Peripheral (post) modernity : the syncretist aesthetics of Borges, Piglia, Kalokyris and Kyriakidis

316 Pages·2007·6.28 MB·English

by  Borges

Peripheral (Post) Modernity
PETER LANG
New York ! Washington, D.C./Baltimore ! Bern
Frankfurt am Main ! Berlin ! Brussels ! Vienna ! Oxford
Eleni Kefala

Peripheral (Post) Modernity

The Syncretist Aesthetics of Borges,
Piglia, Kalokyris and Kyriakidis

PETER LANG
New York ! Washington, D.C./Baltimore ! Bern
Frankfurt am Main ! Berlin ! Brussels ! Vienna ! Oxford
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Kefala, Eleni.
Peripheral (post) modernity: the syncretist aesthetics of Borges,
Piglia, Kalokyris and Kyriakidis / Eleni Kefala.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
1. Borges, Jorge Luis, 1899– —Influence. 2. Borges, Jorge Luis, 1899– —-Aesthetics.
3. Postmodernism (Literature). 4. Argentine literature—20th century—
History and criticism. 5. Greek literature, Modern—20th century—History
and criticism. 6. Piglia, Ricardo--Aesthetics. 7. Kalokyres, Demetres,
1948– —Aesthetics. 8. Kyriakides, Achilleas—Aesthetics. I. Title.
PQ7797.B635Z768 809'.9113—dc22 2006012706
ISBN-13: 978-0-8204-8639-0
ISBN-10: 0-8204-8639-6

Bibliographic information published by Die Deutsche Bibliothek.
Die Deutsche Bibliothek lists this publication in the “Deutsche
Nationalbibliografie”; detailed bibliographic data is available
on the Internet at http://dnb.ddb.de/.

Cover design by Lisa Barfield
based on a concept by Nazish Zaidi

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Printed in Germany
for Michalis who opened up the world for me
and for Ioanna who always wanted to travel it but left early

CONTENTS
Acknowledgments........................................................................................... ix
Introduction........................................................................................ 1
General........................................................................................................ 1
Argentina and Greece: Parallel Historical, Political and
Socio-Economic Trajectories in Modernity............................................... 4
Chapter 1
Peripheral (Post) Modernity and Syncretist Aesthetics:
The Case of Argentina and Greece.................................................... 19
Modernity and Periphery............................................................................ 19
Cultural Reactions to Modernity: The Historical Avant-Garde,
Modernism, Postmodernism....................................................................... 27
Postmodernity and Periphery: Syncretism, Hybridity and
Amphi-Models............................................................................................. 33
Argentina and Greece: Parallel Ideological and
Cultural Trajectories in (Post) Modernity.................................................. 48
Chapter 2
Jorge Luis Borges: El Delta, or, The Alchemy of
Syncretism........................................................................................... 65
Borges and the Alchemist’s Cell.................................................................. 65
The Alchemy of Syncretism: Fantasy, Irony, Short Story.......................... 72
Lost in Translation..................................................................................... 101
viii | Contents
Chapter 3
Ricardo Piglia: The Syncretist Machine............................................ 113
Buenos Aires and the Experience of (Post) Modernity............................. 113
The Syncretist Machine of Irreverent Peripheries:
Moral Stories in the Contemporary Wor(l)d............................................ 118
The Poet on his Island: Impossible Geographies/Possible Stories........... 132
Chapter 4
Dimitris Kalokyris: A Craftsman of Syncretist Craters.................... 157
Kalokyris, Borges and (Post) Modern Greece........................................... 157
Making (Hi)Stories: Irreverence on the Sidewalks.................................... 167
A Craftsman of Syncretist Craters............................................................. 189
Chapter 5
Achilleas Kyriakidis: False Testimonies............................................ 205
Kyriakidis and Borges: Encounter, Politicising Readings,
Turning Points............................................................................................ 205
A (Hi)Story of Perversion.......................................................................... 220
Thick as Thieves: Conspiratorial Games in the Jerusalem
of Borgesian Labyrinths............................................................................. 247
Conclusion.......................................................................................... 255
Periphery and Post(?)Modernity: A Contribution to the
Ideological Debates of Latin Americanists and Neohellenists.................. 255
Notes............................................................................................................ 263
Bibliography.................................................................................................. 269
Index............................................................................................................ 285
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The evolution of this book owes a great personal and intellectual debt to
Elias Geoffrey Kantaris and Dimitris Tziovas, whose thoughtful suggestions,
endless patience and goodwill supported me during my graduate years at
Cambridge.
I need to acknowledge Alison Sinclair’s, Paul Julian Smith’s and Steven
Boldy’s role in my initiation into Hispanic literature during my early years in
Cambridge as well as David Holton’s and Anthony Close’s valuable assistance.
The work of Piglia, Kalokyris and Kyriakidis has been formative in my
thinking on peripheral postmodernity and syncretist aesthetics. I am deeply
indebted to them for numerous warm and inspirational conversations and for
their trust in me. Special thanks to Kyriakidis for permission to reproduce
unpublished material.
My Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania
provided me with the time I needed to complete this work. I would like to
express my great appreciation to the people of the Penn Humanities Forum:
Wendy Steiner, Peter Stallybrass, Jennifer Conway and Sara Sherger as well
as to Carlos Alonso for his advice.
Special thanks to Dimitris Angelatos and Sylvia Valdés for their enduring
support and to Carlos Spinedi for sharing with me his memories of Borges.
I must acknowledge my gratefulness to Stephanos Stephanidis and Djelal
Kadir for their constant encouragement and to Rakhee Balaram and Rory O’
Brien for several constructive discussions. My sincere regards to Ana-María
Barrenechea, Cristina Piña and Ivonne Bordelois for providing bibliographic
guidance, and to Francine Masiello for her welcoming comments. Many
thanks to the staff of the libraries of the University of Buenos Aires and the
University of Athens for infrastructural support.