INTERPRETIVE DYNAMICITY OF UNUSUAL REPRESENTATIONS OF DEATH IN EL ESPECTRO, BY HORACIO QUIROGA, AND CARTAS DE MAMÁ, BY JULIO CORTÁZAR

Abstract

This work traces an argumentative course the interpretative paths of the representations of death in the unusual literature. Two itineraries intersect on this path. One is the analysis of the work in its composition, revealing the difficulties imposed on the interpretation by its forms. The other one is the study of the forms of the fantastic, resorting to the contributions of Tzvetan Todorov, David Roas, Jaime Alazraki and Juan Herrero Cecilia, and the poetics of the open work, calling upon Umberto Eco’s elaborations as reference, which impose different instruments for exploring the text. Along this path, the living metaphor, as thought by Paul Ricœur (2015), proves to be capable of serving as a bridge to the resolution of the targeted problem. At the end, it is intended, in addition to aesthetically interpreting the representations of death in the short stories – El espectro, by Horacio Quiroga, and Cartas de mamá, by Julio Cortázar –, to elaborate an approach to the poetics of unusual death that reconciles the referential and the metaphorical reading.