The Representation of Nazism and World War II in the Literature of Argentina and Mexico

208 Pages·2017·3.58 MB·English

“The Representation of Nazism and World War II in the Literature of Argentina and Mexico”

By
© 2017
Javier Barroso

Submitted to the graduate degree program in Spanish and Portuguese and the Graduate Faculty
of the University of Kansas in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of
Philosophy.

________________________________
Chair, Verónica Garibotto

________________________________
Stuart Day

________________________________
Vicky Unruh

________________________________
Rafael Acosta

________________________________
Marike Janzen

Date Defended: July 25, 2017
ii

The Dissertation Committee for Javier Barroso
certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation:

“The Representation of Nazism and World War II in the Literature of Argentina and Mexico”

________________________________
Chair, Verónica Garibotto

Date approved: July 25, 2017
iii
Abstract
Since the 1960s Nazism, the Holocaust, Adolf Hitler, the atomic bomb, and World War II
have been recurring tropes in Argentine and Mexican literature, demanding to be studied as an
overarching phenomenon that has existed for decades in these two countries. These works have
mostly been studied as indirect references to the Argentine dictatorship or to the current wave of
narco-violence in Mexico. Most analyses reinforce traditional notions of allegory in which the
allegorical text is mirroring its referent in a parallel relationship. To some extent, this parallel
relationship is encouraged by the literary texts themselves, as they often introduce explicit
references to local historical events alongside the representations of Nazism or World War II,
most notably the dictatorial periods in Argentina, or the gruesome violence in Mexico’s narco-
war. I find, however, that some of these critical interpretations leave no room for readings that go
beyond analyzing representations of Nazism as metaphors. My main objective is to show that in
each region the literary representations of World War II events can be read beyond these
canonical and often pre-established interpretations. Instead, I argue that these literary texts
represent (and sometimes challenge) other unexplored situations and conflicts in these nations
such as xenophobia, racism, the naturalization of violence, and the need for a new intellectual
ethic. To reveal these other, latent possibilities, I rely on the concept of dialectical or interlocking
allegories to analyze how the texts’ referents and signs are constantly building on each other
instead of simply mirroring each other.
iv
Acknowledgments
It would have been impossible for me to finish this dissertation without the enormous
support from Erinn Taylor, my incredibly bright wife, and my best friend. She patiently
supported me through the most difficult moments of the writing process, and was always the first
to read, edit, and masterfully suggest ways to clarify the abstract ideas in my earliest rough
drafts. Thank you, Erinn.
I would also like to recognize Verónica Garibotto, my dissertation director, for the time she
dedicated to guiding me through my doctoral formation. Her brilliant insights during our many
long conversations about this dissertation, Argentine culture, and the profession in general were
invaluable. I am very proud to have been her first advisee. I will always be grateful for her
enormous amount of patience, her dedication, and friendship. Thank you, Vero.
I would like to give a very special thanks to Amy Rossomondo for instilling in me a sense of
self-worth as a graduate student and as an instructor. I can say with confidence that without her
guidance it would have been nearly impossible for me to reach this milestone in my academic
career. She was one my greatest champions in the department, and I will always be incredibly
grateful for her trust, care, and making me believe in myself. Thank you, Amy.
Thank you, Stuart Day, for immediately making me feel at home in the Spanish and
Portuguese Department when I first joined KU. Your wittiness, incredible dedication to your
profession and students, and your amazing ability to incite a smile in those around you made me
often see you as a model to follow. I am extremely grateful for your continued support and
sincere care.
I would also like to thank Vicky Unruh, who kindly accepted to be part of my dissertation
committee as she was preparing to retire and move far from Kansas. Thank you so much, Vicky,
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for your thoughtful and pointed feedback throughout the dissertation writing process. I have
always considered myself very fortunate to have you as one of my advisors.
I am also very grateful to my fourth dissertation reader, and occasional dominoes partner,
Rafael Acosta. Thank you for your great insights, and invaluable help in fleshing out the very
early drafts of two of my chapters.
There were many classmates who throughout the years have in one way or another supported
me and helped me during my time studying at KU. A few of those classmates became some of
my best friends, and they accompanied me through different stages of my journey to reach this
milestone. I would like to particularly thank, in a strictly alphabetical order, Jennifer
Abercrombie, Adolfo Bejar, Pablo Celis, Alba Constenla, and Luis Rodríguez, for their enduring
friendship and support. Thank you, dear friends.
And as always, I want to thank my mother, my brothers, and my in-laws for their continued
support.

Thank you all.
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To Erinn
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Table of Contents
Abstract ......................................................................................................................................... iii
Acknowledgments ........................................................................................................................ iv
Introduction: Fictionalized Nazis in Latin America and the Legacy of José Emilio
Pacheco’s Morirás lejos ................................................................................................................. 1
Current scholarship and allegorical readings .............................................................................. 5
Globalization, the Holocaust, and the Specificity of Latin American Literary Works ............... 9
The Legacy of Pacheco’s Morirás lejos ................................................................................... 14
Contemporary Representations of Nazism and the Holocaust ................................................. 25
Chapter 1. Representations of Nazism and the 1976-83 dictatorship: Allegorical Readings
of Piglia’s Respiración artificial and Posse’s Los demonios ocultos ........................................ 30
Respiración artificial: Nazism and Argentina’s Post-Dictatorial Intellectual Conundrum ...... 34
Piglia’s reformulation of the intellectual sphere ....................................................................... 45
Los demonios ocultos: An Ambivalent Confrontation with the Past ........................................ 55
Posse’s Representation of Nazism and Peronism ..................................................................... 66
Peronism, Argentine Intellectual Reconfiguration, and the Importance of Form ..................... 71
Chapter 2. Argentine Representations of Nazism in the New Millennium: Discrimination,
Xenophobia, and the Perpetuation of National Myths ............................................................ 78
The Economic Collapse and its Consequences on Argentine Society ...................................... 84
Public safety, Criminality, and Immigration in Argentina ....................................................... 86
Auschwitz: Ignominy, Allegories, and Social Criticism in Grotesque Humor ......................... 90
World War II Tropes, Racism, and Xenophobia in Auschwitz ................................................. 92
The Power of Humor as a Means of Representation ................................................................ 97
viii
Wakolda: The Uncovering and Perpetuation of Argentine Myths .......................................... 100
Aporias in Argentine nationhood discourses and Wakolda .................................................... 106
Una misma noche: Nazism and Public Safety in 1976 and 2010 ........................................... 110
Diegetic and extradiegetic references to Nazism .................................................................... 114
The Representation of Fear and Public Safety in Argentina ................................................... 119
Conclusion: A Continued Interest in Argentine Nazism ........................................................ 123
Chapter 3. Mexico’s Armed Conflict: Representations of Nazism and World War II during
the Drug Wars ........................................................................................................................... 125
The Drug War in Mexico and the Homo Sacer ...................................................................... 130
The Perpetuation of Hegemonic Discourse in Narco-narratives ............................................ 138
Dehumanized Bodies in Volpi’s Oscuro bosque oscuro ........................................................ 140
Volpi beyond the Crack’s Shadow ......................................................................................... 148
Metonymical Theatre: Königsberg-Monterrey as Mexico’s Stage ......................................... 152
The Uses and Abuses of Historical Events to Explain the Present ......................................... 167
Conclusion: Pedagogic Allegories, Committed Literature, and New Horizons .................. 170
Expanding the Scope: Bolaño, Crack Writers, and Other Possible Research Projects ........... 176
Appendix .................................................................................................................................... 181
Works Cited ............................................................................................................................... 185
1

Introduction: Fictionalized Nazis in Latin America and the Legacy of José Emilio
Pacheco’s Morirás lejos
There is a magazine street vendor chasing me down the bustling Corrientes Avenue in
Buenos Aires. I turn back with my right hand resting on my chest, signaling apology. The man
answers with a few profanities that are beyond my Argentine lingo, and turns back. I quickly
realize his display of bravado and indignation was a performance for other street vendors or
passersby that may have heard the question I had nonchalantly asked a few seconds earlier: “Do
you have a copy of Hitler’s Mein Kampf for sale?”
The question is not as impertinent as it may appear at first, particularly in Argentina. Just
a few weeks before this incident I had a brief conversation with a young man running a magazine
and newspaper stand who was selling a translated copy of Adolf Hitler’s 1925 manifesto. It was
nestled among self-help books, celebrity magazines, and newspapers (Fig. 1). The book had been
obviously photocopied, haphazardly edited, and it had no information about its publisher,
Editorial Buenos Aires. All the vendor had to say about it was that many books are delivered to
him weekly, and that this one sold well enough to be re-supplied every so often. Regretfully, I
did not buy the book. I also did not buy one of the many purportedly genuine Nazi medals and
other insignias sold at a few antique stands in the San Telmo neighborhood weekend street
market. What I did acquire was a large collection of non-fiction books written by Argentine
authors about the Holocaust and Nazism, among them one that chronicles the capture of former
Nazi lieutenant colonel Adolf Eichmann in Argentina, another that analyzes the possible ties
between Nazism and Juan Perón’s first government, and a tome published by the Madres de
Plaza de Mayo publishing house that compares the 1976-83 dictatorship with Nazi Germany and
2
the Vietnam-era United States’ politics.1 Several bookstores dedicated precious storefront
display space to these types of books, and others had special sections on the topic. None of the
many knowledgeable bookstore attendants and owners I spoke with about the subject of this
dissertation would flinch at my questions. Nor did they find it odd that I was interested in any
Argentine fiction books they could offer me that referenced Nazism or that at least were set
during World War II. Clearly, it was a different experience when asking street vendors if they
sold one of the most infamous books ever published. Savvy antique street vendors, however,
would immediately recognize my interest in the subject even before I spoke to them. For
instance, after noticing my draw towards World War II-era merchandise, one of the vendors
showed me a small insignia with a Swastika, and a Third Reich-era coin he had under the
counter. I politely declined to purchase the items with a sense of uneasiness.
I had a similar experience about a year later in my native Mexico during a trip to the
northern city of Monterrey. Outside a museum in the historic Barrio Antiguo district, a street
vendor offered me a Nazi-era military medal. He emphasized several times its authenticity. “Esta
sí es de verdad, joven,” he said several times, implying that many other Nazi-related items I

1 The three books are: Alvaro Abós’ Eichmann en Argentina (2012), which meticulously
chronicles Eichmann’s whereabouts from his escape from Germany in 1945 to the days leading
to his execution in 1962; Uki Goni’s Perón y los alemanes: La verdad sobre el espionaje nazi y
los fugitivos del Reich (1998), which has been translated to several languages and published in
the United States and Europe; and Alipio Paoletti’s Como los nazis, como en Vietnam: Los
campos de concentración en la Argentina (2006), published by the Asociación Madres de Plaza
de Mayo.