Argentina: Stories for a Nation

302 Pages·2008·1.11 MB·English

by  Amy K. Kaminsky

Argentina
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Argentina
Stories for a Nation
Amy K.Kaminsky
University ofMinnesota Press
Minneapolis
London
Copyright 2008 by the Regents ofthe University ofMinnesota
All rights reserved.No part ofthis publication may be reproduced,stored in
a retrieval system,or transmitted,in any form or by any means,electronic,
mechanical,photocopying,recording,or otherwise,without the prior written
permission ofthe publisher.
Published by the University ofMinnesota Press
111 Third Avenue South,Suite 290
Minneapolis,MN 55401-2520
http://www.upress.umn.edu
Library ofCongress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Kaminsky,Amy K.
Argentina :stories for a nation / Amy K.Kaminsky.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8166-4948-8 (hc :alk.paper) — ISBN 978-0-8166-4949-5
(pb :alk.paper)
1. Argentina—In literature. 2. Argentina—In motion pictures.
3. Argentina—Foreign public opinion. I. Title.
PN56.3.A74K36 2008
809'.9335882—dc22 2008011877
Printed in the United States ofAmerica on acid-free paper
The University ofMinnesota is an equal-opportunity educator and employer.
15 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
For Kenny
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Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Preface xi
ONE
Bartered Butterflies 1
TWO
Identity Narratives;or,It Takes Two to Tango 18
THREE
Imperial Anxieties 35
FOUR
Europe’s Uncanny Other 51
FIVE
Victoria Ocampo and the Keyserling Effect 70
SIX
The Race for National Identity 99
SEVEN
The Other Within 122
EIGHT
The Outlaw Jews ofBuenos Aires 138
NINE
Dirty War Stories 158
TEN
Violent Exclusions 183
ELEVEN
The Persistence ofMemory 203
Notes 231
Bibliography 261
Index 275
Acknowledgments
I am indebted to the American Council of Learned Societies for a re-
search grant that enabled me to write this book.By the same token,the
volume would not have been written had it not been for the generous
support ofthe University ofMinnesota,which not only granted me the
gift of unfettered time in the form of research leaves but also gave me
financial support through the McKnight Foundation and its own grant-
in-aid funds.Some ofthat money paid for the invaluable research assis-
tance of Danielle Bouchard,Papori Bora,Elakshi Kumar,and Patricia
McGurk.
Many friends and colleagues saw me through the research and writ-
ing of Argentina: Stories for a Nation.Martha Peach opened her library
to me and fed me,body and soul,in the beauty ofthe Gredos Mountains.
Martha and other members ofthe Gredos Book Club (Nadette De Groot,
Martha Handyside,Teresa Dorn,Isabel Cortés,Maria Stella Ceplecha,
Lynn Bergunde,and Melinda Jackson) patiently listened as I tried out
my ideas,and they gave me encouragement and support from the time
I began this project in their company.Pilar Crespo generously provided
me with an apartment in Madrid, where I wrote the first half of the
manuscript.
The Centro de Arte Moderno in Madrid and Washington University
in St. Louis were kind enough to invite me to present my work in
progress. Their smart, incisive audiences posed questions and offered
comments that helped widen the scope of the book. The anonymous
manuscript reviewers for the University of Minnesota Press did the
ix