thoughtto account,thatis, to give the very principleof reason,for moder-
nity itself, I do not think such an accomplishment,on which we will never
have reflected enough, can be read over, beyond, or apartfrom Arguedas's
textual,literal,suicide.At the momentwhereArguedas'sinnertension made
it possibleforhimto bringthereal-marvelous
machineintoits mostproper
position,at thatmomentthe nonsynchronouscontradiction
reverseditself,
and arrestensued. The result was, of course, not that a punctualmoment of
noncontradictionresulted,but that an aporeticgap of meaning opened up,
anddisjunctionofferedincalculableloss, a finalarrestof productivity.
But with it the LatinAmericantransculturating
machinecame to its end,
in the doublesenseof epochalculminationandof equallyepochalexhaus-
tion. It is in thatsense,in the senseof the doublesense,thatthe novel tri-
umphsthroughitsveryfailure.Cornejopossiblypointsin thesamedirection
whenhe says:"Paradoxically, the highestinterestandvaluein Arguedas's
lastnovelis to be, tragicallybutenlighteningly, testimony..,.of unresolved
contradictions, uponwhich..,.it configuresitselfas a workof art"("Ensayo"
301). Except that I do not think the contradictionsare unresolved:the most
extrememomentof transculturation, of transculturation,
the transculturation
results,and resolvesitself, in aporetic,unreconstructible loss. Throughit
Arguedas's suicidemarks the beginning of an alternativesystemof writing:
a "defianceof disappropriation,"a writingof dis-affect,anantimodern writ-
ing wherebyhis textcomesto presentitself as a passionatesignifierof the
endof signification.Buttheendof significationis notyet thelastword.
Arguedaswill removehimself,thelastmanof theoldcycle,so thata new
cycle maybegin.Thatis why in a letterwrittenthe twenty-seventh of No-

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 TheEndofMagicalRealism 103

vember,thatis, the daybeforehis suicide,andincludedas suchwithinthe

novel,Arguedasmentions,almostcasually,thathisnovelis "casiinconclusa"
["almostunfinished"] (252).Itis "almostunfinished" becausehe hadnotyet
killedhimself,buthe hadalreadytakenthe irrevocabledecisionto do so.
AfterArguedas'ssuicidethe novel will andwill not be finished,simulta-
neouslyandundecidably: no otherinterpretation of "casiinconclusa"is, to
my mind,possible,although I realizethatthis interpretationis basedupon
theveryunreadability of Arguedas's phrase.Arguedas'ssuicideis, properly
speaking,theendof thebook.Arguedas's radicaldisincorporation is alsothe
investitureof his book,throughanunheard-of actof identification, withthe
phantasmatic auraof hisownsplit,melancholic identity:thustestifyingabout
thefinalimpossibilityof transculturation. WithandthroughArguedas'ssui-
cide, Los zorros'sconditionsof literarypossibilityopen themselvesonto
theirconditionsof impossibility. Wearefarherefrom"anampleovercom-
ing of modernization" in Rama's sense.
But whataboutmagicalrealism?Beyondany andall magical-realepi-
sodesin thetext,everyintervention of thefoxes,everypiercingsoundof the
bug calledOnqurayOnquray, the ominous messenger,everyyunsaandev-
ery yawarmayu,andevery song of the mountainduckswhichgives the
foxestheabilityto understand thesoulof theworld,Arguedas'sdeathis the
truestmagical-realeventof the novel, as it gives itself in testimonyof a
violentconflictof culturesthatwill notbe mediatedaway.Arguedas'sdeath
is a fissureinthetextualsensewhichparadoxically organizesthetext'spleni-
tudeof sense:meaning,in this novel,resultsfrommeaning'sabsoluteim-
plosion.
As an eventof writingplacedbetweenthe novel'sfailureandfailure's
otherside,a rift,a gap,a bulletholeof totaldisjunction opensitself:as soon
as meaningemerges,it needsto be erasedanew.Orbetter,meaningis here
the necessityof its erasure.GuidoPodestdhas pointedout thatLos zorros
represents"theirresolution of an aporia"(101), implyingthatin whatwe
couldcall the andinization of modernitythereis nothinglike emancipation.
ForPodesti,Los zorroswitnesses"theemergency,understanding it as the
unexpectedappearance, of the postmoderncondition in Peru" (101). This
emergence/emergency, at the sametime event anddanger,is aporetically
resolvedin thetext:doubt,theextremeperplexitybetweentheandinization
of modernityandtherapeutic failure,will not remainstable.Everyaporia
inducesa momentof loss, in whichthefightforsenseis negativelysolved,
solvedinnegativity: thatis ultimatelythe"unequality" of Arguedas's struggle,

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104 1 N T

andhis legacy.Arguedas'srenunciationof the "rhetoricof innocence"desta-

bilizes to an extremethe conciliationof "magic"and "empire"which is the
price of the incorporationof LatinAmericanwritinginto the world-system.
Theloss attheendof magicalrealismmakesit difficultto readthemagi-
cal-realisttraditionas a traditionin whichnationalallegoryis the ultimate
account.Arguedasshows thatthe magical-realmomentis tendentiallya
momentin whichthenationalallegory,on theothersideof its utopiandirec-
tives, opens onto its colonizingsubstratum. Magicalrealismcomes with
Arguedas toitstheoreticalimpossibilitybecauseArguedasshowshowmagical
realismis animpossiblesceneof emancipatory stagedfroma
representation
colonizingperspective. Arguedasdestroysthegoodfaithof a deludedenter-
prise.Andhe offersno alternative, otherthaninsight.
Arguedas's suicideoccurs, us, as a languageevent.It is an illegible
for
one, in the sensethatit opensa fissurebetweenlanguageandsignification.
Maybe all languageevents do just that:they producethemselvesby showing
illegibility, disparitybetween meaning and the materialityof the sign. Per-
hapsthenaneventis moreof anevent,themoreillegibleit is. As you open
yourselfto theevent,theeventbecomesmoreandmoredifficultto inscribe
Anevent,a languageevent,is anexcesswhose
in a processof signification.
senseis onlygivenin its recess,its withdrawal. As Jean-LucNancyputsit,
aneventis thatwhichexposestheexcessof meaningoveranyaccomplish-
mentof signification.20 Thelanguageeventoffersa possibilityfor thinking
in whichthoughtfleetinglybecomesa totalresistanceto sense.Thinking,an
excessof sense,will dependthenuponthepossibilityof loss of sense.
This loss of sense withinnarrativeorganizesthe languageevent as an
instanceof denarrativization.Arguedas'ssuicide,theendof thenarrative, is
a momentof denarrativization. It has an epistemologicalimportwhichaf-
fects the LatinAmericanliterarytraditionat the archivallevel.Arguedas's
suicide,the denarrativization of narrativewithinthe narrative,is the most
intense,and thereforethemost illegibleaccomplishment of magicalrealism.
Because it brings magical realism to its fulfillment, it breaksmagical real-
ism,it bringsit to theendof its narrative.
WithArguedas'sliteraryact, LatinAmericanfoundationalutopianism
comesto its end.Arguedaslosesforus alltracesof thepossibilityof a magi-
cal-realmediationof cultures,just as muchas he loses the possibilityof a
finalconciliationbetweenlandandthe human,betweenculturesandwhat
we haveinsistedon callingculture,againstall evidence.He thereforealso

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 TheEndofMagical
Realism 105

signalstheendof theanthropological
paradigmforliterarypractice:so that
thecycle of thefirelarkmay,perhaps,begin.

DukeUniversity
Durham,NorthCarolina

Notes
1 SeeAntonioCornejoPolar,Formacidn 137-55,foranilluminating onthose
commentary
culturalstrugglesin Peruvianhistory.See alsoRama,Transculturaci6n
11-116,where
the conflictis studiedas a conflictbetween"regionalism"and"modernization,"
and
"Procesos" 203-33.

2. See Clifford117-51.See alsoDenisHollier,ed., College.EnricoMarioSantihasmen-

tionedthe influenceof the Collegede Sociologiein OctavioPaz'sEl laberintode la
soledad(98-106),butmuchremainsto be donein thewidercontextof LatinAmerican
contemporary literature.
3. Taussig'sbookaddsmanyotherfascinating insightsintoLatinAmericanmagicalreal-
ism. I havepreviouslystudiedsomeof them(Moreiras, "Restitution"
6-8, 21-24).See
alsoTaussig'sDevilandFredricJameson,"Magic," forworkon magicalrealismwhich
departsfromBloch'snotionof non-contemporaneity (Bloch97-116).Therecentcompi-
lationof articlesby LoisParkinsonZamoraandWendyB. Farisis veryuseful,although
I find the editorialpositionhighlycontroversial.
See also AmaryllChanady. Andof
courseChiampi.
4. ForFernandoOrtiz'sdevelopment of the notion,see Contrapunteo
129-35.See also
GustavoP6rezFirmat'sessayon Ortiz,Cuban16-33.
5. I amborrowing thenotionof "engagedrepresentation" fromStephenGreenblatt: "any
givenrepresentation is .. itself a social linked
relation, to the groupunderstandings,
status,hierarchies,
resistances, andconflictsthatexistin otherspheresof theculturein
whichit circulates"
(6).
6. Anotherwayof puttingit:althoughRama,forinstance,is quiteawareof thedifference
betweenliteraryandanthropological for him transculturation
transculturation, is still
something"tobe accomplished," ratherthansomethingthatsimplyhappens.In that
sensehe thoughtof Arguedas's workas "areducedmodelfor transculturation, where
onecouldshowandprovetheeventuality so thatif it waspossiblein
of itsactualization,
it was alsopossiblein therestof theculture"("Arguedas"
literature 15).All of thisof
coursedependsuponRama'snotionof transculturation as necessarily"successful"
thatis, a transculturation
transculturation, wherethedominated cultureis ableto register

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106 J N T

orinscribeitselfintothedominant. Thataninscription intothedominantcultureas such

maybe considered to constitutea success(andthenon-inscription thereforea failure),I
wouldargue,impliesa strongideologicalpositioningconcerning transculturationas an
everydayanthropological phenomenon (in fact,it ultimatelyimpliesthe acceptanceof
modernization as ideologicaltruthandworlddestiny).ForRama,therefore,and not
only forRama, transculturation is alwaysexcessivewithrespectto itself,andit always
alreadyincorporates a certain goal. It is obviousthatsucha goal mayor maynot be
sharedby othersubjectsof transculturation, who mayhavedifferentgoalsor maybe
blindto theirgoals,or maynothavea goal.Butif theydon'thavea goal theyarenot
transculturatorsin thecriticalsense,onlyin theanthropological sense.
7. Theyhave not remainedunreadby, amongothers,Forgues,WilliamRowe,Cornejo
Polar,orMartinLienhard, buthaveremained mostlyunreadin thesensethattheyhave
not beentakento bearuponthe LatinAmericanliteraryandculturaltradition,where
theyoperatea deepdestabilization.Althoughthisis nottheplaceformeto elaborateon
it, I wouldtendto understandArguedas'scriticalself-positioning
vis-h-visLatinAmeri-
canwritingin El zorro's"Primer diario"(7-23)fromthatparticular problem.Arguedas
hadto feel thathisBoomcontemporaries remained willfullyblindto whatwasforhima
literallyblindinglight.See Rama'scommentsin "Procesos" 225-26.
8. ForJameson,in waysthatwill powerfullyresonatefor anyreaderof Arguedas'slast
novel,"Third-world texts,eventhosewhichareseeminglyprivateandinvestedwitha
properlylibidinaldynamic--necessarily projecta politicaldimensionin the formof
nationalallegory:thestoryof theprivateindividualdestinyis alwaysanallegoryof the
embattledsituationof thepublicthird-world cultureandsociety"("Third WorldLitera-
I haven'tfounda textwherethosewordsdo notultimatelyprove
ture"69). Personally,
true:perhapsthe controversysurrounding them,andcertainlyin the case of Franco,
arisesfroma misunderstanding concerningtheterm"allegory."Inanycase,forArguedas's
lastnovel,thosewordsshouldconstitutesomethinglikeanepigraph.
9. Inparticular,Lienhard,Culturapopularandina,andCornejoPolar,Universosnarrativos.
undertheirnames.
Butsee alsotheshorteressayscitedin thebibliography

10. SaraCastro-Klar6n maybe quotedas anexampleof a criticalstateof affairswhichhas

possiblystarted
to changein recentyears:"Elsextoas well as El zorrode arribay el
de
zorro abajo areminornarrativeworks... [where]a desireto denouncerealitydomi-
thoseworksareweakin structure
nates.As a consequence, andin narrativedevelop-
ment"(200).I amin agreement El sexto.
regarding
11. See Cornejo,Literatura,
"Reflexiones" studyof
andEscribir.See alsoMabelMorafia's
in Cornejo,andMoreiras,"Storm."
thenotionof heterogeneidad

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 TheEndofMagical
Realism 107

12."Yono soy unaculturado," Zorro257.ApparentlyArguedashadwantedthattextto ap-

pearas a forewordto thenovel,butit hasalwaysbeenpublishedat its end.See Zorro
XXVIII.

13. OnChimbotesee C6sarCaviedes,"LatinAmericanBoom-Town."

14. SeeJuliaKristeva'sanalysisof depression

andmelancholiaentitledBlackSun.Ofcourse
the blacksunis a well-knownsymbolin LatinAmericanliterature: it canbe foundin
ErnestoSibato'sSobrehiroesy tumbasas well as in JulioCortizar'sRayuela,forin-
stance.Arguedasimprovesuponthatimageby denyingits expressivesufficiency.
15. On the generaltopicof literaryautobiography
in Arguedas,see IgnacioDiaz Ruiz's
interesting
monograph.See alsoVargasLlosaon literature
andsuicidein Arguedas.

16. Withhiscustomary precisionCornejoPolarremarks: "thedeathof thenarrator...leads

of thatatrociousfactas a silentsignwhichpermeates. . . thedis-
to the interpretation
coursethatprecedesit andannouncesit"("Ensayo" 304).
17. GustavoGutidrrezremarksthat,forArguedas,to say thatthe secondcycle is aboutto
beginor hasalreadybegundoesnotmeanthatthe firstone is over:"Hisverylife fell
prey to the clash between the cycles" (Arguedas:Culturae identidadnacional 37). For
of thetwocycles'imageryas referenceto an"anthropocen-
anextendedinterpretation
of the mythicalor the religious"
tricturn[which]does not implythe disappearance
(236), see PedroTrigo,Arguedas:Mito, historiay religidn,as well as Gutidrrez'scom-
bothpassim.Jos6MiguelOviedosuggeststhatthe
mentaryon it, "Entrelascalandrias,"
notionof the beginningof the firelarkcycle mightalso haveto do withthe political
eventsdeveloping inPeruatthetimeof writing:
the"militaryrevolution"
anditsindigenist
Arguedaswouldhavehad,according
rhetoric. to Oviedo,tremendous difficultydealing
withthe politicalimplementation of changesaffectingindigenoussocieties,whichon
the otherhandhe couldnot simplyoppose.ForOviedothatwas the "detonante" of
Arguedas's suicide(145).SeeSybilaArredondo's presentationof Arguedas's
correspon-
dencebetween1966and1969to understand furtherArguedas's psychologicalandintel-
lectualcrisis.

18. See, for instance,amongotherpossibletexts,Jos6MatosMar'sDesborde,the classic

Buscandouninca,by AlbertoFloresGalindo,andthepertinentsectionsof OrinStarn,
CarlosIvanDeGregori& RobinKirk,eds., ThePeruReader.Of courseArguedas's
suicideis also an expressionof radicalskepticismaboutthe formationof a Peruvian
stateof justice.Arguedas'snovelputsthe nationalallegoryon its head,or breaksit,
whileatthesametimebeingentirelycontainedwithinit. InthatsenseI saidearlierthat
ArguedastakestheJamesonian modelas faras it cango in orderthento turnit against
of a new"cycle"of historicaltimenotwithstanding.
itself,theaffirmation

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108 J N T

19. The"unwriting" of LatinAmericanhistorysignalsforGonzAlez Echevarria the begin-

ning of the writingof the "Archive," a "modebeyondanthropology" (15). Archival
writingis forhimthe"razing" of the"various mediations throughwhichLatinAmerica
was narrated, thesystemsfromwhichfictionborrowedthetruth-bearing forms,erased
to assumethe new mediationthatrequiresthislevel-ground of self andhistory"(17).
But for GonzAlezEchevarria "whatis left for the novelafterLospasosperdidosand
Cienaiiosde soledad"is simply"fictionitself"(18).The"voidingof theanthropologi-
cal mediation" (20) resultsin "a relentlessmemorythatdisassemblesthe fictionsof
myth,literature andevenhistory"(23),butsuchmemoryis itselftheliterarysystemas a
fictionalsystem.AlthoughGonzAlez Echevarria's modelis verypowerful,it doesn'tyet
provideforthepossibilityof developingstronginternaldistinctions regarding archival
writing.There is a sensein which Arguedas, the
by ultimately"voiding anthropological
mediation," alsoatthesametimedestabilizes thearchiveasliterarysystem.If Loszorros
is indeedarchivalwriting,it is only so to theextentthatit is also anti-archival,for it
showsthe verypretenseof archivalconstitution as alwaysalreadyinsufficient,always
alreadyinvestedin a projectof "overcoming modernization" throughanintensification
of modernism. Thereis aninteresting hesitationin MythandArchive: towardtheendof
thefirstchapter,afterexplainingthenotionof theArchiveas thatwhichputsanendto
the anthropological paradigm, GonzAlez Echevarria doubtshis own wordsby saying:
"thecurrentmode,perhapsbeyondthe anthropological mediation,thelocuson which
my own textis situated" (40;my emphasis).Perhaps limitsof theArchivearealso
the
thelimitsof transculturation, whichLoszorros,muchmoreso thanLospasosperdidos
orCienaflosde soledad,andeveninessentiallydifferentandoppositeways,thematizes.
Arguedas, withhislastnovel,announces thevoidingof theArchiveitself,oritsloss:not
archivalgaps, but the archiveas gap.
20. See Oubli70-71.ButNancy'sentirebookis concernedwiththethinkingof therelation-
shipsbetween and
meaning signification in sensesthathaveinfluencedthe writingof
myessay.

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